The Anti-Establishment Con: How Christianity and Trumpism Use the Same Playbook

The false promises of populism, from Rome to MAGA

The Orange Emperor. This image was created with Midjourney by the author.

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. And sometimes, it manages to be both at the same time. Enter Christianity and Trumpism, two movements that claim to rebel against a corrupt establishment, while simultaneously cozying up to it — or worse, becoming it. In the end, they’re not so much rebellions as carefully crafted narratives designed to trick enough people into thinking they’re sticking it to the man, when in fact, they’re propping him up.

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Take a closer look at Christianity’s origins, and it’s clear that the movement was never really about rebellion — at least not for long. Similarly, Trumpism is the political equivalent of a shell game, peddling anti-establishment rhetoric from a man who was born wealthy, has lived his entire life among elites, and quite literally became the head of the U.S. government. Yet somehow, he still manages to convince a significant chunk of the population that he’s “one of them.” These aren’t anomalies — they’re part of a long tradition of populist and authoritarian movements using the language of rebellion to fool people into reinforcing the very power structures they claim to…