Donald Trump, fresh from his “acquittal” in a phony trial, went on quite a celebratory rampage late last week, desecrating three venerable institutions: the Presidential Medal of Freedom (he awarded it to career bigot-misogynist-demagogue Rush Limbaugh); the U.S. military (he ousted patriot-hero Alexander Vindman from the White House national security team and tweet-mocked Vindman’s lieutenant colonel ranking); and lastly, and most pathetically, he weaponized the National Prayer Breakfast.
It’s Sunday as I write this – the ideal occasion for recapping what happened when Trump showed up at the nonpartisan event a few days ago. The Washington breakfast has been a tradition since 1953; religious leaders and politicians from both parties show up to break bread and invoke a higher power in order to (however temporarily) bridge their differences. The operative vibe was established by Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “Love you enemies, bless those that curse you, do good to them that hate you.”
But, of course, that’s not how Trump rolls.
His self-involved, grievance-infested performance was so repugnant that Cal Thomas, the conservative commentator who has hosted the breakfast for the last 30 years, felt compelled to write: “Perhaps it is time to suspend the annual event, or hold it without this president attending if he can’t accept the nonpartisan theme that has been its tradition for nearly seven decades.”
Love-thy-enemy isn’t Trump’s thing. He waved an acquittal headline from USA Today and launched into a vengeance-is-mind riff about the “very dishonest and corrupt people” who’d had the temerity to hold him accountable for his impeachable acts. He continued, “They know what they are doing is wrong, but they put themselves far ahead of our great country.” And, naturally, there was no forgiveness for Mitt Romney, whose religious faith had compelled him to listen to his conscience and vote for Trump’s removal; according to our monarchist moral arbiter, “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong.”
As if anyone, including Cal Thomas, should have been surprised by that narcissistic outburst. Michael Gerson, the conservative commentator who writes frequently about religion – and who has been wise to Trump since day one – nails it best: “Trump turned (the breakfast) into a performative platform ti express his rage and pride – the negation of a Christian ethic.”
But Trump’s pillaging of religion for partisan ends is a very old story, and shame on the white evangelicals who still don’t care that he signed a hush money check to the porn star with whom he canoodled while wife number three was home with his newborn boy. Just two months ago (lest we forget what happened 10,000 news cycles ago), an editorial in Christianity Today blasted Trump for his phony Christianity, and, as I pointed out, a prominent Baptist official warned his Christian brethren way back in the spring of 2016 that candidate Trump was a sinkhole of “moral sewage.”
Nevertheless, if Trump’s behavior at the breakfast helps to alienate at least a few faith-based followers, that would be progress.
Maybe they’ll heed the Rev. Tom Lambrecht, who runs the United Methodist magazine Good News. He told the Associated Press, “A bipartisan prayer breakfast is the last place one would expect to find political attacks on opponents. Our country would benefit from a return to the kind of civility and grace reflected in Jesus’ words.” Or maybe they’ll heed Robert Franklin, a moral theology professor at Emory University, who told the AP that Trump “would be well served to spend quality time with his pastor studying what Jesus did when He was persecuted.”
Yeah, he’ll do that as soon as he’s done toting up his enemies list.
Trump at the prayer breakfast “again displayed (his) remarkable ability to corrupt, distort and discredit every institution he touches,” writes Michael Gerson. That’s the bottom line, because, as he rightly points out, “we are reaching a very dangerous moment in our national life…This is what happens when a sociopath gets away with something. He or she is not sobered, but emboldened.”
And certainly no godly ritual is going to stop him. Only an electorate that’s not benumbed, and a Democratic party that’s not fractured from within, can thwart his amoral autocracy.
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Speaking of Democratic fracturing, this is what I mean:
Pete Buttigieg appeared on stage last night at an event in New Hampshire. He has been surging lately, threatening Bernie Sander’s claim to first place in the New Hampshire polls. So you can guess what happened when he took the stage:
The Bernie Bros in attendance booed him. And tried to drown him out.
For the Trump ’20 campaign, they’re the gift that keeps on giving. Who needs the Russians when you’ve got the Bernie Bros?