Hello and welcome to the Spectator's Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American

politics and the Trump presidency in 2017. I'm Freddie Gray and I'm Deputy Editor of the Spectator.

And today we're going to be doing an excerpt from the Spectator's main podcast.

I'm joined now by Freddie Gray, Deputy Editor of the Spectator, who's in Washington for the inauguration.

Freddie, you've met lots and lots of Trump supporters.

You've been at the convention in Cleveland in Washington now.

Have you come across what you might call a sort of more exotic allegiances to Trump that go beyond simple politics.

Yes, I certainly have. I mean, I don't want to sort of lump evangelicals as all loony because

they're not, but certainly when I was in Cleveland, I met quite a few evangelical Trump fans

who really regarded Trump, actually believed Trump was a reincarnation of King David and a sort

of imperfect vehicle of God's will. So I think that, you know, quite an interesting thought

that evangelicals will get sucked into a Trump-like cult, but I think almost it could be the other

way around. Trump could get sucked into a sort of evangelical cult. I met Ted Cruz last night,

of course, the failed presidential candidate, who's very much a representative of evangelical cult. I met Ted Cruz last night, of course, the failed presidential

candidate, who's very much a representative of the evangelical force in America. And he was

extremely optimistic about the future. I mean, he was talking about the cabinet and how this

administration, despite this extraordinary bizarre and obviously not very, how can we say, morally upstanding person at the top, the rest of the cabinet is one of the most conservative Christian administrations, if not the most conservative Christian administration in history.

Well, Trump is not an evangelical Christian, not in any recognizable sense.

He is a charismatic leader, as Max Weber would have described charismatic leaders as people who are almost offering to perform miracles.

Trump talks in terms of transforming the nature of American government, American society, almost overnight without really spelling out how he's going to do it.

But the expectations that build up are enormous. The problem with all charismatic authorities,

as Weber said, is that once somebody disappoints his or her followers, their quasi-magical

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