Know Your Enemy

Trump as Messianic Prophet (w/ Manvir Singh)

Added 2025-05-22 21:44:27 +0000 UTC

In a recent New Yorker essay, our guest, UC Davis anthropologist Manvir Singh, argues, "The Trumpian mystique echoes a dynamic that has occurred for centuries and across cultures. Its core ingredients—an alleged league of pedophiles, a godlike miracle worker, promises of an Edenic restoration—resemble archetypes that have long occupied humanity’s imagination. Trump’s followers may communicate through memes and message boards, but their faith belongs to a much older mythology: the eternal face-off between shaman and witch, prophet and cabal."

In this conversation, Manvir, the author of a new book on "Shamanism," compellingly demonstrates how the MAGA movement — especially in its QAnon-inflected guises — manifests archetypal features of the messianic cult, analogues for which can be found across cultures and historical epochs. On KYE, we haven't often indulged in this sort of critique, for (justifiable) fear of eliding the very specific political conditions that gave rise to Trumpism, but for today: we're going for it! And Manvir was an ideal (and suitably careful) guide to this methodology and way of thinking about our political conjecture.

Further Reading:

Manvir Singh, "The President Who Became a Prophet," The New Yorker, May 17, 2025.

— "How Much Does Our Language Shape Our Thinking?" The New Yorker, Dec 23, 2025.

— "Don’t Believe What They’re Telling You About Misinformation," The New Yorker, April 15, 2024.

— Shamanism: The Timeless Religion, (May 2025)