President Donald Trump recognizes the economy is essentially out of his control, and he's facing "unbridled and unmanageable panic" as the realization sets in that a looming recession could doom his re-election chances.
That's why his recent behavior is even more "disordered" than usual, and that's why he's dropping hints to evangelical voters that perhaps he might be the messiah in a desperate gambit to strengthen their support heading into the 2020 election, according to former Trump biographer Tim O'Brien in a new column for Bloomberg.
"Trump is flailing, trying to find boutique tax cuts he can implement unilaterally as a way to stimulate the economy but which are unlikely to deliver the outcome he hopes for, especially if he doesn’t reverse course on trade," O'Brien wrote.
The White House insists the fundamentals of the economy are strong, while also accusing Democrats and the media of purposefully trying to sink the nation into a recession to hurt the president, but O'Brien argued that Trump understood the perils he faces.
"The president has tied his standing to jobs, the economy and the securities markets and in the face of sustained problems the odds for his reelection worsen," he wrote. "Trump, understandably, has started to panic and his attempt to convince people that he’s the second coming shows how deeply worried he is about things he can’t control – and how increasingly reckless he might become."
O'Brien has observed the president up close for decades, and he said Trump often hatches "zany" schemes to bail himself out of one failure after another, and it appears this time he's suggesting that he might be a heaven-sent savior in a desperate bid to hold onto power and possibly avoid post-presidency prosecution.
"When Trump gazes into the sky at the White House and says that he’s the chosen one, he’s not the type who thinks he can actually walk on water," O'Brien wrote. "He’s the type who’s hoping that droves of evangelical voters might keep falling for his shtick."
The scheme isn't too far off from others he's cooked up to escape one potential disaster after another, but O'Brien said the stakes are dramatically higher in the White House than in the New York City real estate world.
"You need a certain kind of appalling narcissism to be comfy promoting yourself as heaven-sent in a televised press briefing and as a deity on Twitter," he wrote. "It’s doubly unhinged when you’re doing this as president, commander-in-chief and the man who swore on Inauguration Day to 'preserve, protect and defend' the country."
