Donald Trump’s approval ratings have recovered slightly from the depths of mid-May. But they still aren’t very good. According to FiveThirtyEight, his average approval rating is 39 percent–which is still very much in code-calling territory for any politician.
The only reason it’s even that high is because of the religious right. At last count, even in the face of the nearly daily outrages coming out of this White House–including the furor related to the firing of James Comey–well over 70 percent of white evangelicals still approve of Trump’s job performance. It’s because what passes for leadership on the religious right has their followers convinced that the opposition to Trump is being driven by witchcraft and the devil himself. To hear them talk, anyone who dares oppose Trump not only opposes God’s plan for America, but puts themselves at risk for being smacked down by God himself, and also risks bringing a curse on their families.
But it looks like that the religious right is running out of alternative facts. One of Trump’s loudest fundie cheerleaders offered a, shall we say, novel explanation for Trump’s staggeringly ignorant behavior in office. Apparently we shouldn’t be cringing whenever Trump fires off an ill-informed tweet because–wait for it–that behavior is a sign God’s using him.
Lance Wallnau was one of the first prominent religious right leaders to jump on the Trump bandwagon after concluding that the Donald had a “mantle” to win in a way that would give Christians undreamed-of influence in America’s culture. Since Trump took office, he’s been spending a lot of time warning people against raising their voices against Trump. He’s tried–and failed–to give us a lot of explanations why we should bow down to the Donald. Supposedly, the media is using witchcraft to turn people against Trump, and those who oppose him are actually opposing God. Indeed, he even went as far as to warn us that God would not allow any attempt to “sabotage” the Donald by removing him from office.
But these anecdotes were a model of sanity compared to what happened last week, when Wallnau was one of the featured guests on a seven-day cruise along the western Caribbean sponsored by Elijah List, a newsletter geared toward followers of the New Apostolic Reformation. Wallnau is one of the leading minds in this movement, which is an overtly fascist offshoot of the religious right that believes it can bring about the Second Coming by taking over the world.
During the cruise, Wallnau gave a talk in which he tried to explain why we shouldn’t be concerned that Trump seems to be out of his depth on global issues–ignorance that often manifests on Twitter. People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch got a clip.
While most of the reality-based world cringes whenever Trump fires off a tweet, Wallnau doesn’t think we should worry about his “erratic Twitter twitch.” After all, it’s “in the hand of the Lord.” Uh huh. So when Trump tweeted about “covfefe,” God was speaking through him?
Wallnau then recalled how Trump famously vowed that he would solve the North Korea problem with or without China’s help.
North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2017
To hear Wallnau talk, that tweet caused a lot of heads to explode in Beijing. It also supposedly prompted Chinese President Xi Jinping to come to Washington “to try to just get a handle on him, because he’s tweeting these crazy tweets.” Just as Trump and Xi started their talks at Mar-a-Lago, Trump ordered a missile strike in Syria. To Wallnau’s mind, the fact Xi was already there when the strike occurred was “the hand of the Lord”–and a warning that China should do more to rein in North Korea.
While the rest of the world cringes at Trump’s staggering ignorance of global issues, Wallnau thought we should applaud. After all, Trump supposedly has the anointing of God on him–and “when you’re anointed, you can get away with a lot of things.” For instance, when word got out that Xi had to hold Trump by the hand while explaining the Beijing-Pyongyang relationship, most of the world cringed. But Wallnau thought differently. He believed that unlike other politicians who think “they know more than you do,” Trump gave Xi “the space to teach him something.”
As a result, Xi realized that he now had some influence with Trump, and decided, “I don’t want to screw this relationship.” To hear Wallnau talk, Xi had something that his predecessor, Hu Jintao, could only dream of having–“a connection with the president of the United States.” As a result, Xi supposedly believes that he will actually have to work with Trump. In contrast, Hu had to “play chess” with George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Only in the world of alternative facts can something like this be possible. But if Wallnau is trying to put a positive spin on Trump being at sea on global issues, it’s a sign that the religious right is running out of straws to grab.
(featured image courtesy Wallnau’s Facebook)
