Trump's Cynical Apostles

Yesterday, in the annual mix of church and state business known as the "National Day of Prayer," sociopath and grifter Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump basked in the praise offered to him by a collection of megachurch grifters and Bible banging hypocrites in the White (Supremacist) House Rose Garden. Paula White, his "spiritual advisor," a no-show job if there every was one, delivered a fulsome "prayer", full of references to "God's will" and "demons" (i.e., progressives). It's fitting that White has that special place in Trumpworld: thrice married (now to rock musician Jonathan Cain), proponent of the "prosperity gospel" that has made her a very wealthy woman, and dolled up in a way that would make the late Tammy Faye Baker proud. Like Trump, she also has a sketchy record of bankruptcy and grifting.

As for White's "prayer" for Trump in the Rose Garden, she came right up to the edge of declaring Trump a prophet, per Quartz's reporting:

“We are not wrestling against flesh and blood but against principalities, wickedness and darkness, so we declare every demonic network to be scattered right now,” White-Cain said. “We declare right now that there is a hedge of protection over our president, first lady, every assignment, the purpose they carry and the mantle." ... Let Trump “fulfill all the will of the Lord and do the assignment God has carried him to do for Your great name, Your great nation and for all Your people in the world,” she closed, adding “And everybody say ‘Amen!'” to applause.

Fantasizing a corrupt and sinister man like Trump as a "prophet" and an instrument of "God" is popular in the right-wing white evangelical movement, exemplified not only by White, but by the truly despicable bigot Franklin Graham who has virtually turned himself into a Trump campaign surrogate, weaponizing religion in service to right-wing politics. With Trump's nomination of right-wing judges and issuing regulations favorable to their bigotry, they're happy to align with him in their own bargain with the devil.

Increasingly, "no religion" tops the preferences of Americans, as a recent poll showed. Watching these phony, Bible-thumping grifters bow to someone like Trump might explain a lot of that.