By now, you know that Donald Trump’s claim that he was the victim of covert wiretapping at Trump Tower has been exposed as complete bollocks. In the space of 48 hours, the House and Senate Intelligence committees have joined the FBI in finding that there is no evidence that Trump was ever wiretapped.
That raises the question–what made Trump go off on his unhinged rant two Saturdays ago? Well, a hyperfundie pastor and former Trump campaign adviser says that he got wind of Obama’s supposedly “bad or sick” scheme from God himself. And apparently it was even worse than Trump himself let on–apparently the White House itself was bugged.
Much of Trump’s early fundie support came from elements of the New Apostolic Reformation, an overtly fascist offshoot of the religious right that seeks to bring about the Second Coming by taking over the world. Just before Trump’s inauguration, several of them joined forces to form “POTUS Shield,” an ad hoc team intended to cover the Trump administration in prayer. It’s a who’s who of self-proclaimed apostles and prophets.
Last weekend, POTUS Shield held a convocation in Canfield, Ohio; near Youngstown. It was hosted at Touch Heaven Ministries, pastored by POTUS Shield council member Frank Amedia, who served for a time as Trump’s Christian policy liasion. On the opening day, Amedia told the audience that as members, they would have access to inside information about how they were “storming heaven” on behalf of Trump. On a few occasions, Amedia shut off the live webcast because of information that was supposedly too sensitive to be made public.
However, there was one thing he did make public. He claimed to have inside information about Trump being bugged. On the convocation’s first day, Amedia claimed that he’d gotten wind of the wiretapping two weeks before Inauguration Day via a series of dreams he had over three nights. In the first, he saw a ghost putting pins in several objects around the White House. He asked God what it was, and God told him they were bugs.
In the second dream, Amedia said he tried to get a look at who was planting the bugs–only to discover that the person was faceless. God told him, “It’s a ghost”–an acronym for an intelligence agency. In the third, God told Amedia to tell Trump to sweep the White House three times. Supposedly, the first and second times wouldn’t turn up anything, but as a result of the third, “what’s in the darkness will come to light.” Amedia claimed that he was able to get this information to “the highest authorities in the land.” To hear him talk, the full story has yet to come out.
On the last day, Amedia told the audience that he and the POTUS Shield team alerted Vice President-elect Mike Pence when they learned about the bugging. A week after Inauguration Day, Amedia claimed that Trump himself was alerted to this, as well as the CIA.
So riddle us this, Frank. If this is true, why did you sit on it for so long? Why didn’t you alert the nation to this nefarious bugging? And why isn’t there any reference to this? After all, had this happened, nine times out of ten it would have almost certainly leaked out. Something this explosive doesn’t normally stay in the back channels.
Well, there’s an easy explanation. This fundie pastor got this story out of his fundament–the same place where Trump got his wiretapping story. I have to wonder–did Amedia have something that didn’t agree with him before he took the stage? After all, it’s very common for people to have dreams that they think are prophetic when they have foods that are too spicy for their systems to handle.
Strangely, this may have been only the second most unhinged moment at this gathering. We’ve already seen the first, when Lou Engle of Jesus Camp fame prayed for God to “sweep away” judges who support abortion rights. If not for that moment, Amedia’s spiel would have probably been the most unhinged moment by a city mile.
Watch here, via People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch.
(featured image courtesy Touch Heaven Ministries’ Facebook)
