“Is Trump a Lunatic?” is the title of my previous blog post. Bruce Maples, founder of the “Forward Kentucky” website, recently referred to Trump as “the Lunatic-in-Chief.”* This post highlights the “lunacy” (used in the metaphorical sense) of three men closely associated with the POTUS.
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| (Pete Hegseth as depicted by Rachel Bitecofer) |
Trump delivered an “address to the nation” on December 17. That same day, Maples portrayed the speech as an unhinged, lie-filled, 20‑minute tirade marked by bragging, blame‑shifting toward Biden and the Democrats, and disjointed nonsense.
Andy Curtis is an applied linguist and former
president of the TESOL International Association. Back in 2018, he labeled Trump
the ‘Lunatic‑in‑Chief.’ Maples cast the December 17 address as yet another
performance that fully merited that description. In a 2019 post, Curtis also
called Trump the “most famous liar in the world today.”
There are, not surprisingly, many loyalists
who support Trump’s prevarication, misleading statements, and gaslighting. This
post is a brief look at three “lunatics” who are his main supporters.
Steve Bannon (his given name is
Stephen, but he is called Steve in the media and public life), has been closely
associated with Trump since 2016.
Bannon (b. 1953) was a
close ally of Andrew Breitbart, founder of Breitbart News. After Breitbart’s
death in 2012, Bannon became its executive chairman and shaped in into a nationalist,
pro‑Trump website. Consequently, Breitbart News came to be known as “the
platform for the alt‑right” and was widely seen as “Trump Central” during the
2016 campaign.
After breaking with
Trump in early 2018, Bannon started his “War Room” podcasts early in 2019, releasing
new episodes five or six times a week. His podcast on March 19, 2026, was
labeled as #5227. Bannon’s War Room is often depicted as “ultra-conservative” or
“hyper-partisan right,” and it is widely seen as “a hub for extreme MAGA
rhetoric.”
Currently, Bannon is
clearly one of the “lunatics” actively supporting the Lunatic-in-Chief.
Stephen Miller (although he has the same given name as Bannon, he goes by the full name, never by Steve) has also long been a Trump supporter. Miller (b. 1985) is said to have felt an intense personal connection upon Trump’s June 2015 candidacy announcement, viewing ‘it as aligning perfectly with his longstanding anti-immigration views. At Bannon’s and Jared Kushner’s urging, in 2016 Miller joined Trump’s campaign full-time as a senior policy advisor, writing Trump’s early speeches and embedding nationalist rhetoric like “radical Islam.” His loyalty proved unwavering through Trump’s first term and his 2024 campaign.
Since January 2025, Miller has served as the White
House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy in President Trump’s administration. That
position gives him broad oversight of immigration enforcement, homeland
security, and domestic policy execution, including mass deportations and
executive orders.
Without question, Miller is one of the three
main “lunatics” currently supporting the President.
Pete Hegseth (although his given
name is Peter, he universally goes by Pete) assumed his first paid federal
government role in Trump’s second term, when he nominated Hegseth for secretary
of defense in November 2024. The Senate confirmed him after a tie-breaking vote
by VP Vance, and he was sworn in on January 25, 2025.
Hegseth (b. 1980) is clearly one of the most
important and most dangerous men in the U.S. today. As the Secretary of
Defense/War, he is the official most responsible for launching/conducting the
current “war” against Iran. As the oft-quoted anonymous saying puts it, “The
most dangerous people are those who commit violence believing they are doing
God’s will."
As is widely known, Hegseth is a conservative evangelical
Christian who embraces a literal interpretation of what the Book of Revelation
says about Armageddon and the Rapture. His current involvement in the war on
Iran seems clearly to be based on his fundamentalistic Christian beliefs.**
Hegseth has said he will practice “no quarter”
in Iran, which means he will refuse to spare enemy lives or take prisoners but
will execute all who surrender or are captured. Supposedly, that is legitimate
in, his eyes since all Muslims are going to “fry when they die” (my words, not
his) anyway.
Robert Reich’s March 16 Substack post was
titled Trump’s Stupidest Cabinet Member, and he said Hegseth,
this third of Trump’s “lunatic” enablers, is “a clear winner.”
With the rampant presence and power of these three
“lunatics,” I repeat what I said at the end of my previous post: Heaven help
us!
_____
* Following
his unsuccessful run for Louisville Metro Council in 2014 as a Democrat and frustrated
by weak progressive voices in those elections, Maples founded Forward Kentucky
in 2015.
** For those not familiar with the common conservative evangelical view of the end times, see the following articles: “Evangelicalism’s Twin Engines of Destruction: The Theological Innovation Sanctifying Trump’s War in Iran,” “Armageddon is not a strategy for peace in Iran,” and “The Pentagon’s Armageddon Problem,” Rachel Bitecofer’s March 12th Substack post. (The image at the top of this post was taken from the latter.)
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