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It won’t have escaped Donald Trump’s notice that his arrest has come during Holy Week, when our Lord and Savior was sentenced by a cruel mob and crucified only to rise again.
Trump — aka “the Tangerine Jesus” — has long understood the religious power of politics in America. That’s why “I am your retribution” is his campaign pitch in 2024. It’s why, recovering from Covid in the run-up to the 2020 election, he described his recovery as “a blessing from God” and behaved a bit like Lazarus brought back from the dead. It’s why he accuses the Democrats of stealing “our sacred elections.” And it’s why Trump and his team are orchestrating his arrest today into a giant media spectacle, milking his legal persecution for all it is worth with a press conference tonight and no doubt endless “Justice” campaign slogans to come.
Get ready for the Passion of the Donald.
The Manhattan court will be Trump’s Gethsemane. Forgive us Lord, we know not what we do.
The Trump story has become ever more weird
To some true American believers, Trump is a King David, a flawed figure who is nevertheless a vessel of God’s will. To others, Trump is already the actual Messiah. For instance, Helgard Müller, a South African émigré who lives in Cincinnati, in Ohio, has written a wonderfully weird book entitled President Donald J. Trump, The Son of Man — The Christ. It begins:
“President Donald J. Trump is the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords! The Son of Man who will be seen seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven! You have read that correctly! President Donald J. Trump is the Christ for this age! The Son of King David! Prophecies of Jesus and all the prophets point to President Donald J. Trump as the Son of Man, the Christ.“
Müller identifies plenty of evidence to support his thesis. Donald’s father Frederick’s middle name was “Christ.” Trump decries fake news and the Lord denounced false prophets. Jesus was betrayed by Judas; Trump was betrayed by his vice president Mike Pence. Jesus was crucified between two criminals. Trump has been prosecuted along with his former advisors Michael Cohen and Roger Stone. Joseph of Arimathea felt compassion for Jesus and had him buried in fine linen; Trump is backed by the “MyPillow” CEO Mike Lindell. Müller even regards Trump’s perma-tan coloring as proof of his divinity:
“I recall the scriptures of Matthew 17: 1-3 where Jesus’s face did shine as ‘orange’ as the sun. The comparisons between Jesus, the Son of God whose face turned ‘orange as the sun’ and the Son of Man’s (President Donald J. Trump) face who is the color ‘orange’ is enormously great.“
That was all written before the Year of Our Lord 2023. What visions the author must be having now as Trump appears in court, on thirty-four charges, three days before Good Friday! And Christian nationalists who don’t go as far as Müller must be noticing the curious timing. If nothing else, it proves the demonic nature of Trump’s enemies. “They chose Holy Week to persecute President Trump,” says Laura Loomer, a prominent Trumpet. “And you can bet that was intentional.”
I hear the cynics chirrup, as the crowd mocked Christ: did Jesus pay hush-money to porn stars to stop them gassing on about a possibly adulterous affair? But that’s to miss the point. Patriotic American evangelicals are always searching for eschatological meaning in contemporary events because for them the story of America is bound up with the redemption of mankind — the more improbable the better. The Lord works in mysterious ways. The conspiracy theory QAnon, remember, was based on a theory that Trump was an agent of God working with benevolent forces within the evil “Deep State” to bring it down. Trump’s famous “maybe it’s the calm before the storm” line, which he uttered at a military dinner in 2017, triggered an avalanche of religious interpretation. Trump plays on these wild ideas, often reposting pictures of himself with the slogan: “The storm is coming!”
Fast forward to April 2023 and the Trump story has become ever more weird. Even those who do not go along with the fruitier theories of the American right will feel that something very strange is happening in America when a president and leading contender for the 2024 presidential is arraigned in court on dubious charges. It will fire up not just his base but many Americans who feel depressed about the state of their democracy. Trump is not the Second Coming, clearly, but he’ll be well aware that his blockbuster trial this week could mark the beginning of his political resurrection.
This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.
