Facing Global Opposition and Low US Approvals - Trump: Cult Leader or Aging Demented Zealot?

 

Facing Global Opposition and Low US Approvals - Trump: Cult Leader or Aging Demented Zealot?

As the stepson of an American Foreign Service Officer, I have lived (Beirut, Lebanon) and traveled extensively (Syria, Jordan [parts now in Israel], Egypt, Iran) in the Middle East, so MAGA musings about our “superiority” over and the “evils” of Islam seriously contradict my own direct life experience. I have read the Bible (Old and New Testaments) and the Qur’an, and as a teenager, I was an altar boy in the Anglican/Episcopal faith. Recently, I was reading a very cogent summary of Donald Trump’s growing list of second term failures – each substantiated with both domestic and international reactions. More later as I examine MAGA reactions to the article. Nevertheless, I have always been acutely aware of the regional politics in the Middle East, including having studied Islamic history as an undergraduate.

Distortions of faith abound. While my “Dark Ages” European ancestors were burning books (and more than a few people at the stake), Islam was preserving those writings in the Great Library of Alexandria, Egypt, Islamic explorers were mapping their world, Arab mathematicians were codifying and expanding what has become the modern system of math (Arabic vs Roman numerals) and their scientists and doctors were laying the foundation for modern medicine. Scholars at their major universities cherished learning and encouraged open-minded thinking and empirical research.

In Muslim teachings, Jesus Christ was a significant and powerful figure, and Christians and Jews are referred to jointly and respectfully as “people of the Book.” The notion of a unitary God, whether called Yahweh, Allah, the Lord or any number of sacred epithets that recognize the Western notion of a Supreme Being, is more universal than divergent. Sharia Law, which too many Americans assume is the dictate of the Qur’an, is actually based on an earlier tribal code intended to protect vulnerable camel caravans moving through a harsh desert (where temperatures can reach 130+ degrees Fahrenheit and water is scarce). Given that a single theft, infidelity or violent quarrel could disrupt the order needed for a caravan to survive that harsh reality, the resulting Sharia Laws are equally harsh and unforgiving. But the Qur’an itself mandates charity, piety and high standards of devotion from Muslim adherents.

Hardly the “savages” too many Americans “see,” a perception that often justifies slaughter, marginalization and conquest. That Persian culture, over 3500 years old (older than any Western religion), represents the underpinnings of Western Civilization as we know it. The transition from nomadic to sedentary life opened the door for cities, architecture, modern agriculture, major institutions of higher learning and scientific achievement. Despite the theocratic dictatorship that governs contemporary Iran (Persia), Iranians are among the most educated and organized peoples on Earth. And while there is more than a touch of arrogance in a long-standing Persian belief, Iranians and their forebears have always carried an air of intellectual superiority over regional Arab cultures.

I felt obligated to anchor my opinions of the self-declared “stable genius” – Donald Trump’s first term statement, updated in his second term to self-described “brilliance” – in a more realistic understanding of those we are willing to kill, bomb and whose very civilization Donald Trump has threaten to bomb and obliterate into the “stone ages.” So many of Trump’s orders and the brutal execution of his military mandate to unapologetically self-described “White Christian Nationalist” zealot, Secretary of “WAR”, Major Pete Hegseth, who seems to delight in killing, seem to fall squarely within very specific definitions of war crimes, whether under the Geneva Conventions, the UN-supported rules of war or other international bodies of crimes against humanity that can be prosecuted in most of the world (yet not in the United States).

Since Republicans running for office, fear Trump’s threats of retribution – backed by a still mostly loyal MAGA cult that will punish Trump defectors in primary contests – it becomes an obvious area of question whether Donld Trump has crossed the line and moved well into the area of serious mental decline, which may well be a technical descent into one or more forms of medically defined “dementia.” What fascinated me about the above article listing Trump’s second term failures was less about that list than the groundswell of negative MAGA comments that followed. Trump was hailed as “God” rather directly by some, and as anointed by God to pursue his path of major failures, recast as bold triumphs by almost all of the self-described MAGA followers.

I couple that MAGA barrage of support with an exploration of how dementia impacts strong and intelligent individuals as they advance into elder years. Even without looking at Trump’s physical manifestations of deterioration – the shuffled walks, the seeming incurable bruise-stained hand, the swelling of his feet and legs, etc. – the signs of mental deterioration seem more pronounced. After researching how dementia impacts IQ and other functional metrics, I found one particular article that presented the underlying research particularly well: the UK’s The Telegraph, presented on January 25, 2025 (before Trump’s second term machinations showed results). Health Correspondent Michael Searles wrote:

“Experts believe it is because people of higher intelligence are more resilient to cognitive decline and able to function for longer without signs or symptoms of the disease onsetting… This often means they are diagnosed with dementia at a more advanced stage, making it harder to treat or slow down. As a result, they are likely to have fewer years to live compared to those diagnosed earlier… Authors from the Erasmus University Medical Centre, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, said: ‘This paradigm postulates that people with higher education are more resilient to brain injury before functional declines… Once this reserve has been used up and dementia is diagnosed, however, these people are already at a more advanced stage of the underlying disease and clinical progression will be faster.’”

Applying this medical observation to Donald Trump, his caution and willingness to listen to experienced advisors in Trump 1.0 was replaced in Trump 2.0 by the Project 2025, worshipping loyalists, many with their own blaring psychological shortcomings. But either a “cult leader” or “dementia-impaired” president, assuming you accept my opinion, are toxic to our democracy, deleterious to constitutional “rule of law,” and continue to erode this nation’s global power, influence, and political/economic wellbeing. Anyone who truly believes we’ve won the WAR against Iran and that our strong alliances with our allies do not matter is in for some exceptionally unpleasant surprises in the coming months, even the coming decade.

I’m Peter Dekom, and it is a most troublesome fact that 100% of our federal domestic and foreign policy is completely controlled by a MAGA contingency representing about one-third of the total vote, that has ceded complete authority to a President who just might not be mentally fit to remain in office.