Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
In the annals of American politics, Donald Trump is without question among the most polarizing presidents ever. But today he laid his claim to absolute peerlessness by quite literally demonizing the opposition party on Truth Social. Gaze in awe:
New media post from Donald J. Trump(TS: 02 Oct 22:37 ET) pic.twitter.com/kFdBDcrKHm
— Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) October 3, 2025
Now just to deal with the most practical matters, this doesn’t sound like a man inclined to enter into bipartisan negotiations to end the current government shutdown, does it? I suppose he could call up Chuck Schumer and tell him it was just a joke, and maybe make a peace offering of vastly increased security for Democratic officeholders who have now been labeled by the most powerful figure in the world as the personification of absolute, ineradicable evil.
But other than pouring high-octane gasoline on a fire already reaching the rafters after Russell Vought’s threats of mass layoffs of furloughed federal employees (at least in “Democrat Agencies,” as Trump put it), the president’s weird little post will be greeted as gospel truth and a not-so-secret shout-out by two significant elements of the MAGA fringe.
The first is the QAnon cult, the shockingly large group of subscribers to an elaborate conspiracy theory whereby Trump is secretly battling and will eventually vanquish a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who control world events (not to mention America’s deep state) and are, among other things, hoarding cures for all major diseases. According to QAnon devotees, Trump is constrained for obscure reasons from going public with this cosmic war he is waging on America’s and God’s behalf, but he drops hints from time to time that are greeted with jubilation in QAnon circles. The new tweet acknowledging Satan’s sponsorship of the Democrats will help keep QAnon alive for years; it’s arguably more powerful than Trump’s pardon for the January 6 “patriots,” among whom QAnon folk were very much overrepresented.
But there’s another and even larger group of MAGA folk overrepresented in the Capitol riot who will tingle just as much as the Q followers at Trump’s identification of Democratic pols as servants of Old Scratch: the “spiritual warriors” of the New Apostolic Reformation. This rapidly strengthening strain of conservative pentecostal theology and worship involves a loose global network of “prophets” and “apostles” whose American leaders are deeply invested in the MAGA movement as an instrument for redemption of a world captured by such evils as abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, feminism, and “wokeness.” While nearly all NAR leaders believe in active demonic powers that must be combatted by aggressive prayer and religio-political activism, some dance around the line that separates “spiritual warfare” from physical violence. Trump is pushing them across that line. Somebody, or maybe a lot of people, are going to get hurt.
The good news, if there is any, is that Trump has now hit bottom in his insults aimed at the opposition party. If there’s anything he can do to make the atmosphere more toxic, I will pray to a beneficent God that we are spared it.
More on the Shutdown
Trump Is Spending the Shutdown Very Online: Live UpdatesTrump Regards Millions of Americans As Enemies of the PeopleDemocrats Must Decide What It Means to Win a Shutdown Fight
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