When I looked at Donald Trump’s chances of winning the presidency in 2020, I noticed an unusual aspect in synastry:  his progressed Mars was approaching a conjunction with the U.S. progressed Mars.  At over 6 degrees apart, I didn’t consider it.  But time has passed and I was reminded of this combination when Trump announced on August 8^th that the FBI had raided his Mar-a-Lago home.  It looked to me like a fight. 

Astrologers are familiar with Trump’s rising Mars in Leo, which perfectly describes his bold, assertive, bombastic personality.  It rules his 9^th house, making him expansive and litigious, as well as his 4^th house, often focusing him on family matters and real estate.  Trump’s Mars has helped him enthuse followers and push through his agenda.

In the U.S. Gemini rising chart I use (favored by Evangeline Adams), Mars is also rising.  In Gemini, a mutable sign, it has less force and consistency.  But it does describe a multiplicity of voices and America’s sense of independence and self-reliance.  Trump’s natal Mars is roughly sextile the U.S. Mars.  But relationships grow and change and we can get a better idea of their status at any moment by looking at progressed to progressed aspects.

The U.S. progressed Mars, like Trump’s, is now in the middle degrees of Libra, the sign of its detriment (opposite its ruling sign of Aries), making it more malefic.  We might potentially say that Trump and the country are joining forces, but the U.S. also has natal Saturn at 14 Libra 47, the sign of its exaltation, giving government authority figures the edge in any encounters.  Saturn rules the 8^th, 9^th and 10^th houses in the U.S. chart, and closely squares the U.S. Sun in Cancer.  We can see the resources (8^th) of the government (10^th) and its legal system (9^th) brought to bear in an authoritative move against the former president.  Both the U.S. and Trump’s progressed Mars conjoin one another, but also conjoin U.S. natal Saturn and square its Sun.  The country may be at a crossroads, and all are experiencing a challenging period of time.

The progressed to progressed combinations are unusual and continue for several years.  Trump has been actively flirting with running again in 2024, but at the time of the election, his progressed Mars will nearly exactly conjoin U.S. Saturn (less than half a degree – it will be roughly exact in the summer of 2025).  Meanwhile, the U.S. progressed Mars moving slowly retrograde and Trump’s progressed Mars moving more quickly direct in Libra are in a double-approaching conjunction with one another, less than 2½ degrees apart at the time of the 2024 election.  They will continue their close conjunction until around 2027, when the aspect will perfect.

One commentator has suggested that the more aggressive the government’s actions against Trump, the likelier he will be to run for president again in 2024. Contention motivates him.  This fits the astrological picture, which suggests a long legal battle over what justice (Libra) actually means.  The malefics involved show quite a contentious relationship in the coming years, but the strength of the U.S. Saturn implies that the country will win in the end.  (Unless, of course, Trump once again becomes its authority figure.)

Still, the malefic Mars-Saturn combination does not bode well for Donald Trump’s candidacy in 2024.  But the election is over two years away, much will change in the intervening years, and these progressed aspects, though notable, are just one small piece of a much larger picture.