I Know Why Trump’s ‘Mad King’ Act Is Spiraling: Author

Journalist and author Kurt Andersen has revealed why Donald Trump’s mad-king act is crumbling.

During an appearance on The Daily Beast Podcast, Andersen said the 79-year-old president’s latest offensive antics—particularly those that have wounded his Christian supporters—may be the final cracks in the foundation of his MAGA base.

Last week, Trump raged at Pope Leo XIV in a 334-word Truth Social screed, referring to the Chicago native as a “weak” leader catering to the “Radical Left.”

“Leo should be thankful,” Trump, who has a 37 percent approval rating, raged—claiming that the Chicago native “wasn’t on any list to be Pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”

Then, he sent even some of his most loyal followers over the edge after sharing an AI-generated image depicting himself as Jesus Christ. The president later claimed it was an image of himself as a doctor.

Andersen told host Joanna Coles that these two instances in particular will have a lasting effect on the perception of Trump.

“People have been saying, all kinds of people, and with diagnostic precision what they think of Trump’s mental disorders are,” Andersen said, calling this latest instance “beyond” anything that came before. “The Mad King caricature seems truer than ever,” he added. The White House could not immediately be reached for comment.

Andersen said it was astonishing that Trump went so far as to insult the pope and fashion himself as Jesus Christ when “the most important” part of his political base are Evangelical Protestants. Additionally, there are roughly 53 million Catholics—who follow the pope—in the United States, making up about 20 percent of U.S. adults, according to the Pew Research Center.

“Yet he is more ignorant of Christianity, the Bible, all of it,” Andersen said of Trump, who has said he presently identifies as a nondenominational Christian.

This isn’t the first time the president has drawn the ire of his typically devoted base. Cracks first emerged after his Department of Justice’s botched release of the so-called Epstein files—and for his own personal relationship with the infamous pedophile, who died in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019.

Some of his supporters have also grown outspoken about his war on Iran, which the president launched in coordination with Israel on Feb. 28 without congressional approval.

But his attacks on vital aspects of Christianity, Andersen argued, might be a new low for Trump among some of his devotees. While Trump has previously made religious faux pas—including, notably, when he referred to Second Corinthians as “Two Corinthians”—his base has been able to look past it or even joke about it.

There are, however, several members of Trump’s inner circle who have chosen to look the other way—or even take his side in the feud between him and Pope Leo.

Recently converted Catholic JD Vance, for one, warned the pope to “be careful” when speaking about theology, while White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, also a Catholic, has defended the president amid clashes with the Vatican.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, meanwhile, is fielding his own criticism from Christians after reciting a Bible verse that more closely resembled Samuel L. Jackson’s monologue in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction on Thursday.