Trump’s Strange God Talk Has People Concerned

The people are worried about the president.

In a Saturday evening address, where he confirmed the U.S. had struck three Iranian nuclear facilities, it was President Donald Trump’s repeated mention of “God” that stood out to several of his critics.

Many on the left were quick to point out how insincere Trump sounded, particularly given Trump’s own relationship with religion. During his first term, a Pew Research Center survey found that most Americans didn’t see Trump as particularly religious, with only 7 percent of American adults viewing him as “very religious.”

Critics included Democrat Gen Z streamer Dean Withers, who tweeted, “No Trump, God Doesn’t Want Another War in the Middle East you Delusional F--k. Resign.” Another user highlighted the fact that Trump mentioned Israel before he mentioned the U.S., tweeting, “Trump ended his press conference saying God bless Israel before he even said God bless America. That should tell you everything you need to know.”

Others posted reaction images to Trump’s message from God’s perspective, including a GIF of Denzel Washington slamming a door in someone’s face and an image of a woman throwing her hands up in defeat.

Several users compared Trump to the anti-Christ, while others argued that his comments sounded as dry and devoid of meaning as a generic yearbook signature. One X user wrote, “This must be the most forced and uncomfortable ‘Thank you, God’ ever spoken in world history.”

One user felt Trump’s mention of God was significantly more sinister, tweeting, “This man started a new war and is already invoking religion to manipulate his base into it. This man is a insane sociopath.”

Trump could be looking to the early 2000s for inspiration, when President George W. Bush claimed that he was on a mission from God when he invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.

In 2003, Bush reportedly told a Palestinian delegation at an Israeli-Palestinian summit held in Egypt, “I am driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, ‘George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan.’ And I did. And then God would tell me ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq.’ And I did.”

He continued, “And now, again, I feel God’s words coming to me, ‘Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.’ And, by God, I’m gonna do it.”

Trump’s relationship with religion has been complicated. He was brought up by a Presbyterian mother and the family often attended services conducted by the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote The Power of Positive Thinking, at Manhattan’s Marble Collegiate Church, which is in the Reformed Church. After attending a Catholic college—Fordham University in the Bronx, New York—for two years, he transferred to the secular U. Penn.

In his first presidency he declared he was now a non-denominational Christian and in both presidencies he has rarely attended church in any form, including most recently on Easter Sunday, when he golfed. Images of him holding a Bible upside down after dispersing a peaceful crowd outside the White House were widely mocked. His third wife Melania has described herself as Catholic but not been seen attending a Catholic church. However Trump has relentlessly pursued evangelical voters, inviting evangelical pastors to the White House to lay hands on him, and using the language of that version of Christianity.