The Believers

"We must make America pray again," says Donald J. Trump, now a Bible salesman. The Trump Bibles are available only online for $59.99.

Gadzooks! Can you believe America's most celebrated grifter has now taken to hawking Bibles via a video commercial? It's reminiscent of those old Ron Popeil TV ads for an array of gadgets. 

That said, maybe soon Trump should try marketing a golden vegetable slicer called the "Trump-o-Matic."    

Speaking of "believing," for many of Trump's dupes believing his showboating patter pulled them steadily toward thinking that he imbues his followers with the permission they need to turn their backs on reality and reason. Released from those bonds, Trump wants them to see that power creates a malleable truth that can be shaped to be what they most enjoy believing. 

For instance: They can believe that in 2017 in Charlottesville there were "good people on both sides." Overall, they can even believe in "alternate facts."  

Some of the craziest among Trump's faithful legions have taken the golden leap to "believe" that He is the Second Coming. Which, I suppose, gives the new Jesus permission to mock a handicapped journalist. And, it's fine for Him to heap bogus praise on the January 6th jailbirds that He affectionately calls, "hostages." 

Hey, once a fully fledged cult member views Trump as a deity, it's a snap to see all of Trump's pesky legal problems as having been invented out of thin air by His woke, prevaricating, election-stealing political opponents. 

Now, Trump -- the New Savior -- seems to have chosen to project an updated, election year image for Himself. An image that's an unprecedented a mashup of convicted televangelist Jim Bakker and executed dictator Benito Mussolini. 

Then again, putting Trump's newfound religiosity aside, a good many of His most loyal MAGA cultists still couldn't care less about the Second Coming. That goes for the First Coming, too. 

Instead, they appear to be delighted with the prospect of having an unabashed fascist, a new Mussolini, to rule the nation. And, I think they see Christians mostly as useful. But I don't really have much of an idea what sort of precepts are motivating that fascist faction. Who the hell knows what they actually believe? 

Are you praying, yet?

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