[The following essay is excerpted from Amy Hawk’s The Judas Effect: How Evangelicals Betrayed Jesus for Power (Cascade, 2024).]
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. —1 John 4:1
Not every world leader is chosen by God. If they were, the Bible would not issue so many warnings about false leaders. Proverbs 25:5 says, “Remove the wicked from leadership and authority will be credible and God-honoring.” The longer Donald Trump went on promoting conspiracy theories, calling for violence, and labeling anyone who criticized him “fake news,” the more concerning it became that our fellow Evangelicals were backing him. Much of the church was besotted by his conservative promises, which desperately tumbled forth from his mouth in an attempt to cater to the religious right. Those bewitching promises were so bright and attractive, they blinded some Evangelicals from following standard biblical protocol for weighing a leader, which is to “test the spirits.”[1]
Psychologists all over the world, including his own niece Dr. Mary Trump, sounded the alarm on the dangers of Trump’s narcissistic personality disorder, but many professing Christ paid little heed. They wanted the power Trump could provide. Steve and I felt the sting of this betrayal. The church had taught us that character in leadership mattered greatly, that words carried weight, and that women should be treated with utmost dignity and respect. Now they were doing a complete 180. I was worried for our country and also worried for the church who was willing to put their integrity on the line for a sociopath.
I decided to study leaders with sociopathic disorders. I was most interested in the warning signs and what it was about sociopaths that attracted people in such large numbers. I chose Dr. Robert G. L. Waite, professor of history at Williams College, and his book The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler, because Hitler was obviously the most dangerous sociopathic leader I could think of, and this was the most comprehensive literature I could find. I wanted to study his early life, his habits, mannerisms, and his complex and bizarre persona. There must have been warning signs, so what was it about him that made him electable? What were his promises to those who elected him?
Likewise, I wanted to engage in a deeper analysis of Trump’s early life and his personality as experienced by friends and coworkers, in the most comprehensive biography possible. I wanted it to be a book in which he himself had engaged. I chose Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power, written by Michael Kranish, an award-winning investigative reporter, and Marc Fisher, an award-winning editor from The Washington Post. The Post employed a team of over twenty-five people to research, fact-check, and examine Donald Trump’s childhood, habits, business deals, and the things that make him tick. Trump himself contributed over twenty hours of interviews and made his lawyer and some members of his campaign staff available. (He refused to let the authors talk to his siblings or to current and former Trump executives who have signed nondisclosure agreements. He also declined to give them access to his income tax returns.)[2] I also read Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man by Mary L. Trump, PhD, which gave additional insight into his early family life, relationship with his parents and siblings, mental instability, and the corrupt business practices he learned from his dad.
Hitler’s murderous cruelty was inhumane, demonic, and without rival. I don’t want to diminish it by comparing it to Trump. But as far as behavioral psychoanalysis goes, the similarities in their personalities are stunning. Numerous articles have been written on the likenesses between the two men. Peter Ross Range wrote, “To any serious student of Hitler’s frightening and unforeseen rise to power in Germany, the recurring echoes in Trump’s speeches, interviews, and his underlying thinking have become too blatant to overlook.”[3]
Cruelty and Violence
Donald Trump has an unusual cruel streak, which has been documented from an early age. A Trump neighbor from Queens recalls the time she set her baby in his backyard playpen, went inside for a few moments, and came back out to find that five- or six-year-old Donald was throwing rocks at him. Early classmates and teachers remember Donald as aggressive, surly, mischievous, and a pain. His second grade teacher, whom Donald admits he punched and gave a black eye to, says Donald was “a little shit.” One neighbor from Jamaican Estates has never forgotten the “unusual” and “terrifying” act of violence he witnessed when Donald suddenly jumped off his bike and started pummeling another boy. Friends who played baseball with middle-school age Donald concur that he was atypically violent. “He always wanted to hit the ball through people. He wanted to overpower them.” He absolutely would do anything to win, hated to fail, and one time when he made an out, smashed a borrowed bat on the cement and cracked it. He stomped off in a fury without apologizing to the owner. In high school, classmates at the military academy Trump attended remember him as aggressive, authoritarian, and as someone who would “break” anyone who did not bend to his will. He ordered a cadet to be struck on the back with a broomstick for breaking formation. When his roommate refused to make his bed, Donald grabbed him and tried to push him out of a second-story window, forcing two cadets to intervene to keep him from falling.[4] During his campaign and throughout his presidency, Trump mouthed, “I am going to hurt you,” to a protestor and made several other threats from the podium, tweeted out manipulated images of himself pummeling the news media, and regularly shamed and screamed obscenities at his staff.[5]
In regards to his outbursts of anger, Trump has admitted, “I’m a screamer.” But Donald Trump’s cruel streak extends far beyond physical and vocal aggression. It seems there is no end to the lengths he will go to cause someone pain. According to a classmate at the New York Military Academy, Donald had a thing about rating girls by appearance even back then, and called his date a “dog.” In order to hurt Ivana even more during their divorce, he leaked stories to the press, under a false moniker, about how Marla Maples was better in bed. Also in extremely poor taste, he attacked the wife of Ted Cruz during the primaries, tweeting out an unflattering shot of Heidi Cruz next to a picture-perfect Melania with the caption “A picture is worth a thousand words.”[6] On stage in front of hundreds of people, Trump humiliated Alicia Machado, and then Chris Christie, for their weight. He physically mocked a handicapped person and a disabled veteran. An entire chapter of this book could be written on Trump’s senseless cruelty, but surely the withdrawal of medical insurance coverage for a sick infant tops the list. After Trump’s older brother Freddy died of alcoholism, Donald promised to help with the medical bills for his brother’s new grandson. The baby had a seizure and developed cerebral palsy shortly after birth. But in a shocking display of vindictiveness, Trump withdrew the benefits, which were critical to the infant’s care, when his brother’s family contested Fred Trump Sr.’s will. Trump admitted that he withdrew the baby’s medical insurance for no other reason than he was angry.[7]
It is written that the love of money is the root of all evil, and it is worth noting here that Adolf Hitler also put money before the welfare of his own family. Like Trump, he preferred to paint a picture of himself as a “self-made man,” but the truth is that he inherited money from his father’s estate at the age of seventeen when his mother died and he became an orphan. From seventeen to twenty-two, he lied about being a student at the Academy of Fine Arts (he actually failed the entrance exam twice) so that he could receive an orphan’s pension. This deception deprived his younger sister Paula, only eleven years old, of receiving the full funds that should rightfully have come to her. By court order, he was eventually forced to give up the pension. At this point, he persuaded his crippled aunt to “lend” him large sums of money—which she never got back.[8]
The False Leader
Some world leaders are positioned by God and are specially graced as influencers of love, mercy, freedom, and justice. They propel society forward with the type of leadership they convey. A person graced by God for this type of leadership has a positive, self-disciplined, contagious, forward-thinking energy about them. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf come to mind. Second Timothy 1:7 says a person graced by the Holy Spirit is marked by love, a sound mind, and possession of self-control. A person led by the Holy Spirit brings peace into the room with them, even in stressful situations. A person led by the Holy Spirit has a great capacity for humility and friendship and mutual respect. A person led by the Holy Spirit speaks encouraging words of life. A person led by the Holy Spirit has joy. A person led by the Holy Spirit is gentle and patient and kind. A person led by the Holy Spirit has courage, doesn’t need to blame other people, and doesn’t need to compete for attention.
A false leader is someone who attains a position of leadership not by God’s grace, but by false, dangerous circumstances. They are self-exalting grumblers who follow their own desires while boasting about themselves and flattering others for their own advantage. They divide instead of unite, follow their own base instincts, and are not led by the Holy Spirit.[9] The Bible calls these leaders false prophets. “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. . . . Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories.”[10] A false leader gains power by telling you everything you want to hear.
It’s important—moreover, it’s biblical—to never assess a leader (spiritual, political, or otherwise) based solely on the “good things” he is doing or promises to do. Keith Raniere did good things for his community before he was sent to prison for sex-trafficking and racketeering. David Miscavige does good things for society under the umbrella of Scientology. L. Ron Hubbard and Jim Jones did good things too. But all of them are false leaders, and all of them eventually led their communities into chaos, division, and violence.
If you want to know whether a leader is placed by God or not, conduct the test of spirits. Check the spiritual atmosphere around them, as it stands most of the time. How do they generally treat people? The test of spirits is not determined by the promises they make or the prophecies given about them. It isn’t whether they are Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal. The test is not whether the leader makes decisions that the white evangelical church in America agrees with. The test is the overwhelming presence of good spirits—or bad spirits—in their life. We can be sure that a person who is routinely hateful, cruel, destructive, divisive, and violent is not being led by God. A leader who frequently and erratically lashes out with his tongue, lies profusely, and brings chaos and paranoia into the room with him is not led by God. If he craves constant praise and attention and loyalty, he is not led by God. The leader may possess a powerful energy that will at first make his followers feel similarly powerful, but eventually it will unleash lies, disruption, paranoia, and rage onto the people he leads. They will feel angry and fearful much of the time, and possibly even violent. A person led by a false leader may feel it is necessary to bully and radicalize others into their position.
Adolf Hitler was a psychopath who had a demonic, antichrist spirit using him to exterminate Jewish people and others he judged “contaminated” and “inferior.” He was also a mentally disturbed and unstable politician whose sociopathic tendencies contributed to his rise in power and ultimately affected his public policy. The thing is, he acted like a lunatic only some of the time. The rest of the time, he seemed normal.
Such is often the case with a false leader.
[1]. 1 John 4:1.
[2]. Kranish and Fisher, Trump Revealed, 367.
[3]. Peter Ross Range, “The Theory of Political Leadership That Donald Trump Shares with Adolf Hitler,” Washington Post, July 25, 2016, para. 5, https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/07/25/the-theory-of-political-
leadership-that-donald-trump-shares-with-adolf-hitler/.
[4]. Kranish and Fisher, Trump Revealed, 41–42.
[5]. Dan Merica and Kevin Liptak, “He Cut Your Heart Out: Trump’s Anger Proves Memorable,” CNN, September 16, 2017, https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/16/politics/trump-anger/index.html.
[6]. Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump), “@Don_Vito_08,” Twitter, March 23, 2016, 8:55 p.m., https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/712850174838771712.
[7]. Conor Friedersdorf, “Donald Trump’s Cruel Streak,” Atlantic, September 26, 2016, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/donald-trumps-cruel-streak/
501554/.
[8]. Waite, Psychopathic God, 196.
[9]. Jude 16–19.
[10]. 2 Pet 2:1–2.
Amy Hawk is the author of Six Years in the Hanoi Hilton: An Extraordinary Story of Courage and Survival in Vietnam. She lives in Oregon with her husband and their tiny Yorkie. They have two young adult children. Connect with Amy at www.amyhawk.com.