Trump’s May Madness Playbook

By Sue Kientz

The first weekend of May brought a cornucopia of odd statements and messages out of the White House. On Friday, President Trump posted an AI image of himself as Pope just days before the conclave in Rome was set to begin. The image, reposted by the official White House X account(1), was almost universally condemned. By the end of the weekend, another AI image appeared on the White House X account depicting the president as a Jedi wielding a red lightsaber that many on X argued identified him as an evil Jedi or Sith Lord. His post marked “May-the-Fourth-Be-With-You” Day, with his accompanying message insisting he is the Resistance, and all the people who criticize him are The (evil) Empire.(2)

Unfazed by the controversies these actions unleashed, on Monday, President Trump announced he was reopening Alcatraz in order to incarcerate the country’s worst criminals in its infamous prison.(3) This ignored that the prison has been closed for many decades, would need extensive renovation if not a complete teardown and rebuild, and it’s now managed by the National Park Service and a very popular tourist destination.

With the country highly concerned about the effect of tariffs put in place last month, and other, more substantial tariffs that begin in about two months, and the impact of these on the economy, one wonders why these erratic messages and unworkable plans are being foisted on the American people.

Some propose these are deliberate distractions(4) aimed to divert attention from the tariff situation, or the fact that no definitive trade deals have emerged to avoid these tariffs, or the many missteps of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth caused by him using the insecure Signal app, or the foundering effort to end Russia’s war with Ukraine. One needs a way to examine the source of all this confusion and anxiety, which is Trump himself. What’s going on in his life that astrology might illuminate?

President Trump has several major planetary contacts simultaneously lighting up his personal chart.(5) Jupiter (22 Gemini), planet of excess and exuberance, is conjunct (0 degrees from) his Sun (22 Gemini). Since antiquity, Jupiter has been considered extremely fortunate, and conjunction with a leader’s Sun would herald a victory or abundant riches. Trump has his victory – he’s president! – and already enjoys great wealth. But what do you want when you seemingly have everything? You want what you do not have, and for the last week or two, Trump has shown impatience with his sinking poll numbers and reports of people complaining about the tariffs and their expected effect on prices. He’s railed about the public’s reactions, and with Jupiter passing close to his Sun, expect his anxiety to peak. How can fortunate Jupiter denote a negative experience? If you are on a path of self-gratification rather than one protective of or concerned about others in your care, efforts to gain more and more of what you want can spectacularly backfire. One positive development Trump may enjoy that he hinted about recently, involves some involvement with release of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, which would fit a Jupiter-Sun achievement.(6)

At the same time, planet Uranus (26 Taurus) is about to exactly square (i.e., 90 degrees, denoting difficulty) Trump’s Mars (26 Leo). If Jupiter cues overconcern with others’ thoughts or opinions of oneself, Uranus square Mars can represent sudden (Uranus) anger (Mars), a big shakeup, someone losing their cool in the extreme. It makes sense that deep down, Trump is keyed up and just as worried about the tariffs, the lack of trade deals, and the country’s impatience with a delayed arrival of his “great economy” that the president promised. Uranus making a harsh aspect to Mars comes only once or maybe twice in a long lifetime. Jupiter conjunct Sun arrives once every 12 years. That these two are coinciding at the very same time this week is a whopper of a big deal.

Another unusual event at hand is Saturn (28 Pisces) and Neptune (1 Aries) approaching conjunction, and they are doing so opposite Trump’s natal Quaoar (0 Libra), one of the new dwarf planets discovered this century. Quaoar represents taking chances, gambling, and risk taking.(7) Saturn, symbolic of reality checks and having to come back down to earth, and Neptune, a marker of illusion, fantasy, and (therefore) deluding oneself, by being opposite Trump’s Quaoar, describe his tenuous state. Trump desperately hopes to materialize the “riches” he promised to deliver by collecting tariffs from all the other nations on earth, a plan he has dreamt of enacting for years since he first imagined running for president in the 1990s. But the Neptunian vision he nurtured is in very real danger from hard-facts Saturn coming up behind Neptune to possibly unmask his pipedream in the worst way. What can he do with an imminent danger to his reputation and competency as president, lurking up ahead? Deflect, distract, post outrageous photos on social media and hope that the “fake news” writes articles about that and not about tariffs or the economy. After a day or two when the news cycles back to the economy, the lack of definitive trade deals, and his inadvertent admittance that there might not be as many toys under the Christmas Tree in December, he’ll find some more AI images to post, propose another outrageous plan that will set the news media ablaze. Like his most recent idea for deporting migrants: Send them to Libya.(8) Visions of people thrown into another foreign hellhole should sidetrack the American people for a few days, or so he hopes. But that playbook’s days are numbered.

Title Image credit: Trump AI image as Pope, @realDonaldTrump on X, reposted by @WhiteHouse, 8:07 PM · May 2, 2025; Trump AI image as Jedi, @WhiteHouse on X, posted 8:34 AM · May 4, 2025; Alcatraz Prison, Photograph by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Notes and References

1. “Trump posts AI-generated image of himself as the pope days before conclave vote,”4 May 2025, CNN,  https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/04/world/video/trump-pope-ai-generated-photo-digvid
2. Mouriquand, David, “How an AI Star Wars image has backfired on Trump and the White House,” 5 May 2025, euronews, https://www.euronews.com/culture/2025/05/05/how-an-ai-star-wars-image-has-backfired-on-trump-and-the-white-house
3. Suarez Sang, L.I., “Trump says he will reopen Alcatraz prison to house ‘America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders’,” 6 May 2025, CBS News, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-alcatraz-prison-reopen-truth-social-california/
4. Garcia, Eric, “Alcatraz, Sith lords and movie tariffs: Trump’s ravings get louder as his approval rating goes lower,” 5 May 2025, The Independent, https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-truth-social-tariffs-approval-rating-b2745384.html
5. Trump, Donald J., 14 June 1946, 10:54 a.m., Queens, NY (Birth Certificate), https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Trump,_Donald
6. Wallace, Danielle, “Trump teases ‘very, very big announcement’ ahead of Middle East trip, Carney says he’s ‘on edge of my seat’,” 6 May 2025, Fox News, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-teases-very-very-big-announcement-ahead-middle-east-trip-carney-says-hes-on-edge-my-seat?spark_wn=1
7. Kientz, Sue. More Plutos (Indianapolis: Dog Ear Publishing, 2015), Quaoar chapter
8. Stewart, P., I. Ali, and H. Pamuk, “Exclusive: U.S. may soon deport migrants to Libya on military flight, sources say,” 7 May 2025, Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-may-soon-deport-migrants-libya-military-flight-sources-say-2025-05-07/  

For more details about the angles or relationships between planets, see Lynne Hyde’s “Astrology Basics,” 12 November 2024, ANS, https://astrologynewsservice.com/articles/astrology-basics/