God Emperor

See also: God-Emperor

English

Alternative forms

• God-Emperor

Etymology

God + Emperor. Its use in reference to the Emperor of Japan is from a calque of Japanese 天皇 (tennō), literally "heavenly sovereign/emperor", referring to the emperor's descent from the sun goddess Amaterasu.

For the second usage, from far-right Internet users depicting Donald Trump as the God-Emperor of Mankind, a character from the British science fiction tabletop game Warhammer 40,000. This tabletop game has become popular among far-right Internet groups for its satirical militarist themes.

Proper noun

God Emperor (plural God Emperors)

1. A god-king; a sovereign worshiped as a god.
   1. (specific, historical) The Emperor of Japan.
      • 1944, United States Office of War Information, The Battle of China:

        Here the God Emperor and his fanatic warlords were using this same Western civilization for one purpose and only one: to create one of the world's most powerful war machines.

2. (Internet slang, US politics, humorous) Donald Trump, American politician and 45th president of the United States.
   • 2017, Jared Yates Sexton, The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore: A Story of American Rage, Catapult, →ISBN:

     The meme was from Trump's cameo at WrestleMania 23 a decade prior, and in it he tackled WWE owner Vince McMahon before pummeling him on ... Several of his fellow users were congratulating him for getting “the God Emperor's” attention.

   • 2017, George Hawley, Making Sense of the Alt-Right, Columbia University Press, →ISBN:

     Just days after his election, Trump reaffirmed his campaign commitments to shut down Muslim immigration by signing an ... and with the election over and the man the AltRight called “the god emperor” on his way to the White House, ...

   • 2018, Javaad Alipoor, The Believers are But Brothers, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

     To the 4chan boys Trump was a hero, the social failure in chief, a clown prince. They called him the God Emperor, a swaggering fat Daddy, who, as one commentator put it, would put a car in every white man's drive and an Aryan woman in ...

   • 2018, Arnold Dashefsky, Ira M. Sheskin, American Jewish Year Book 2017: The Annual Record of the North American Jewish Communities, Springer, →ISBN, page 136:

     “Trump is willing to say what most Americans think: It's time to deport these people,” Anglin declared, ... and avid campaign volunteers, referring to Trump with extravagant nicknames such as “Our Great God Emperor,” “the Nimble ...

   • 2019, Grant Kien, Communicating with Memes: Consequences in Post-truth Civilization, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 190:

     Pepe had already been frequently portrayed as a Trump supporter on social media sites. ... a quick browse through the rabid Trump sub-Reddit the_donald will notice many of its members exalting the politician with the title “God Emperor."

   • 2019, Fay Bound Alberti, A Biography of Loneliness: The History of an Emotion, Oxford University Press, USA, →ISBN, page 130:

     ... Donald J. Trump'.46 This 380,000-strong group refers to Donald Trump as 'daddy' and 'the God Emperor',and gains its identity by standing against liberalism, feminism, intellectualism, and much more besides ...

   • 2019, Blake Nelson, The Red Pill: A Novel, Bombardier Books, →ISBN:

     Trump won. They'd made these Photoshopped pictures of Trump flying around on his victory horse, through the gates of heaven, with a crown on his head and his golden sword. They call him the God Emperor.” “That sounds awful.” “I know.

   • 2020, Talia Lavin, Culture Warlords: My Journey Into the Dark Web of White Supremacy, Legacy Lit, →ISBN:

     Our Glorious Leader has ascended to God Emperor.”1 Ten days after Trump's election, the National Policy Institute, the generically named but emphatically white-nationalist think tank led by professional racist Richard Spencer, ...

Usage notes

• (sense 2): Used to glorify Trump in far-right online circles and memes.

Derived terms

• GEOTUS

Translations

Translations

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 神帝 (Shén dì), 神皇帝 (Shén Huángdì)

• Finnish: jumalkeisari
• French: Empereur-Dieu (fr) m
• German: Gott-Kaiser m, Gott-Imperator m
• Italian: Imperatore-Dio m
• Japanese: 神帝 (しんてい, Shintei), 神皇帝 (かみこてい, Kami Kōtei)
• Latin: Deus-Imperator m
• Portuguese: Imperador-Deus m
• Romanian: Împărat-Zeu m, Împărat-Dumnezeu m
• Russian: Бог-Импера́тор m (Bog-Imperátor)
• Spanish: Emperador-Dios m

See also

• arahitogami, mikado, tenno (Emperor of Japan)
• Son of Heaven (Emperor of China, venerated as a god)
• demigod
• divine right
• Mandate of Heaven