“And if that’s the case, then there’s no relief from this that is achieved by election. Especially if we are truly in an authoritarian regime where elections are not real.”
Failed gubernatorial candidate for Georgia Stacy Abrams and left-wing commentator Ezra Klein compared President Donald Trump to a "grand ayatollah" who has "mystic" powers in the MAGA movement throughout the United States during Abrams' latest podcast episode.
Klein introduced the talking point, saying that people do not treat Trump as a president or a prime minister, but as the "grand ayatollah of his movement."
He went on to claim that "Donald Trump's impulses have become nearly religious emanations from a figure viewed within his own coalition as ... mystic, having come back through the court cases and the assassination attempts."
Abrams, echoing this point, later questioned if elections would be able to remove Trump from power if he were a "grand ayatollah."
"If it is true that he's a grand ayatollah, that mystical power extends and can be—you know— he can anoint his, you know, his prophets and he can remain in power even if he doesn't hold the title of president," Abrams said.
"And if that's the case, then there's no relief from this that is achieved by election. Especially if we are truly in an authoritarian regime where elections are not real," she added. “Where Texas remakes its map and California tries to fight back, but there are more red states that have been thinking about this than blue states that have.”
The comments from Abrams and Klein come as some of Trump’s latest policy prescriptions have included deploying the National Guard to bring down crime in Washington, DC. Additionally, Trump has been working to negotiate a peace in the Russia-Ukraine war after the president has helped end several other conflicts.
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