The Orange Calf Gets Messianic

 

Axios does it's usual top line look at the Malignant Loser as a "Christian," beginning with a reminder:

Trump was neither a regular churchgoer nor prone to displays of faith before running for president. His 2016 campaign produced a series of memorable gaffes as he courted the GOP's evangelical base.

• At the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa in 2015, Trump said he had never asked God for forgiveness and called Communion his "little wine" and "little cracker."
• In an interview with Bloomberg the following month, Trump repeatedly refused to name his favorite Bible verse — calling it "very personal."
• In a speech at Liberty University in January 2016, Trump cited a verse from what he called "Two Corinthians" instead of "Second Corinthians," drawing laughter from the crowd and mockery from his GOP rivals.

Since those days, he's become even more transparently risible in his devotion to a book he never opened and a religion he never practiced:

On the 2024 campaign trail, the religious undertones employed by Trump and his allies have grown more apocalyptic — even messianic — as his legal troubles have mounted.

• In one video shared on Truth Social and played at Trump's rallies, a narrator's voice booms: "On June 14, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, 'I need a caretaker.' So God gave us Trump."
• On the first day of his New York civil fraud trial in October, Trump shared an AI-generated courtroom sketch depicting himself sitting next to Jesus.
• This week, Trump posted a message he said he received from a follower: "It's ironic that Christ walked through His greatest persecution the very week they are trying to steal your property from you."

However, he's preaching to a choir of fellow hollowed- out hypocrites, who betray the religion to which they claim adherence:

64% of Republicans view Trump as "a man of faith," according to a November poll by Deseret News — more than his former vice president and vocal evangelical Mike Pence.

Ha!  Their "faith" is focused on the Orange Calf, the most un- faithful person, in every sense, that they could have chosen to follow.   He's their temporal Moses, leading them to the Promised Land of white Christian nationalism. The rest of us should never have had any doubts about this cohort's "faith," except in its fealty and devotion to the Orange Calf, forever and ever, amen.

BONUS: Don't miss this article today in Salon.com on the blindness of Trumpist "evangelicals".

(Image: Thomas Levinson / Daily Beast/ Getty Images)

Cohen's Book Details Trump Depravity, Racism

The Washington Post has obtained a pre- release copy of former Trump fixer Michael Cohen's book, "Disloyal: A Memoir," scheduled for publication on Tuesday.  In the Post's summations, Cohen covers Trump's fascination with Vladimir Putin's wealth, their "confluence of shared interests" in working to defeat Hillary Clinton, and the power of the disinformation campaign Trump supporters like the National Enquirer's former CEO David "Pecker" Pecker that was waged to great effect.

But we were struck again by the passages that paint the by now dry- and- ready- to- frame picture of Trump as a vile racist, misogynist, and hypocrite.  If none of this is surprising but all of it's still shocking, you've been paying attention for the last decade or more:

Cohen writes that during the 2016 campaign, Trump was dismissive of minorities, describing them as “not my people.” “I will never get the Hispanic vote,” Cohen recounts Trump claiming. “Like the blacks, they’re too stupid to vote for Trump.”

Cohen describes Trump’s obsessive hatred of Obama, including claiming that the only reason the former president got into Columbia University and Harvard Law School was because of “f---ing affirmative action.” He also recounts Trump’s “low opinion of all black folks.” claiming that Trump once said while ranting about Obama, “Tell me one country run by a black person that isn’t a s---hole. They are all complete f---ing toilets.”

After South African President Nelson Mandela died in 2013, Trump said he did not think Mandela “was a real leader — not the kind he respected,” Cohen writes.

Instead, Cohen writes that Trump praised the country’s apartheid-era White rule, saying: “Mandela f---ed the whole country up. Now it’s a s---hole. F--- Mandela. He was no leader.”

Cohen writes that before winning the presidency, Trump held a meeting at Trump Tower with prominent evangelical leaders, where they laid their hands on him in prayer

Afterward, Trump allegedly said: “Can you believe that bulls--t? Can you believe people believe that bulls--t?”

“The cosmic joke was that Trump convinced a vast swathe of working-class white folks in the Midwest that he cared about their well-being,” Cohen writes. “The truth was that he couldn’t care less.”

Cohen also depicts Trump as being crude toward women, including inadvertently commenting on Cohen’s then-15-year-old daughter as she finished up a tennis lesson: “Look at that piece of a--,” Trump said, according to Cohen. “I would love some of that.”

The behind- the- scenes Trump portrayed in Cohen's book is a vain shell of a person without scruples, morals, a sense of duty or patriotism -- basically a confirmation of the public Trump that we've witnessed with our own eyes.  Absorbing that, who honestly doesn't think he called Americans who died or went MIA in defense of their country "losers" and "suckers"?

But "losers" and "suckers" -- that's exactly what any con man like Trump thinks of the people who believe in and support him.

Massive Hypocrite Is Massively Hypocritical

There's this:

President Donald Trump urged attendees at a Tuesday night gala for a top anti-abortion organization to vote in November, issuing a stern warning about what might happen if they don’t. 

“If Democrats gained power, they will try to reverse these incredible gains, these are historic gains,” Trump told the audience at Susan B. Anthony List’s annual Campaign for Life event, referring to the strides made by his administration to defund abortion providers like Planned Parenthood and generally limit abortion services in the U.S.  

“Every day between now and November we must work together to elect more lawmakers who share our values, cherish our heritage, and proudly stand for life,” Trump said. [snip]

“For decades, American taxpayers have been wrongfully forced to subsidize the abortion industry through Title X federal funding, so today we have kept another promise,“ Trump said to a cheering crowd. “My administration has proposed a new rule to prohibit Title X funding from going to any clinic that performs abortions.” (our emphasis)

And then there's this:

Four days after after the raid on [Trump attorney Michael] Cohen’s office, on April 13, The Wall Street Journal published a story claiming that this David Dennison, in the NDA signed by [Playboy model] Shera Bechard, was none other than Elliott Broidy — despite its being precisely the same pseudonym Trump had used in the Stormy Daniels NDA. 

But as I argued at length and in detail in this space two weeks ago, Broidy’s account raises a lot of questions — and I believe a more plausible explanation of all the facts at hand is that he agreed to pay Bechard seven figures as a favor to Donald Trump, who actually impregnated Bechard, and then needed to hush her up about their affair and her subsequent abortion. 

Trump, I pointed out, is exactly the kind of man who has affairs with women like Shera Bechard, while Broidy has a history of bribing public officials to further his business interests — indeed, he had even made payments to the mistress of a politician he was bribing. And it was clear Broidy had spent much of 2017 touting his connections to Trump to various foreign officials.

The New York Magazine article by Paul Campos excerpted above is a must- read, and makes a compelling argument, based on further reporting by the Associated Press, for why Broidy did what he did =cough= quid pro quo =cough=.

Now, please raise your hand if you believe serial adulterer Donald "Rump" Trump was the one who impregnated Ms. Bechard and then paid hush money for her abortion.  Keep your hand raised if you think this epic hypocrisy won't matter one bit to the knuckle- dragging Rump base.  You can put your hands down now.

BONUS:  Susie Madrak at Crooks & Liars has more here.

Trump And The Pharisees

The natural affinity of immoral evangelical con artists with immoral con artist Donald "Rump" Trump is explored by Seth Meyers:

Tweets Of The Day - Why Just Bow When You Can Bow AND Curtsy?

Considering this in 2012--

The Amateur! First @BarackObama was caught bowing to the Saudi King but now the President of Mexico!  http://t.co/f0CFiUS9

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 20, 2012

... how twee of him to bow and curtsy today --

That moment when conservatives flood internet w/TRUMP BOWS TO NO ONE MEMES & Trump not only bows, but adds a curtsy pic.twitter.com/OXkhiv8bxv

— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) May 20, 2017

"That's how a Pro does it, Obummer!"

(h/t Raw Story, which has lots of reactions)

Par For The Course

That dimwit Donald "Rump" Trump is a pathological liar and world- class hypocrite is, of course, not news. One of the narratives about his mendacity has been the time he's spent doing what he unfairly accused President Obama of doing -- playing golf all the time. (For the record, he's spent 17 days at a golf course in the 12 weeks he's been in office.)  MSNBC's Chris Hayes on the many times Rump criticized Obama:

This video shld play on a loop outside Donald Trump's White House👇 #TrumpRussia #russiagate #wednesdaywisdom #morningjoe #TrumpandthePress pic.twitter.com/ASPuABYp91

— Kikkay (@NikkisBubble) April 12, 2017

(h/t Balloon Juice)

Trump Wants (Non-Rapey!) Foreign Workers To Pick His Grapes

Trump voter sucker alert!

Federal ethics experts for former Democratic and Republican administrations warned Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump is creating a major conflict of interest by allowing his Virginia vineyard to seek special temporary visas for foreign workers. 

Trump, who is president of the Charlottesville vineyard that applied this month for H2 visas for six foreign workers, will soon run the U.S. government, which determines whether to grant those visas. [snip] 

Trump Vineyard Estates LLC filed a request Dec. 2 with the Labor Department for six H2 visas, which permit U.S. employers to hire foreigners for seasonal jobs such as pruning grapevines, which is what the request said. The request was posted online by the Labor Department on Wednesday and first reported by BuzzFeed News. 

The workers are needed to prune the vines on the estate, the Labor application said, and they would be paid $10.72 per hour for a 40-hour, six-day week. The jobs are anticipated to last from January to June.  

Trump, whose transition team and press office did not respond to requests for comment on the matter, consistently argued during the presidential campaign that the federal government should limit immigration to protect American jobs. The visas his business seeks do not allow workers to permanently reside in the United States.

Various Trump brand products are made in 12 foreign countries.  He staffs his clubs with foreign workers. He hires foreign workers at his hotels. He fills his cabinet with plutocrats and Ayn Rand acolytes who oppose the minimum wage. Should anyone be surprised that this shallow, sociopathic narcissist has one set of rules he wants to apply to himself and another that applies to "the Forgotten Man?"  How long before the suckers figure it out (if ever)?

Trump Again Hoisted On His Own Petard

(Photo:  Getty Images)

This is richly deserved karma (h/t Daily Kos):

The Trump campaign thinks it has found real campaign gold in the fact that Seddique Mateen, the father of Orlando mass murderer Omar Mateen, attended a Hillary Clinton rally and managed to be seated on stage behind Clinton. So clearly the Trump campaign carefully vets each and every person to appear on stage behind Donald Trump at his rallies, right? About that: Former Rep. Mark Foley—remember him? The one who resigned in disgrace in 2006 after his sexually explicit messages to teenage congressional pages surfaced?—was sitting right there behind Trump at an event where Trump was criticizing Clinton over Mateen.  (our emphasis)

That's disgraced former Rep. Foley in the red shirt sitting just to the right of the blue Trump/ Pence sign.

If you're going to practice guilt by association, we can all play that game.