As a billionaire real estate developer, best-selling author, TV celebrity, and president of the United States, Donald Trump — whose name conjures up images of casinos and showgirls — would seem to be the last person you’d accuse of being spiritual.
Yet underpinning all of Trump’s many successes across multiple fields — including his surprise political wins in the face of tough odds — is a uniquely American take on spirituality that is a combination of Christianity and 20th century occultism.
Trump’s positivity is so much a part of his character that it’s become a parody among his opponents:
“We’re going to win so much you’re going to get tired of winning.”
“I’ve had just about the most legislation passed of any president, in a nine-month period, that’s ever served.”
“[Covid]’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.”
Those who follow Trump’s public remarks, especially his unscripted, off-the-cuff remarks, notice that he has a particular habit of making positive affirmations about himself, his supporters, and the country that at times seem to go contrary to what is perceivably happening in the present.
The 45th president’s opponents like to claim that he is delusional or that he’s trying to use the “Big Lie” technique, trying to repeat a lie often enough that people believe it (ironically, this is the very same tactic the Left itself so often uses to great effect).
But these critiques of Trump miss the mark. In fact, Trump’s use of affirmations is closely tied to his particular faith.
For almost 50 years, Trump attended Sunday services at New York’s Marble Collegiate Church, home of Norman Vincent Peale — author of The Power of Positive Thinking.
The work of Peale and similar authors forms the foundation of much of the “Law of Attraction” movement which is much in vogue today. According to this movement, positivity attracts more positivity, while negativity attracts more negativity. Thus, a person must strive to maintain a state of positivity, faith, and confidence in order to accomplish his goals.
“Affirm it, visualise it, believe it, and it will actualise itself,” Peale wrote, a concise condensation of his many writings. Not surprisingly, Trump’s behavior is an example of putting those principles into action. His constant statement declaring that he is winning, along with his apparent refusal to acknowledge defeat, failure, or unfavorable circumstances, is in line with Peale’s counsel to think positively at all times.
Matt Lewis, a Trump critic at The Daily Beast, characterizes Trump in this way: “It’s not just that Trump believes the things he says, it’s that Trump believes that by believing them, he can actualize them.”
Although the Law of Attraction philosophy is now mostly associated with the New Age movement, Peale was adamantly a Bible-based Christian and a conservative who openly supported the Republican Party.
It is Trump’s application of the power of positive thinking that has allowed him, a relative newcomer to elective politics, to continually defy expectations and survive scandals and opposition that would have ruined anyone else in his situation.
Trump’s detractors, such as National Review editor-in-chief Rich Lowry, are well aware of the former president’s seemingly inexplicable ability to survive scandals.
Lowry wrote in a recent piece at Politico:
Trump has constructed an impenetrable political force field. In his own telling, he’s strong and a fierce fighter at the same time that he’s a victim — because his adversaries are out to get him since he’s so strong and such a fierce fighter.
… If the polling is good, it’s because he’s such a strong candidate; if the polling is bad, it’s because the fake news media is out to get him because he’s such a strong candidate.
If he wins a national election, it’s because he’s such a formidable political phenomenon; if he loses a national election, it must have been stolen because he’s such a formidable political phenomenon.
… None of this would be possible if Trump felt the normal person’s, or even the normal politician’s, sense of shame. Nothing makes him flinch. Nothing embarrasses him. He barrels through with the same boastfulness and confidence that saying something eventually will make it so, no matter what.
This history led Lowry to declare, ruefully, that “Trump is the first former president to be found guilty of sexually abusing and defaming a woman, and will likely be the first former president to suffer no immediate adverse political consequences from being found guilty of sexually abusing and defaming a woman.”
Trump’s way of dealing with challenges, opposition, attacks, and setbacks should serve as a lesson to all those involved in the political fight for freedom. Far too often, the Right has allowed the Left to dominate the narrative and set the terms of the debate.
When attacked with a scandal, whether legitimate or not, most Republicans have traditionally responded by coming out in an apologetic tone and practically pleading the mainstream media to leave them alone.
Trump doesn’t even let it faze him. He certainly doesn’t ask for forgiveness or show a hint of fear.
To win, we must likewise develop an iron will that will not bend to the mob.
