Toward An Understanding Of Anti-Trump Hysteria

Yesterday I posted about a long-ago ex who could be so badly triggered that she would foam at the mouth, and this somehow reminded me of Edward Feser, the detached neo-Thomist academic philosopher who rages against the chuds. Then it occurred to me that there were two notionally big news events over Easter weekend, one a "historic" return to the moon by the Artemis II mission, the other the effort to rescue the downed weapons system officer who'd had to eject from his F-15 over Iran.

The Artemis II mission, with its one-from-column-A-one-from-column-B crew struggling with two versions of Outlook and a stinking multimillion-dollar toilet, was paralyzingly anodyne. The story of how the WSO was recovered, details of which are still coming out, is what gripped the country. Nevertheless,

So while a wounded American Colonel was hiding in a mountain crevice at 7,000 feet in Iran with nothing but a pistol and a prayer, and the CIA was running a fake rescue convoy to confuse the IRGC, and MQ-9 Reapers were methodically deleting anyone who got within two miles of him,…

— Jesús Enrique Rosas - The Body Language Guy (@Knesix) April 5, 2026

Edward Feaser is convinced that Trump is a truly evil man:

As Aquinas notes, when a prideful leader’s excesses go unresisted, he is hardened in his delusion that they are licit and becomes even less likely to repent. Christians above all should understand that flattery and sycophancy only harm such a man by endangering his immortal soul. https://t.co/4hHtlBTr5F

— Edward Feser (@FeserEdward) April 2, 2026

Enough with false prophets, liars, and sycophants like Graham and White. I earnestly pray that no harm comes to the U.S. and Israel, but to pretend that ours is some righteous cause with the wind of Providence behind its back is delusional and blasphemous. Our nations are… https://t.co/grH57JL2Px

— Edward Feser (@FeserEdward) April 2, 2026

Fred Kaplan at Slate:

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s obscene and vile Easter-weekend posts on social media, two questions come to mind: Are any senior U.S. military officers preparing to resist unlawful orders? Are any Cabinet secretaries or GOP legislators weighing whether it’s worth the shame and career suicide to continue bootlicking an unhinged war criminal?

Why are people so triggered? The odd thing is that Trump was incredibly lucky. According to The Wall Street Journal:

For the Pentagon, this was a worst-case scenario. It was the first time a piloted U.S. aircraft had been lost over enemy territory in more than 20 years, military experts said. Video footage of a captured U.S. airman in enemy hands would have handed Tehran a major propaganda tool and a source of leverage at a critical moment in the war. U.S. officials worried that the regime would use the airman’s capture to seek maximalist concessions.

Except that Trump was in the White House while all this took place, monitoring the situation minute by minute. The harder he works, it seems, the luckier he gets. I think that's part of the problem: Reagan was characterized as an amiable dunce, someone who sleepwalked through history. Nobody calls Trump amiable or a sleepwalker. They call him an unhinged war criminal whose immortal soul is in danger, a very different thing.

Here's the problem with this characterization of the events over the weekend: the US has had a long history of humiliations at the hand of Iran and various other enemies, mostly Islamic, over the past half century, starting with Operarion Eagle Claw, the failed US operation on April 24, 1980, intended to rescue 52 US hostages in Tehran. In the general confusion caused by equipment failures and bad weather, a helicopter crashed into a C-130, killing eight service members and leading to abandonment of the mission.

This was a major factor behind Carter's loss to Reagan in the election later that year. Other such disasters, like the Blackhawk Down episode in Mogasishu on October 3–4, 1993, or the Benghazi attack on September 11-12, 2012, also had major political consequences; Hillary Clinton's connection with the Benghazi attack was one factor that cost her the 2016 election. I have a feeling that Trump has been acutely aware of the danger such snafus pose to his own military operations and understands how important careful planning, rehearsal, and managerial oversight are to their success.

In short, he's lucky, and the harder he works, the luckier he gets. Each lucky escape triggers people who can be triggered that way.

On Easter morning, this is what President Trump posted.
Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness.
I know all of you and him and he… pic.twitter.com/DgR74YjPQf

— Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@FmrRepMTG) April 5, 2026

Scott Pinsker wrote yesterday:

Most Americans, I suspect, had a three-prong reaction to Trump’s post:

1. “Wait, Trump wrote WHAT? Is that true?”
2. [checks social media] “Welp, I guess it’s true.”
3. “LOL”

After all, Trump is the world’s most famous man. Ever since he descended Trump Tower’s golden escalator in 2015, he’s been studied, scrutinized, debated, and analyzed. Everything about him — from his hair to his personality to his use of social media — has been discussed ad nauseam.

At this point, he’s a known quantity. If his Truth Social post surprised you, you haven’t been paying attention.

. . . America and Israel are battling an enemy that’s been the #1 sponsor of global terrorism for 39 straight years, slaughters its own civilians, and is hellbent on acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran has repeatedly attempted to blow up bridges, power plants, hotels, airports, residential areas, and desalination stations. Even today, while waging war, the mullahs haven’t stopped murdering innocent teenagers.

But Trump’s use of an F-bomb — while warning them to stop — is the problem?

Please. This handwringing over the president’s language is ridiculous. And for Marjorie Taylor Greene, it’s especially hypocritical, considering this is the same virtuous “Christian woman” who called Rep. Lauren Boebert “a little b***h” on the House floor.

One thing I learned from watching On Patrol: Live is that police are trained specifically to use the f-bomb as part of "shock and awe" tactics in certain situations, like "Get out of the f-in' car!" This indicates a level of urgency appropriate to the situation. In this case, Trump is messaging that the situation is urgent. Pinsker goes on,

We nominated and elected President Trump because he’s a fighter. If we wanted another Bush, Jeb(!) was waiting in the wings. Good ol’ Jeb(!) was an excellent governor, a kind, moral man, and would NEVER use potty-language on social media.

Of course, he also wouldn’t have closed the border, deported illegals, renegotiated trade deals, ended DEI, forced NATO to increase its military funding, or played hardball against the radical left. We needed a fighter, not an appeaser.

The problem for certain people is that the electorate knows Trump quite well. They elected him twice to do what he's doing. They had three Bushes to compare him to. This may be triggering. Viewer discretion is advised.

UPDATE:

I know her fans will play dumb, but she’s calling for other nations to rise up against the United States and take Trump out.

There’s no other interpretation of this that makes sense given the seriousness of her words.

She’s not calling for a UN council. pic.twitter.com/g08PUwLTpH

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) April 7, 2026

The sanctimoniousness here is astonishing. Genesis 12:1-3 seems to say Zionism is not just OK, it's established in an eternal covenant. To tell the truth, I kinda think the Almighty is having a chuckle about now.