Mango Messiah’s Newest Grift, Selling Indulgences To His Inauguration

Trump’s latest grift makes perfect sense. It’s his perversity and hypocrisy combined with historical perversity and hypocrisy. The only wonder is that it didn’t happen sooner. But it’s happening now as Trump believes himself to be omniscient and who wouldn’t, in his shoes? Nothing he does matters. He can be adjudicated a rapist, found guilty of 34 felonies, hang out with human traffickers, it all just bounces off. What is kryptonite to the rest of us is mere pablum to Trump.

So his latest grift is that he’s charging $100,000 to donors who want to come and *pray* (prey?) with him before his inauguration. This puts in mind the indulgences of the 12th Century in the Catholic church. An indulgence was a certificate that you paid for and it shortened your time in purgatory. It was a good money making effort, although the hypocrisy was such that it became a basis for the Protestants to protest about and you remember what a kerfuffle that was. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has adopted the principle and he’ll make bank off of it. 

The day before his inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump will reportedly be attending an interfaith prayer service in Washington D.C. His wealthiest supporters can also attend — if they write or solicit a big enough check.

That’s according to a recent report in Religion News Service, which published promotional material from Trump’s inaugural committee showing a list of different tiers of “benefits” depending on how much a donor gives. On January 18, donors can get tickets to a “Make America Great Again Victory Rally,” a Cabinet reception and a dinner with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance.

And on January 19, donors who give $100,000 or raise $200,000 can get two tickets to the “One America, One Light Sunday Service.” RNS reporter Jack Jenkins described it as a “pay-to-pray” event.

Jenkins reported that the location of the service has yet to be announced and that it remains unclear who is hosting the “One America, One Light” prayer service. But Sean Feucht — a conservative Evangelical activist who has promoted Christian nationalism — is hosting an event dubbed “Revive in ’25” the day before Trump’s inauguration.

Feucht’s event is reportedly being hosted at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church on Capitol Hill. However, the Rev. William H. Gurnee, who is the pastor at St. Joseph’s, insisted that he hadn’t given Feucht permission to use his church.

“While I was asked to host the event, I informed the organizer that I needed more information and it was mistakenly reported that final permission was granted,” Gurnee told RNS. “It is my feeling that this event would be better hosted at another location.”

In a post to his X account last week, Feucht tweeted that his event would still be happening and that he wouldn’t “back down.” He added: “This is STILL happening. ‘Judah will go first’ on January 19.”

The phrase “let Judah go first” is meant to express the idea that praising God should be the first thing that people do — and in the MAGA cult, that’s how it’s done. And Trump is their God, hairplugs, diapers, girdle, shoe lifts and all. Beats the hell out of me, but then it always has.

So if you’ve got $100,000 just sitting around doing nothing and you want to go to church with Trump, here’s your *opportunity.* And is it any wonder that fewer people identify as “Christian” than in the past?

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