Donald Trump still claims to be God’s divinely appointed man
While most of America celebrated Christmas and the birth of Jesus Christ last week, Donald Trump spent most of his holiday holding cult rallies where he repeated claims that he is God’s divinely appointed man to lead America . . . as a dictator.
That is, of course, when he wasn’t cursing his political enemies to “rot in hell.”
In a clear display of the self-centered “God complex” we’ve come to know and expect from Trump, “God’s man” shifted the focus away from the birth of Jesus Christ and directly on himself (via TrendyDigests.com):
Donald Trump’s recent public proclamations, in which he presents himself as a godly figure and explicitly threatens to behave like a dictator if re-elected, have raised concerns among experts and observers.
Trump’s behavior is indicative of what experts call a “God complex”, a deep-seated belief in one’s own infallibility and superiority. This is a classic element of a cult and a key ingredient of why and how Trumpism works among his followers. In this context, the profane and the sacred are conflated in the same way as the Nazis did.
This isn’t the initial instance of Donald Trump asserting divine authority. Over the past seven years, Trump has consistently professed to possess clandestine and omnipotent wisdom, urging his supporters to have faith in him over facts, reality, or anyone else. He purports to hold knowledge beyond anyone else’s grasp, makes daring future forecasts akin to a mystic or psychic, and overall maintains a belief in his omnipotence, considering himself beyond the law and any form of accountability.
During a speech in Iowa last weekend, Trump told his MAGA cultists that, “But I think if you had a real election and Jesus came down and God came down and said, ‘I’m going to be the scorekeeper here,’ I think we’d win there [in California], I think we’d win in Illinois, and I think we’d win in New York.” (Emphasis mine)
How is it that Donald Trump can still claim to be God’s divinely appointed man? We need look no further than the evangelicals who make up the base of his cult. For example, at a rally last month, Trump voters said he was “appointed by God.” And then to take the Jesus/Trump analogy a step further, they also said that he was being “crucified” by his political enemies:
“I believe Trump is appointed by God—appointed-slash-anointed, however you want to say it,” Joannie Firkins, 63, of Iowa told the Boston Globe at a Trump rally in Coralville, Iowa. “He’s the only one that’s speaking the truth.”
Another Iowa resident, William Joe White, told the Globe: “They have no standing to, you know, crucify him.”
People like Joannie and William can almost be excused for their cult-like behavior because the spiritual “leaders” they follow are the originators of the “God’s man” mantra oft-repeated at cult meetings. Throughout the 2016 presidential election and continuing during Trump’s presidency, the group of false prophets I refer to as the Fellowship of the Pharisees repeatedly support Donald Trump as being divinely appointed for “such a time as this.”
Even though Trump’s blatant immorality and complete lack of character was evident for all to see, I wrote in October 2016 that Donald Trump was indeed God’s man, but not for the reason his supporters believed. I believed then, and still believe today, that Donald Trump wasn’t picked by God as the last chance to save America. Instead, he was picked by God to launch a great shaking of the church.
If I were to summarize the spiritual condition of the church ever since Donald Trump arrived on the scene, I’d say it has come to resemble the environment we had during the great shaking that took place in the 1980s when numerous scandals involving several evangelical leaders were brought to light, including such names as: Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, Peter Popoff, and Robert Tilton.
Trump has exposed the Fellowship of the Pharisees as political opportunists and purveyors of a cheap grace, lukewarm gospel. Instead of working to bring the revival America so desperately needs, these prosperity gospel hustlers have sacrificed the true gospel of Jesus Christ for a seat at Trump’s table — a sacrifice they will make again in 2024.
An early example of what this looked like took place in October 2016 when Trump was caught on tape bragging about sexually abusing women. Not only did the Fellowship of the Pharisees excuse his behavior, but they defended it using — or I should say, misusing — God’s Word. Trump’s religion advisor at the time (former Congresswoman Michelle Bachman) blamed the revelations of Trump’s sexual abuse on the media. And Trump’s “Christian” running mate Mike Pence said he was personally “offended” by Trump’s comments; he didn’t defend or condone them, but he didn’t condemn them either.
In 2018, Trump’s immoral behavior was excused again with the “Porngate” scandal when it was revealed that Trump paid former porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep her quiet about an affair between the two. When Family Research Council President Tony Perkins was asked in an interview why evangelical leaders supported Trump considering his long history of such behavior, Perkins responded that Trump would be given a “mulligan” on this one. Perkins further defended Trump by saying that Christians were “tired of being kicked around by Barack Obama and his leftists” and that America finally had “somebody on the playground that is willing to punch the bully.”
In August 2020, the Fellowship was shaken when Jerry Falwell, Jr. was forced to resign after reports of several sexual trysts involving him, his wife, and a so-called “business partner” went public. Falwell often excused Trump’s immoral behavior because, to paraphrase his words, Trump was our Commander-in-Chief, not our pastor-in-chief. Ironically, Falwell a similar defense for his and his wife’s sexual indiscretions following his resignation when he stated that he was not the “spiritual leader” of Liberty University.
During the rise of Nazi Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer rebuked the church for refusing to call evil by name and for its overreliance on what he referred to as cheap grace — defined as forgiveness without repentance. I’ve written about frightening similarities between the church of today and the church of Nazi Germany.
Biblically illiterate and/or ignorant evangelicals have rejected criticism of Donald Trump’s immoral and indefensible behavior, choosing instead to praise him as God’s divinely appointed man. But presidents aren’t appointed by God, they are elected by individuals exercising their free will.
In the story of God’s judgement on Judah, the Old Testament is filled with examples of how God gave his people every opportunity to reject evil and escape judgement. Bud despite God’s numerous warnings, Judah not only rejected the opportunity to turn from evil, but she became even more defiant and wicked by demanding her free will right to choose evil.
If God judged Judah, his beloved nation, for choosing evil for herself and embracing evil in her king, why should Christians in America think we will be spared for doing the same thing with God’s divinely appointed man, Donald Trump?
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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