Donald Trump: Instrument of God

By Noah Rothman

Friday, January 05, 2024

 

Here’s a weird one to dwell on as we head into the weekend:

Through the magic of AI technology, the former president’s staff have adapted legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey’s famous monologue, “So God Made a Farmer,” replacing references to agriculturists as a class and replacing them with mentions of Trump.

 

If you’re disinclined to sit through the nearly three full minutes of blasphemy, you can peruse the transcript via Mediaite. But some of the highlights of the online video deserve closer attention.

 

 “God had to have somebody willing to go into the den of vipers,” said Harvey in this posthumously adulterated monologue. “Call out the fake news for their tongues as sharp as serpents. The poison of vipers is on their lips. And yet. Stop. So, God made Trump.”

 

“God said, I need somebody who will be strong and courageous, who will not be afraid or terrified of the wolves when they attack a man who cares for the flock,” the false narrator intoned. “A shepherd to mankind who will never leave nor forsake them. I need the most diligent worker to follow the path and remain strong in faith and know the belief of God and country.”

 

It continues along these lines, invoking Biblical language toward no higher goal than appropriating the righteousness of faith for the MAGA movement.

 

If you count yourself among the Republicans who object to the notion that the GOP has devolved into a personality cult to which all past and future principles must be subordinate, you should probably object when the center of that personality cult assigns a measure of divinity to himself. Sitting tacitly by while Trump anoints himself God’s instrument on Earth doesn’t exactly dispel the notion that the party has been hijacked.

 

Most Republican primary voters will probably dismiss this bizarre display as one of many, indicative of little more than Trump’s, let’s say, eccentricities. If, however, you’re more inclined to accuse those who object to this profane impiety of succumbing to “Trump Derangement Syndrome” or the like, you’re not doing much to dispel the charge that the GOP is organized entirely around hero worship.