Trump deletes social media post — but not memory — of him as Jesus

OPINION:

President Trump’s Truth Social posted an artificial intelligence image of him as a sort of Jesus to the people, dressed in a white robe and arrayed with a red cloth, a ball of light from one hand, a ray of light from the other, fingers pressed against the forehead of a man whom he was apparently healing. He was surrounded by winged creatures, the American flag, a praying woman, patriots and a nurse. The Statue of Liberty beckoned in the distance.

Too much. And he realized it was too much, because on the heels of wide criticism, he deleted the post.

But the memory lingers. It’s an offense. The idea of a president — any president at all — portraying himself as Jesus is a most distasteful image.

“I thought it was me as a doctor,” he said, when asked to comment at the White House.

That’s hard to believe. Doctors wear white lab coats, not robes draped in royal red.

So just in case any of Trump’s social media experts are planning on posting a similarly Jesus-like image of the president in the future, here’s a suggestion: Don’t. 

Just don’t.

Trump would do well to remember that the evangelicals who supported him during his campaigns — all three of them — and his presidencies, both past and present, did so with the understanding that he was not the most moral man around; not the most Christian politician out there; not the most spiritually compassed when it came to matters of the Bible — but that nonetheless, he was the right guy for the job at the time.

Why?

Democrats couldn’t get it. They still can’t. But really, it’s simple. 

Trump supports Israel. Trump battles antisemitism. Trump fights for religious liberty. Trump secures the border, and in so doing, keeps communities safer for citizens. Trump advocates for law and order — not the defunding of police and destruction of all that’s lawful and orderly. Trump reels in costly and burdensome regulatory controls, including those based on false climate data and fabricated environmental hysteria. Trump pushes back the globalists who’ve been trying to wreck America and exploit American resources for decades. Trump stands tough against the governments of the world that would love nothing more than to conquer America and dominate the Western Hemisphere. Trump attacks the uneven trade balances that have plagued the United States and harmed U.S. businesses and consumers, even when it means angering the likes of China, of Canada, of whomever. Trump calls out the harmfulness of the transgender movement, and backs that talk by using the Education Department to prohibit boys from girls’ dressing rooms in schools and by using Health and Human Services to cut federal research funding for hospitals that provide so-called “gender-affirming care.” Trump fights the good fight, regardless of resistance from the Democrats, regardless of spin from the media, regardless of condemnations and criticisms from the global bodies.

He’s a Make America Great Again force of nature.

And Democrats don’t get it. 

But evangelicals and Christians and those of faith have stood firmly in the camp of Trump because they saw the direction this country was headed, post-Barack Obama, post-Joe Biden, and they saw that it was America’s dying days that were coming on strong. Democrats, long the party of progressives, were openly embracing socialism and becoming quickly the party for communists, for Marxists, for collectivists — for secularists and atheists and those with open hostility to God.

Trump was a much-needed course correction for a country that was founded on God-given individual freedoms and rights.

“This Easter,” the White House wrote just a few days ago, “President Trump Reaffirms America as a Beacon for Christian Liberty.”

Quite right.

But no matter how great Trump is for America, he is still short of the perfection called Jesus Christ. He’s a man, not God. And any meme in which he seems to portray himself as more than a man — as almost Christlike in imagery — is a blasphemy to God and a dark stain on the White House. Christians didn’t like it when Biden raised the rainbow flag on the White House because it was a blasphemy against God and God’s creation — the rainbow. Christians didn’t like it when Obama spoke of “Easter worshippers” on Easter, and meanwhile, for eight years, seemed to lift up Islam while dismissing Judeo-Christian principles and beliefs.

And then: “Trump’s meme depicting himself as Jesus Christ draws backlash from allies,” Fox News wrote in a headline.

As it should.

And now: “Trump deletes Truth Social image depicting him as Jesus,” CNBC wrote.

As he should.

Trump was elected president. He is not God. Evangelicals are not confused about who’s the higher authority here. Neither should be the White House.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.