The former president is still feeding the Christian right’s persecution complex
In recent campaign stops and on social media, Donald Trump has reprised lies aimed at inciting his Christian-right base against Joe Biden. These tirades, centered on the false charge that the Biden administration is persecuting Christians, aren’t just Trump’s typically dubious claims. Much like Trump’s lies about a stolen election, they are designed to immerse his loyalists in a grievance-laden alternative reality in which Trump alone can rescue them from an evil government threatening their freedom.
In a Dec. 19 speech in Iowa, for example, Trump pledged, “As soon as I get back in the Oval Office, I’ll also immediately end the war on Christians. I don’t know if you feel it. You have a war. There’s a war.” Speaking just after the Colorado Supreme Court disqualified him from appearing on the state’s GOP primary ballot, Trump tied this “war” to his own legal woes. “Under crooked Joe Biden, Christians and Americans of faith are being persecuted and government has been weaponized against religion like never before. And also presidents like never before,” he added. “I always say Al Capone was treated better than I was treated.”
Trump has promoted the theme of Christian persecution in the past, but is elevating it again as these legal issues mount. His clear purpose is to deflect attention from his own criminal liabilities by insinuating that the same Biden administration he falsely claims is unfairly targeting him for prosecution is similarly persecuting religious Americans.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion
Doesn’t say anything about the President. Ha! Checkmate! /s
But congress makes laws not the president.
‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said: ‘No, no, no, other than day one.’
Oh, right.
“I always say Al Capone was treated better than I was treated.”
Sounds fair to me, Al Capone was just a gangster, this fuckhead is trying to start the fourth reich
fuckheadis trying to start thefourthreichAdolf Shitler is trying to start the Turd Reich.
So basically his campaign promise is to violate the constitution, his strategy to get into office is to tell lies designed to divide Americans and it looks like the MAGAs are thirsty AF for it
Don’t forget that he’s on record as saying he would be a dictator for a day the first day of his presidency, then things would go back to a democracy the following day…
He was not joking. And even if he was, that is not a thing a president of the US, former, sitting, or potential, should ever, ever, joke about.
But he wasn’t joking. Anyone saying that is gaslighting you.
The only thing he was joking about was the only for one day part.
He was also on record saying Mexico would pay for a wall. The dude is a huge liar. He’s an incapable man.
This could still happen. If he got back in again and I was Mexico I would be building that wall quick smart.
Fair point!
So basically he wants an American version of the Iranian “Morality Police” torturing and killing people for not adhering to their archaic dogma.
And they thought “Y’all Quaeda” was a joke…
Never did. It’s just astounding all the republiQan women are like, “oh yeah of course absolutely” and then actually fucking do it.
They’ve already got the Supreme Court on board.
Well given that two of those judges are men who feel they have the right to sexually abuse women, one is provably as corrupt as can be and one’s a fucking HANDMAID, that’s hardly a shock… 😮💨
It’s kinda interesting in a morbid sorta way for me. In a Christian theocracy the prots win. They outnumber the Catholics. Historically the groups that most suffer under theocracy are the ones that are most similar. You are better off being a Hindu in a Christian country vs the wrong kind of Christian.
So what happens the day after the Jerry Falwell types take over and their temporary anti-abortion alliance crumbles?
Ramping up his authoritarian rhetoric, Trump pledged in the lowa speech to institutionalize an authoritarian crackdown of the same sort he falsely accuses the Biden administration of implementing. “Upon taking office, I will create a new federal task force on fighting anti-Christian bias to be led by a fully reformed Department of Justice that’s fair and equitable," he promised. «Its mission will be to investigate all forms of illegal discrimination, harassment and persecution against Christians in America."
This is the quote from the article about the task force.
I don’t think people understand what’s going to happen if he gets elected again. He’s talking about re-purposing the Department of Justice into some McCarthy-esque nightmare that will be targeting schools (including universities). If it is not clear what the GOP’s intention is here, you have not been paying attention. Read about Project 2025. This shit is terrifying.
I hope everyone likes what’s going on with public education in Florida, because it’s going to become a nationwide thing.
Everybody needs to vote. We know it’s not your first choice, but this election is about keeping our Republic from falling apart. Vote for Biden, and then we can focus on finding a young progressive candidate for next time.
Yeah it’s going to get worse for a lot of people quickly if Trump gets in office. It was bad enough the first time. That should be painfully obvious to anyone who wasn’t living under a rock during the last Trump presidency. He will make life worse for many groups. Non-Christians, LGBTQ+, POC, those with health issues, etc.
Yeah if he gets into office I’m fleeing the country while I still can
Or, here’s an idea
You could start doing something about it
I’m currently reading ‘The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism’ and it’s about exactly this.
The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism https://a.co/d/bBZ3hkA
In a Dec. 19 speech in Iowa, for example, Trump pledged, “As soon as I get back in the Oval Office, I’ll also immediately end the war on Christians. I don’t know if you feel it. You have a war. There’s a war.”
LMAO imagine saying this shit.
Right? How oppressed are you if there is a building dedicated to your religion on every street?
I can’t. It’s literally demented. His blabbering is so fucking off the rails it may as well be Martian for all it matters. Just angry chirps and barks and squeaks with the little accordion hands going back and forth. Fucking insanity.
He’s going to defeat Satan!!! YAY!!!
/s
The Starbucks cups will never be woke again!!
I’m sixty. I hope I live long enough to piss on his grave
That’s illegal. However you can take a massive fucking shit on it.
I always say Al Capone was treated better than I was treated.
How can anyone take him seriously. He’s talking like he got crucified or something. Let’s all cry for a baby Trump who lost an election, then a coup attempt, and is still in the top 1% with all his loyal sponsors he syphons money from. How many lawyers he changed over just the last year? How an average american can even find this spoiled kid relateable?
Not to mention the audacity to claim to be a Christian compared to Catholic ass Joe Biden and his dumbass followers believe him.
Grandiose Victimization. A sign of NPD.
How can what now? I think we all collectively really need to stop questioning how anyone follows this man. Instead, we need to begin accepting reality completely and work towards making sure that whatever following he has, they do not gain more authority.
Oh FFS … when will this chuckle fuck just fade into infamy?
He’s probably less religious than I am and I’m an atheist.
Maybe if we’re lucky he’ll get syphilis and die in prison like Capone did.
So a morality police? Like they have in say, Iran…? I can’t wait to see the mental gymnastics the Christofascist fundamentalists do to diferenciate themsleves from the Islamofascist fundamentalists… 🙄🤦♀️
It’ll be exactly the same as when they were convinced that “Sharia Law” was coming to destroy the country, while also fighting to impose Christian Law and destroy the country themselves. It’s always ok when they’re doing it, because they’re “right”.
Them talking about Muslims wanting to institute Sharia law in the U.S. was just projection like it always is.
They (the GOP) want to institute biblical law so of course they think everyone else has the same motivation.
It is incredibly frustrating that Christians see this man as a good person, basically the antithesis of everything they supposedly believe. Three wives? Cheating on your pregnant wife with a prostitute? Doesn’t go to church.
I hope the Lincoln Project or whatever it was saved some good stuff for this election.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities” seems to be a piece of timeless historical wisdom by Voltaire that unfortunately just never seems to fall out of relevancy when it comes to pointed criticism of the Christian church specifically, and religion more broadly.
Don’t forget that he publicly told an interviewer that he had never sinned, nor asked for forgiveness because he “didn’t need it”,
This coming from the guy who a) never goes to church; b) publicly held a Bible upside down for a PR image; c) only believes in himself.
Nononono, he said two Corinthians is his favorite book. He knows all about Bible and such. And then he liberated that episcopal church by tear gassing a bunch of people who were viciously standing near the lawn, just like Jesus would do.
The stuff this man gets away with is really unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I remember he said something about he could shoot someone in board daylight and people would cheer. I originally thought he was joking, but boy if I only knew back then.
I believed him from day zero.
The Christian religion is garbage and we never should have let those fucking people on our shores.
If we ever have a mars colony we should have a hallway where you have to step on the religious symbols of all known faiths before getting on the ship. The Japanese had it right. Oh you want to come to our Islands? Walk on a crucifix. They managed to escape being controlled by a European power while nearly every other country around them fell.
Ok… There’s a whole lot of fuckedupedness in Trump’s statement, and in this comment section…
The “war” he’s suggesting does in fact exist, it’s a real thing, but the intended targets are Christian by happenstance… The persecution involved isn’t persecution of a group being identified as Christian, it’s persecution of a group identified as what is probably best described as “trumps circle”.
He’s projecting persecution of himself, and his close associates, to a religion that isn’t the actual target at all…
It’s a complete head fake… A sham… And everyone’s addressing it as though they already accept that it’s an actual fucking thing, on both sides… Y’all are commenting on this as though Christianity is actually relevant… It’s not… The blue team isn’t persecuting Christianity, they’re persecuting trumps crew, who just happen to be Christians…
C’mon guys… Don’t buy this fat fucks bullshit… There’s enough people that’ll do that on purpose already ;)
Prosecuting, not persecuting
Christians have been crying about their persecution fetish for centuries, he didn’t just make it up out of the blue. He’s conflating that with the “” ““injustice”” “” that has been inflicted on himself personally in order to rile up the fundamentalist Christian base, who are an overwhelming percentage of his supporters.
As someone born and raised in the church, lemme tell you there’s a LOT of Christians who will absolutely see this, nod and say “yes of course Trump is saving us from the evil war on Christianity”. There’s a frightening amount of churches out there who do preach that Christianity is persecuted worldwide and we’re constantly under attack, but our time to strike back is JUST around the corner. He might be projecting, but between this and his weird messiah-complex video from last week, his campaign knows exactly who their target is, and the worst part is that there’s more of them than you’d think or want to believe.
