Trump the New Messiah?

What gives with Trump being the new Messiah? Up to recently this theory was the province of a far-out lunatic fringe but now it’s going mainstream. Significant numbers of his supporters literally believe him to be the answer to their prayers, sent by God to protect a Christian nation. Billboards and posters are appearing all over America.

According to the Times Of Israel “We can no longer see Trumpism as a fluke in the political system of America, or a gathering of mass hysteria, or the result of poor attention to mental illness in our country.  It is now a full-fledged fundamentalist messianic religion that has millions of followers spreading like wildfire through our government, police forces, and businesses.  And this is a much scarier realization because you cannot simply vote out a religious affiliation.  We are stuck with Trumpism for generations or longer, and he will join the ranks of false messiahs in our future history books”.

The impeachment attempts were his Passion, the Election theft his crucifixion, Mike Pence his Judas and now his Second Coming is duly anticipated to complete the process.   Texas Evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress prays ‘God give him strength! He’s doing a Jericho walk!’”. This presumably refers to when Joshua (was it?) blew his trumpet and the walls of Jericho fell down. After which God’s people killed every man, woman and child in the city. Can Trump do something similar with DC, SF or NY? If so sign me up. Trump is the most unlikely of latter-day Messiahs but Jeffress has no problem reconciling Trump’s lifestyle with the teachings of the Bible he now brandishes at every rally. “You mean, does he pretend to be perfectly pious?” he asked rhetorically. “No.” Rev Jerry Falwell compares Trump to King David who also had a few skeletons in his cupboard but went on to great things. Mind you Trump had his own magisterial Scripture-based retort to those who raise this question: “Yea, let he who hath not raw-dogged a porn-star while his third wife was pregnant with his fifth child cast the first stone”. Yes indeed. He has re-tweeted a claim that Israelis view him “like he’s the King of Israel” and “the second coming of God” while modestly admitting that he plays second fiddle to Jesus who, he deems to be “more famous”. For now anyway.

Look, the last thing I want to do here is mock the spiritual dimension of what’s happening today, which in fact I believe to be the final act of the Manichaean conflict between Good and Evil, or God and Satan. I’m saying that attributing any form of Divine agency to Trump is not only blasphemous and idolatrous but wholly counter-productive from an earthly perspective. Many of you will disagree with me but I see Trump as ideology-free. Rather, as the ultimate salesman, he spotted a gap in the electoral market and brilliantly fashioned a ‘product’ to capitalise on it. I’m reminded of Groucho Marx’s witticism “I’ve got my principles. And if you don’t like them I got plenty more”. I’d love to be wrong but God will not be mocked. And designating Trump as his Messiah is mockery of the worst kind.

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