During his most recent appearance on Sheila Zilinsky’s “Weekend Vigilante” podcast, self-proclaimed “firefighter prophet” and right-wing conspiracy theorist Mark Taylor claimed that the hurricanes that struck the United States last year were “a training run” to prepare “the army of God” to exercise control over the witchcraft that is attacking President Trump.

Taylor repeated his contention that Hurricanes Harvey and Irma were created by the Illuminati as part of an “all-out assault on man,” but that God’s army fought back in the spiritual world and prevented Irma from devastating Florida.

“They have declared war on the people,” he said. “Witchcraft is behind the deep state, it is behind the shadow government, they are in the highest form of witchcraft on earth. So it is witchcraft that is behind this.”

Taylor asserted that prior to Irma’s landfall, forecasters struggled to predict its path because the storm was constantly shifting due to the spiritual warfare that was being waged between the witchcraft behind the storm and the Christians who were praying against it.

“What I believe was happening in the spiritual realm, that people could not see was the witchcraft on one side and God’s people on the other,” he said. “And it was back and forth, back in forth, this battle in the heavenlies, if you will.”

“I’m proud of the army of God for standing up,” Taylor added. “Prayers from all over the nation, all over the world, were going out to this storm and they were speaking to this storm. That storm could have absolutely obliterated Florida—Florida would have just been decimated—but it did not, it did not do nowhere near the damage they were expecting. So I believe some of that was actually a training run exercising our authority against the elements … God is increasing our authority over the elements, over these things so we can’t be scared to stand up to some of this stuff, this witchcraft that is coming against the president, that is coming against America.”

“It is our time to rule and reign in the heavenly places,” Taylor proclaimed. “It is our time to take authority over these things.”