September 23, 2015

Donald Trump Once Again Shows That He’s Probably Never Cracked Open a Bible in His Life

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David Brody asks Donald Trump, “Who is God to you?…You’ve contemplated this before, or have you contemplated this?” Here’s his reply:

Here we are on the Pacific Ocean. How did I ever own this? I bought it fifteen years ago. I made one of the great deals they say ever. I have no more mortgage on it as I will certify and represent to you. And I was able to buy this and make a great deal. That’s what I want to do for the country. Make great deals. We have to, we have to bring it back….

Wait. A question about God produces a stock speech about what a great dealmaker Trump is? Yep. Then this:

….but God is the ultimate. I mean God created this [points to his golf course and nature surrounding it], and here’s the Pacific Ocean right behind us. So nobody, no thing, no there’s nothing like God.

“There’s nothing like God.” Okey doke. It sounds like Brody has his answer: Trump has not, in fact, ever contemplated the nature of God.

Brody defends Trump’s lack of a “biblically thorough answer” and says that Trump may well appeal anyway to the “I’m Sick and Tired” evangelical voter. That’s good to know. I had no idea that it was so easy to appeal to evangelical voters. Using the Trump metric, I think I could do pretty well myself. I guess all I have to do is denounce abortion and praise the Bible as the best book ever written. That sounds easy.

You know, to this day it remains part of conservative legend that a Washington Post article 20 years ago described evangelicals as “largely poor, uneducated and easily led.” It’s one of the seminal wellsprings of white Christian grievance culture. I don’t happen to know if evangelicals, on average, are poor and uneducated compared to the rest of us, but if Brody’s take on Trump is correct, it sure seems as though “easily led” was right on the mark.

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