It's difficult to overstate the role of magical thinking in the rise of Donald Trump, American president. My colleague Charles P. Pierce has traced the decline of reason in Republican politics back to the conservative movement's adoption, under Ronald Reagan, of supply-side economics as an article of faith. (At the time, George H.W. Bush derided this as "voodoo economics.") But there is clearly something of another level going on now, as the most devoutly heathen man ever to occupy the Oval Office—who's cheated relentlessly on every wife he's ever had, who's routinely demonstrated he is totally unfamiliar with Biblical teachings, and who has in fact shown outright disdain for believers—is clung to by the Evangelical right as The Second Coming.

What principles of Jesus Christ does Donald Trump embody? Or perhaps the better question would be which of the Seven Deadly Sins—pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth—does he not? The notion is absurd on its face that this president, who spent a lifetime racking up allegations that he ripped off small-business contractors and participated in multigenerational tax-fraud schemes and called up tabloid reporters under a false name to share details of his own sex life, is God's representative on earth. Unless, of course, you have determined he is God's representative based on the fact he's got an (R) next to his name and will nominate judges who will uphold abortion restrictions. Let's ask Rick Perry, the soon-to-be-former Energy Secretary and already former Star Who Was Danced With:

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Fox & Friends preview an interview with Rick Perry, where he says that Trump is "the chosen one" and "sent by God to do great things"



Pete Hegseth: "God has used imperfect people forever," but what Trump "has withstood is unlike what really any other mortal could understand" pic.twitter.com/ITDAErMJiN — Courtney Hagle (@CourtneyHagle) November 24, 2019

Your first thought, if you've been watching our politics with an eagle eye, might be that maybe Rick Perry should keep a low profile for a while, what with the revelation that he is ankle-deep in the Ukraine caper. Maybe he thinks this is the best way to stay above water.

Regardless, in this clip the ex-Texas governor treats us to a festival of the absurd, wherein he compared Trump to other imperfect instruments of God's will from the Bible. Like, say, King David, a major Old Testament figure who may or may not have really been King of Israel. ("Material evidence for his reign, while a matter of intense debate among scholars," Encyclopedia Britannica tell us, "is scant.") Apparently, Trump's election was part of God's Plan, which prompts the eternal question of when something is part of the Plan and when it's the result of God's decision to give humans free will, which seems to have been a questionable call in any case. If this is part of the Plan, you've got to ask how great this Plan really is. As George Carlin once put it:

Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed. Results like these do not belong on the résumé of a Supreme Being. This is the kind of shit you'd expect from an office temp with a bad attitude.

The "free will" explanation seems to be better reflected in the results all around us, but this is all secondary. According to journalist Jeff Sharlet, this routine is in line with the Christian nationalist ideology of The Family, a shadowy and powerful religious-political group that organizes the National Prayer Breakfast and believes the president is divinely chosen and therefore his behavior, whatever it is, has some divine backing. (The Family has embraced Trump, as depicted in the Netflix series based on Sharlet's books.) You might notice this is not a recipe for demanding moral behavior or outcomes.

Speaking of, when the camera cut back to the Fox & Friends, they got to stoking resentment over the president's treatment by the media, as if he's just a good man trying to do good work on the behalf of the American people but the media just won't let him! (Fox's Ed Henry added that Perry also granted Barack Obama was Chosen by God, which explains why all these same folks were so deferential to his judgment when he was in office.) Never mind that you don't need to look at his "background" to find some issues. Because the president has refused to properly divest from his business holdings while in office, his properties have become The New Swamp, where corporations and foreign actors are free to spend as much money as they want to curry favor with him and create a constant stream of conflicts-of-interest. It's the Great American Heist. Between 2012 and 2014, according to progressive advocacy group Public Citizen, political groups spent $69,000 at Trump properties. Since he announced his bid for president, they've spent $19 million.

It's not important to these folks that there is constant doubt whether the president is making decisions in the public interest or in the interests of someone who spent a bunch of money at his hotels. (Recently, Politico reported some groups will buy up massive blocks of rooms and leave many of them empty, as if to say outright that yes, this is a payoff.) It's justified because The Leader did it, and The Leader was chosen by God. You can see why this attitude towards the democratically elected leader of a constitutional republic might have some drawbacks.



This post has been updated.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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