Demonic Describes the Dear Leader DJT

 

Dec 17, 2025 It Has to Be Said.

It’s the word evangelicals use for everything they fear. It's no coincidence then that they’ve gone strangely quiet about the absolute damnable, demonic cruelty of the Trump administration. I’m a painter, an author, a one-time movie director—but most of all, I am a father and a grandfather. In my hierarchy of values, any kindness I have in life comes from the relationships in my family. And I find that a lot of my evangelical background—the background I fled from—still informs my idea of kindness, of doing unto others as one would be done by. In dark moments of my life, I still rely on that moral framework, even though I left the theology behind. That said, I want to share what I think is the heaviest burden on my heart these days—and probably on the hearts of many, many millions of Americans. It is the utter betrayal of the historic Christian witness by so-called evangelical Christians, mostly white evangelical Christians, who voted for—and to this day continue to support—the absolute, damnable, demonic cruelty of the Trump administration. Look at Trump’s reaction to the murder that took place in Los Angeles—the tragic murder of a wonderful man, a film director, and his wife, in their own home, allegedly by their own son. Trump gloated. He said, in effect, Rob Reiner opposed me, so no wonder this happened to him. That is essentially what he posted on social media. Now contrast that with Rob Reiner’s reaction to the assassination of Charlie Kirk not so long ago, when he said that he admired Kirk’s wife for forgiving the assassin. As Reiner put it, “I’m Jewish, but I admire this Christian response—this Christ-like response.” You see the contrast between the baseline of humanity we all depend on to get through daily life—at the checkout counter, at the gas station, at work, with family—and the unhinged cruelty of Donald Trump and those who work with him. The inexcusable JD Vance, who has gone along with this. The inexcusable members of the White House staff who have gone along with this. And what stuns me is that we have allowed ourselves to get used to it. We have allowed ourselves to get used to something that should be absolutely unthinkable. A president of the United States who, instead of drawing our country together in times of crisis, pushes us further and further and further apart. There is only one way, from my Christian background, to describe this behavior—using the theological terms I was raised with in an evangelical home, with my father Francis Schaeffer and my mother Edith Schaeffer, famous evangelical writers and leaders. It is a faith I departed, but as I’ve said, I took certain basic values with me. One of those values was this: the kind of behavior Donald Trump indulges in—his cruelty—is demonic. What’s interesting is that the white nationalist, Christian nationalist movement constantly uses language about demonic possession, demonic battles, principalities and powers of darkness, to describe their own efforts to “return America to Christian principles.” The extremism of Project 2025 hinges on a lot of those ideas. And yet, right in front of our faces, we have a clear example of what, in the theological terms of my childhood, would have been called demonic possession. How else do you explain this level of rage? This level of revenge? This level of self-centered selfishness? This irrational lashing out? The outright lies again and again and again? But the real story here is not Donald Trump, who is clearly unwell and unhinged—and from the Christian point of view I grew up with, demon-possessed. Yes, that’s what my mother or father would have called such behavior. Lashing out at a man whose throat had just been cut, along with his wife, by their own drug-addicted, terribly deranged son. And then the evangelical call for “spiritual warfare against evil” is used as an excuse—while what they themselves would once have called demonic possession sits in the White House. Trashing our country. Leaving us friendless in a world where we desperately need friends. Sucking up to Vladimir Putin. Changing sides in a war where we supported Ukraine in its fight for freedom against Russia. Sucking up to China, pretending our only disagreement is over trade, while the Chinese government hacks American systems, steals our industrial secrets, and prepares for a war we will lose. Trump has weakened our country in every single way. He has taken us backward in terms of inflation, business policy, and job creation more than any president in my lifetime—in my seventy-three years. But the defining feature of the Trump presidency, above all else, is cruelty.