Trump’s “News Show Where You Hear What Jesus Thinks” Channels God

Of all of the voting blocs that make up MAGA world none is more baffling than that of the Evangelical Christians — unless you refer to them as White Evangelicals and then it starts to make some kind of sense. If racial purity can be preserved at the cost of abrogating all morality, decency and common sense, then apparently that’s not too high a price to pay. And voila, in rides Donald Trump, on a show predicting the apocalypse, called “FlashPoint.” NBC News:

“FlashPoint” broadcasts three times a week on the Victory Channel television network and various streaming platforms: The world has entered its final years. Jesus will soon return. But Christians are not meant to wait idly while evil runs rampant; they are called to occupy positions of power and influence in society. And in the short term, that means putting Donald Trump back in the White House.

“I watch to get the truth,” said one “FlashPoint” attendee, [at a live taping] who described a “supernatural” rush of clarity the first time she found the show while flipping channels two years ago.

“This is the only news show where you hear what Jesus thinks,” said another attendee, a mother of three school-aged children who’d driven four hours from central North Carolina for the taping.

And then you come to learn that “what Jesus thinks” is that Donald Trump is the modern King David, anointed by God to save America. The *pastors* on the show follow the right-wing playbook of taking over the Seven Mountains of media, education, government, family, religion, entertainment and business, in order to wipe out democracy and create a theocratic state. In order to effect that unholy end they provide a melange of Christian worship, apocalyptic preaching and right-wing political commentary.

The show draws a monthly cable TV audience of roughly 11,000 households, according to Comscore data, while clips of the program reach hundreds of thousands more viewers online. With a rabid following, it has “become incredibly popular and even gravitational” on the Christian right, said Matthew Taylor, a senior scholar at the nonprofit Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Maryland. Trump is one of several prominent Republicans who have appeared as guests on “FlashPoint,” including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA.

You get the mentality of the show from the cast of characters. And it gets worse. Would you believe that FlashPoint has an army? And you will recognize the name of the satanic scumbag who is behind the Victory Channel. His identity will make perfect sense to you and this is all “non profit” friends.

To rally the show’s most loyal fans, known as the FlashPoint Army, the Fort Worth, Texas-based Victory Channel, a Christian network run by the nonprofit Kenneth Copeland Ministries, has hosted tapings across the nation as part of its Rescue America Tour. The live programs, even more than the regular broadcasts, take on the feel of a Christian revival service.

The episode filmed in Virginia Beach opened with brief remarks from each of the night’s panelists, who included Dutch Sheets, a self-described apostle who led a series of prayer rallies in the months after Trump’s 2020 election defeat in a bid to keep him in office.

“We are in a dark place in this nation, maybe as dark as it’s ever been,” Sheets told the “FlashPoint” audience last week. “But God is coming with the light of his glory, and he’s going to save this nation through his people.”

A moment later, a husband and wife duo stepped forward to lead the crowd and those watching at home in worship. With hands stretched upward, audience members sang, “There’s power in the mighty name of Jesus. Every war he wages he will win.”

Between songs, Bailey invited anyone suffering from physical ailments to approach the stage. The election was coming soon, the host said, and they weren’t going to be able to save the country if people were sick.

“America needs you for the long haul,” Bailey said, as dozens came forward, including a woman who said she’d been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Bailey, Sheets, Wallnau and the other panelists placed their hands on each person and, one by one, declared them healed in the name of Jesus.

Some audience members dropped to the floor in a euphoric rush that, in some charismatic Christian faith traditions, is described as being slain in the spirit. Others sat quietly in their chairs, tears streaming down their cheeks.

And these are the people who believe that Donald Trump has been chosen by God. It’s all here, Kenneth Copeland funding the broadcasts, Pat Robertson’s grand plan hatched in the 80’s to elect right-wing Christians to office, extremist House members, the Breitbart, OAN, Newsmax crowd, the whole enchilada.

Speaking to a reporter outside, Tom Jones, a military veteran from Virginia Beach, said he used to watch Fox News but started watching “FlashPoint” instead after someone at church told his wife about it three years ago. Jones, wearing a “FlashPoint Army” hat, said he likes that the program doesn’t shy away from applying “God’s truth” to current events.

“If you look at what our Constitution says and the rights that we have, they’re all based on the 10 Commandments,” Jones said. “And we’re losing it.”

And if you don’t have a copy of the Constitution or the 10 Commandments handy, wait — here’s a copy of the Trump Bible. And this next anecdote is sobering.

Terry and Barry Pawelek said they try to attend every “FlashPoint” live event. This was their seventh. The couple had driven 21 hours from Oklahoma to be there.

“They balance both Bible and news,” Barry Pawelek said of FlashPoint. “That’s the thing that we need to hear.”

“It’s encouraging,” Terry Pawelek said.

It’s also inspiring, she said. After hearing MyPillow founder Mike Lindell at another “FlashPoint” taping discuss his debunked theory about rigged voting machines corrupting the 2020 election, the Paweleks said they decided to become election precinct chairs in Caddo County, Oklahoma.

“‘FlashPoint’ encouraged us to make a difference,” Barry Pawelek said.

These people scare the hell out of me. They always have. Ever since I found out that Mike Pence was bankrolled by Erik Prince and his whacky sister, Betsy DeVos, and they all believed in a theocratic state, I have found these people alarming. Nothing is so sinister as evil performed in the name of good. That’s what all this boils down to and the poster child of evil is Donald Trump — portrayed as the ultimate good man, a man “chosen” by God.

The twisted, perverse thought process is frightening. And make no mistake, these people have been with us a long time and they will be with us a lot longer. Ted Cruz was their golden boy for a while and then when it became evident that he wasn’t going to get the Republican nomination in 2016, lo and behold, David Barton (the faux historian and conspiracy theorist) decided that James Dobson (RW broadcaster and Mike Pence’s idol) should announce to the world that Donald Trump was suddenly a born again Christian. And that’s where it all began, down in Texas in early 2016 and straight to Trump Tower. And here we are today, same madness, eight years later. Nothing has changed except to get worse.

Copeland and the rest of them know what a crook Trump is. They don’t care. He’s a useful idiot to them, a tool that they can use in their own grifting scheme. And Trump is fine with cutting them in on his grift. He’ll spin abortion, whatever they want, anyway that they want, if they can deliver him the votes. This is a marriage made in Hell.