Chris Lehmann writes:

There’s a new entry in the warm-up material at Trump rallies, sandwiched between the classic-rock anthems and the demagogic diatribes of various local political leaders. It’s a two-minute video that Trump posted to his Truth Social account just prior to the third anniversary of the January 6 insurrection. Called “God Made Trump,” the campaign spot is brazenly messianic in tone and substance alike, directly paraphrasing the “So God Made a Farmer” speech made famous by the conservative radio personality Paul Harvey. “On June 14, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker,’” a Harveyesque narrator, no doubt manipulated by AI, announces at the outset. “I need somebody with arms strong enough to wrestle the deep state and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild…. I need somebody who can shape an ax, but wield a sword”—here the video shows footage of Trump brandishing a scimitar among a group of Saudi leaders. The narration invokes the wonder-working powers of petroleum yet remains biblically tinged, with Trump as a figure “who can make money from the tar of the sand, turn liquid to gold.”

It goes on in this vein, as dire imagery and biblical paraphrases build toward a crescendo: “God had to have somebody willing to go into the den of vipers, call out the fake news for their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s. The poison of vipers is on their lips, and yet stopped. 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.” (Here a shot of a wolf baring its teeth briefly morphs into a photo of Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.) “A man who cares for the flock, a shepherd to mankind who won’t ever 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.” Here the background video shows Trump caressing a flag, and being prayed over by a circle of preachers during his 2020 presidential run.

Neatly distilling the central narratives of Trump’s 2024 campaign, while leaning heavily on well-established tropes from the politicized world of evangelical worship, the video delivers a central message: Trump and Trump alone is anointed as your country’s savior, and indeed your personal messiah. Placing Trump at ground zero in the battle for Christian control of the United States is an audacious move—he was, after all, the man who posted a holiday greeting to his Truth Social account inviting his rivals and critics to “rot in hell.” But as “God Made Trump” makes clear, a country besieged by malign and demonic forces can be redeemed only by unlikely and miraculous intervention from on high. God has chosen the person of Donald Trump to cast out all the many evil spirits holding the true America hostage. [Continue reading…]