SEPTEMBER 29, 2020 BY MICHAEL STONE
“They’re All Hustlers”: Trump mocks Christians for being superstitious and ignorant, but admires the Christian leaders who con the gullible rubes.
According to a new report from The Atlantic, Trump often demonstrates contempt for Christians behind closed doors, mocking their rituals and silly superstition, while admiring the Christian leaders who are able to take advantage of and profit from their flock.
From The Atlantic:
Trump Secretly Mocks His Christian Supporters
Former aides say that in private, the president has spoken with cynicism and contempt about believers.
…
In speeches and interviews, Trump routinely lavishes praise on conservative Christians, casting himself as their champion…. But in private, many of Trump’s comments about religion are marked by cynicism and contempt, according to people who have worked for him. Former aides told me they’ve heard Trump ridicule conservative religious leaders, dismiss various faith groups with cartoonish stereotypes, and deride certain rites and doctrines held sacred by many of the Americans who constitute his base.
As for Trump’s admiration for the ability of Christian leaders to hustle their congregations, MSNBC notes:
… the president has felt a certain kinship with prosperity preachers — who often tell their followers to make donations they can’t afford, confident that they’ll receive divine rewards in exchange…
In other words, Trump saw these preachers as con artists, and if the reporting is correct, he recognized their skills as familiar because of his own expertise in the area.
More from The Atlantic:
Trump was brandishing a printout of an article about an Atlanta-based megachurch pastor trying to raise $60 million from his flock to buy a private jet. Trump knew the preacher personally—Creflo Dollar had been among a group of evangelical figures who visited him in 2011 while he was first exploring a presidential bid. During the meeting, Trump had reverently bowed his head in prayer while the pastors laid hands on him. Now he was gleefully reciting the impious details of Dollar’s quest for a Gulfstream G650.
Trump seemed delighted by the “scam,” Cohen recalled to me, and eager to highlight that the pastor was “full of shit.”
“They’re all hustlers,” Trump said.
“They’re all hustlers.”
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Bottom line: According to a new report, Trump mocks Christians for being superstitious and ignorant, but admires the Christian leaders who con the gullible rubes.
