One of the mysteries of Trump is how so many accept the notion he’s a religious man. A Christian. One worthy of the praise showered upon him by RWNJ faux Christian Evangelical preachers and influencers. Trump believes in Trump. Period. As far as he’s concerned God is a loser. It’s easy to imagine him saying last week “I like God’s who don’t let their sons get executed by crucifixion.” He’s as uncomfortable in an actual church as a serial rapist would be handcuffed and hobbled in a stadium filled with sexual assault victims wielding canes wrapped with coarse sandpaper. But he tries to pretend and reposted a photo of himself and Melania standing alone at an altar in a church. Let’s just say the reaction on social media hasn’t been kind…
The title picture is taken from a tweet which I’m unable to fully transfer here but the author who’s handle is Middle Age Riot captions it perfectly with the question “Has anything ever looked less holy than Donald and Melania Trump standing in a church?” Ouch. Yet looking at the two of them standing at the altar with empty pews behind them it’s a fair question. Any clear thinking person, including non-Christians would agree the two of them seem way the hell out of place! Luckily The Atlanta Black Star published the tweet as part of an article detailing the rather less than positive reaction Trump was looking for.
The linked article starts off noting how Trump has tried to craft an image of a lover of Christianity and a churchgoing dude. And, with the help of MAGA religious leaders marketed that image. Sure enough MAGAs as well as conservative leaning Independents swallowed the bullshit-bait hook, line and sinker. Like I said it astounds me how anyone could look at the life Trump has led and still lives AND his unapologetic nature (in an interview with some Fox host he said he didn’t have anything to tell God he was sorry about!) and think he’s a Christian. Trump only worships himself and demands others, especially his MAGA to forget about God and their Jeebus and worship him instead!
It’s easy to imagine Trump (and Melania too) being like a vampire waking up in their coffin in the church at sunset and having found someone had sealed the doors like Van Helsing in the Dracula novel sealed a tomb to trap them inside. Worried there was a rig that would splash them with holy water or a roof and windows that had been rigged to open up when the sun rose in the morning. Anyway there has been a lot of mocking directed at the Trump’s over this photo op flop:
Instead of quiet admiration, people began dissecting their body language as if trying to see straight into their souls. Two stiff figures, stone-faced in what should’ve been a holy moment, radiated anything but grace. Social media wasn’t forgiving. Some called it unsettling. Others said it looked like a tableau straight out of a horror film.
The renewed attention began after X user Middle Age Riot reposted the image showing the president and first lady standing before an altar at the Redemptor Hominis Church at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C., during a June 2020 visit.
I’ll get to the social media commentary in a minute but I have a couple of my own thoughts. First is upon a really close look I think it’s fair to ask if the two of them are actually standing there in the church? Granted, it’s been decades since I possessed way better than 20-20 vision but I swear it looks in a couple of spots like a bit of an outline from them being cropped/photoshopped into a picture of the church from behind the altar. Second, while Melania DOES look entirely out of place, just like her P.O.S (and literally stinky hubby) I swear there’s a tiny hint of smile – as in imagining she’s there looking at Trumpty in his casket before the lid is closed for the final time…
Okay, I freely admit I might be imagining things. I’m quite willing to go with what others mocking commentary which includes things like:
One commenter tried to make sense of the scene by writing, “In real life or a scary movie? Because that will change my answer. Maybe. Also, why are they standing like statues in an empty church staring at the cross? Someone should tell them that’s not how church works.”
Others responded more bluntly.
One viewer reacted to the image by saying, “Damn. The devil looks friendlier.”
Another quipped, “Hypocritical couple @realDonaldTrump @MELANIATRUMP pretending to be pious.”
Ah, but that’s not all folks! Since I don’t know how to embed full tweets that are picture only you’ll have to go to the link to see two tweeted responses, one of which shows Trump with flames dancing around him and one of him reposing in a casket:
One person responded to a manipulated version of the photo showing flames around Trump’s head by declaring, “Oh, she’ll burn too. She’s just as bad as trump.”
Another commenter joked about their presence in the church, “The holy water started boiling.”
Someone else quipped, “The only time Donny boy should be in a church.”
Basically, it’s been and will continue to be ‘fun fun fun till Elon takes the tweetbird away’ although he might not have this stuff deleted. I wouldn’t call it a complete falling out but the onetime major bromance between Elon and Donald soured long, long ago. I’ll bet Elon’s pissed that even though he lifted Trump’s twitter ban when he bought the platform and turned it into X/Xitter Trump continued with his own, far less popular and wildly MIS-named Truth Social. Elon needs Trump to come back and Trump won’t. That’s a whole different thing and I won’t get into it here.
One last thing about the linked article. Like Evangelicals, Catholics make up a significant voting bloc in this country. One large enough to sway elections and Trump got big chunk of it on the abortion issue. Abortion remains a hugely important issue for Catholics but especially with younger ones not the surefire dealmaker/breaker it has traditionally been. For all my criticism of the Catholic Church on this, their stance on gay marriage and their refusal to allow women to play a larger role (why shouldn’t women be allowed to be priests for example) but on one thing, a big one I’ll give them the respect they deserve.
The Catholic Church is out there in the world in places where hope and much needed help on many things from food to basic medicine is badly needed. Unlike Evangelicals the nuns and other missionaries are out there meeting crucial needs as best as they can and NOT making people sit through a Christian oriented service to get freaking sandwich or bag of flout to take home. More than any other denomination they practice what Jesus taught – to care for ‘the least of these.’ Conservative Republican’s (especially Trump’s) contempt for this basic Christian teaching of Jesus rubs them the wrong way.
Now, for the first time there’s a Pope who was born, raised and educated in the United States. Even more than his predecessor he’s taking Trump to task. And in the process challenging American Catholics to look at the whole picture instead of focusing on say abortion or gay marriage as the basis of their Catholicism. Let’s face it – Jesus never spoke about either in the gospels. Nor did any of his disciples in other chapters of the New Testament. What Pope Leo is doing is making Catholics in the U.S. take a hard look at their traditional political allegiance to the GOP. In a year where Trump and his Party are already facing strong headwinds this is more bad news for them.
So in summary The Atlanta Black Star has given us a “twofer.” Entertainment AND some significant political analysis. I heartily recommend going to the link and taking it all in. (Especially the tweets of Trump on fire and in a casket!)
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