Trump’s base is disproportionately composed of Christian nationalists–people who tell you they support him because he is a defender of (their version of) the Christian faith. The notion that Trump has ever encountered Christianity–or any faith tradition–is ludicrous, but then, so is the pretense that Christian nationalists represent any variety of authentic Christianity.
The other day, I was reading Heather Cox Richardson’s daily Letter, and after reading the following passages, I wanted to find a self-identified Christian nationalist (Micah Beckwith? Jim Banks?) and ask “Do you really think this is what Jesus would do?”
Here’s what Richardson wrote:
Yesterday the Trump administration said it would not use any of the approximately $6 billion the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) holds in reserve to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The government shutdown means that states have run out of funds to distribute to the more than 42 million Americans who rely on SNAP to put food on the table.
Roll Call’s Olivia M. Bridges notes that this position contradicts the shutdown plan the USDA released in late September. Then, it said: “Congressional intent is evident that SNAP’s operations should continue since the program has been provided with multi-year contingency funds that can be used for State Administrative Expenses to ensure that the State can also continue operations during a Federal Government shutdown. These multi-year contingency funds are also available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs in the middle of the fiscal year.”
Yesterday’s USDA memo also says that any states that tap their own resources to provide food benefits will not be reimbursed.
That last paragraph especially infuriated me, because it makes the fact that the cruelty is intentional too obvious to miss.
The Trump administration is not only withholding food from families and children. It clearly recognizes that–as food banks have been warning–nonprofit agencies will be unable to make up the deficit. This “let them eat cake” administration is well aware that a stoppage of SNAP means that millions of Americans (disproportionately children and the elderly) will not have enough to eat. And just in case some potentially “woke” Blue state government might be tempted to step in to ameliorate the situation, the administration is sneering that they’d better not expect reimbursements.
I guess those states will join the other “suckers and losers” who put themselves at risk to help their fellow Americans…
I’m not a Christian, but I cannot imagine this cruelty being consistent with the genuine teachings of Jesus. For that matter, I cannot conceive of any religion or religious tradition that teaches adherents that it’s fine to deny basic sustenance to millions of people in order to score political points. Or, for that matter, deny disaster relief to people who have the misfortune to live in Blue states, as the administration is also doing.
These and multiple other travesties are consistent with Trump’s war on “woke-ism”–and with MAGA’s belief that kindness, civility and concern for our fellow-Americans is evidence of a wimpy, “librul” unAmericanism.
At the No Kings rally I attended, a number of signs went beyond anger aimed at Trump and the incompetent clowns in his cabinet. Those signs were rebuttals to the utter inhumanity of this administration–the masked ICE goons, the effort to portray all immigrants as criminals, the constant, vicious assaults on concepts like equity and fair play.
When I was young, I could not have conceived of a President willing to portray himself as a King showering the citizens of his country with excrement–with shit. I could not have imagined a senile occupant of the Oval Office posting incoherent, misspelled diatribes on social media, or a President turning the Justice Department into a weapon of personal, petty vengeance. I absolutely would not have believed that a President of these United States would be willing to deny food to children in order to satisfy a political pique.
But this is where we are. Trump is the Jim Jones of a MAGA cult that is willing to shut the government down rather than restore the subsidies that make health insurance affordable to millions of Americans.
If these are the behaviors of a defender of Christianity, I’ll eat my hat.
I think what t*ump, MAGA, and his handlers are setting up is a pretext to declare an emergency so he can invoke the Insurrection Act. Stay with me here; so far, the No Kings rallies have been peaceful, joyous, kind of cute and adorable, then we all go back to Business As Usual and carry on with our lives. But when people are hungry, and cannot get food for their children, things will turn desperate, and in very little time the peaceful protests will turn into violent riots, and there will be the justification for the Insurrection Act.
The people in charge of t*ump, Russel Vought, Steve Miller, and the ones who obey them do not care about the American people, they only care about power.
My own little diatribe this morning. Stop playing defense and take back our language.
Liberal means generous. Illiberal means greedy.
Intellectual means using your brain. Anti-intellectual means brain dead.
Democratic means power to the people. Anti-democratic means power to the few.
Scientific means knowledgeable. Anti-scientific means ignorant.
Diversity provides strength.
Equity is justice.
Inclusion is kindness.
D.E.I. is good.
Feel free to add to the list.
Sharon Miller yes to all your points . I have a problem with people saying what would would Jesus do , we don’t know but we know what he did .
First off, neither Trump nor Johnson has ever stepped into a food stamp office. That much is clear. They apparently don’t know how to use the internet or AI, either. Approximately half of the participants are white. Based on my time there, most of the poor whites vote for MAGA, or against themselves, which always made me shake my head. And there is a significant portion that won’t register or won’t vote, which drives Vernon up the wall.
Then we move into the plus-65 crowd, and there are a lot of Republican voters in that crowd, or family members of older people who will be cut off.
As of this morning, I believe two judges have ruled to force Trump to fund the program, which should eliminate one of the reasons Johnson is keeping the government shut down. And poor Mike can’t keep his lies straight anymore. He brags about how “Republicans are working night and day to find a solution to the government shutdown.” However, his excuse for not swearing in the AZ Congresswoman is that there is no one in Washington right now because the government is shut down. LOL
Johnson has been ordered to keep the government shut down to protect Trump and other powerful and wealthy pedophiles. Epstein didn’t sell his services to everyday CHMOs. You can’t blackmail them for anything worthwhile. Jeffrey targeted the most affluent global elite and politicians because they had something to offer him and Israel.
I like to go on their pages and remind them that Jesus would be so proud of them. Because I’m petty like that.
We aren’t a country that follows the constitution. Judges like Boasberg are creating disdain as he impedes investigation with a ruling that protects himself and his illegal prosecutions. The political semantics are easily seen by Gen Z ers.
As the preceding President removed restrictions on Nigeria even though 60,000 Christians have been murdered in recent past -35 aday- by Muslims, the current President puts those restrictions back on. How does this look to the general public?
What was pointed out about the No Kings day? It was us, the older white hair liberal… no almost young people st at all.
Swing states are registering more against us? The Repubs are even making headway in Nevada Arizona and North Carolina!
Unless we appeal to the younger voters that are seeing through our politics, nothing will change.
Closing the govt in order to pay for illegals while we have a $38 trilliíon debt is not seen as wise.
More congressional seats are going to represent illegals now counted in tge census. The real king was Joe Biden that allowed 20 million illegals through an open border policy. Now dems are shutting diwn the govt to pay fir tge 17% of illegals on food stamps?
Sheila concludes: “ Trump is the Jim Jones of a MAGA cult that is willing to shut the government down rather than restore the subsidies that make health insurance affordable to millions of Americans.”
Channeling “Jim Jones” to aptly identify Trump’s enabling tyranny with the most base of human character is chilling. Note more recent reporting on the Nazi Pedophilia Apocalypse Cult that is more disturbing. It takes enormous emotional capital to read and understand the threat of normalizing these sordid networks enabled by powerful people. Hmmm. What secrets do starving children have that compels the power cult to silence them?
Sharon Miller, thanks for your list. It is time we stopped the repurposing of language that expresses reality, including traditional American culture. MAGA is an alternative dysfunctional culture. If they need to have their own secret language, so be it. We have ours. Let’s keep it.
John S. I don’t know which No Kings rally you attended but the one I was at included all ages from babies in strollers with their young parents to us old folks with our walkers. Most were in between those extremes. I have friends and family members much younger than myself who attended at different locations and all reported the same kind of age diversity that I observed.
There is NOTHING Christian about any of the MAGA crowd.!!
Jesus said “Even as you do unto the least of these, you do unto me”
Cruelty is by definition Un-Christian!
I had a political science prof who was an ex-Calvinist minister, converted to Marxism. His explanation of Calvinism was the following – we are all sinners condemned to Hell – we can’t do a think about it – god picks some “elect” who we know because they died rich and powerful (being rich and losing it is a fake-out). I took him to be a bit bitter about his former faith.
Extend this view of Calvinism with a “kick sinners when they are down” attitude, and “I’m one of the elect, so I can be king” and you have the MAGA “Christian” faith.
Sharon – thanks for the list – to add one more
by logic, anti-ANTIFA is pro FA, which is to say pro-Fascist
As John Fugelsang ( sp) on his podcast & Serious XM radio show clearly states, there are Christians and there are Christ followers. MAGA Christians/Christian “Nationalist” aka the American “Christian” Taliban) are not Christ followers. But the reaction to Bishops Buddes’ plea for trump to show mercy, which was loudly condemned by many so called republican “Christians” showed us that
The No King Day event I attended included all genders, ages and races. At one point I was surrounded by young men and women with clever (and some profane) signs. Young parents with kids in tow/in strollers were everywhere. A young guy with no shirt on and a snare drum led us all around the statehouse. If everyone who drove by, honking and waving flags and signs were counted over the 4 hours, the numbers would be in the thousands.
dump’s handlers are getting desperate, knowing that the names in the Epstein files will go far beyond politicians and royals. How many of those oligarchs, the big players who patronized Epstein’s businesses and parties, will see their names among the other pedophiles and rapists?
How many women are complicit in covering up or even enabling the obvious blackmail involved?
Greed and lust for power are all about control, entitlement and fear of the other.
RESIST.
Sharon, your experience at the No Kings rally matches mine. The number of young people was greater than that of us grey haired hippies.
John S., Where did you get your information regarding “illegals”? The only medical care that is available to undocumented immigrants is emergency room care. Emergency rooms are required to stabilize any patient who comes through their doors. Reimbursement for that care is from Medicaid.
Since the beginning of this country, people have come seeking refuge. They left their homes with their families, including very young children, and wa!ked over a thousand miles in hope of making a better life for their families. They’re not lazy, nor are they criminals. They usually end up working in back breaking, low wage jobs. Many of them eventually start small businesses. They contribute their tax dollars, including FICA. They pay into Social Security knowing they can’t collect from it. In fact, the trust fund would be closer to collapse if not for those ” illegals “.
As for Judge Boasberg, he signed a valid warrant to allow investigators to see who called whom in the weeks leading up to the attack on the Capital. Remember the tweet to the MAGA nation, ” Be there. Will be wild.”. They didn’t ask for the calls themselves, only call logs, which, in ordinary times, would be available from the White House.
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Thanks, to Sharon for such a positive way to assert against the un-American Maga movement overshadowing and oppressively and cruelly interfering in our American way of life. Shadow dockets, dark money and black hawks hovering ominously over US cities are unacceptable conditions to have to live under. Any way to bring to light, pull back the veil and expose the hate, greed and lust for power in Maga and trump regime is nuclear at this time.
It’s not a “political pique,” but a sniveling, personal temper tantrum dressed up as politics. Nothing he does is related to anything but himself. It really is that simple.
Sharon, how about “I am because we are.?”
But, Ted, no, we don’t know what he did, we know what he is said to have done.
As a Christian, and retired pastor, I ca assure you that throughout both the Old and New Testaments there are passages which make it ABUNDANTLY clear that we ALL, regardless of our faith tradition, are told to reach out to our fellow humans with help, love, and grace! The treatment being perpetrated by Trump and his “christian” pals is not only un-Christian, IT IS WRONG!!!