A horde of “ministers” gathered recently to bless a 22-foot golden statue of President Donald J. Trump.
This bowing down to a modern-day “Golden Calf” comes on the heels of Trump posting on social media an image of himself as Jesus healing a sick man, with military aircraft and two bald eagles flying overhead. And if that wasn’t enough, “Messiah” Trump is surrounded by an American flag, the Statue of Liberty, and a gaggle of all-white worshippers.
Cries of religious blasphemy coming from liberals and even some conservatives following those two episodes have fallen on deaf ears. And why should we have expected any different? Before these most recent examples of the deification of the 34-time convicted felon, who is mentioned in the Epstein Files (often with damning allegations of pedophilia) more than Jesus is mentioned in the Bible, MAGA let us know in no uncertain terms that they believe Trump is the “Second Coming.”
The ‘Orange Messiah’
Countless evangelical supporters frequently called Trump a “modern-day Cyrus,” referencing the Persian king who allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem, interpreting it as God using an imperfect, pagan leader for a divine purpose. But there are growing numbers who are literally declaring Trump “God in the flesh.”
Excuse me; I just threw up a little in my mouth.
And just like the so-called modern-day resurgence of racism, this deification of The Donald is bigger than Trump. Way bigger.
War on whiteness?
One of MAGA pundits’ most consistent claims is that there’s a war on whiteness, and as an extension, a war on “Christianity.” First, a war on Christianity makes no sense, especially when considering the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans self-identify as Christians. Second, Blackfolk are shocked and dumbfounded by the “war on whiteness” assertion, because both historical and contemporary reality show that America has been a 250-year (400 if you count the years before America became an official nation) non-stop, unashamed, in-your-face display of affirmative action for white people.
I’m talking about manifest destiny as an excuse to exterminate whole populations and steal their land. Taking land from Mexico by force, then portraying it in “history” books as courageous whites defending themselves from savage Mexican outlaws. The genocide of Indigenous populations. The placement of Japanese U.S. citizens in concentration camps, and then stealing their homes, bank accounts, and businesses. The 400-plus years of white domestic terrorism unleashed upon Blackfolk in any and every way imaginable. And the assaults continue into 2026.
Yet, MAGA swears there’s a war on whitefolk, and by extension, Christianity. Ignoring the lunacy of their position for a second, how can they conflate whiteness with Christianity, as if they’re the same thing?
Whiteness is their religion
Because, as author, professor, and legal expert scholar Dante D. King documents in his latest book, The Psychopathy of Whiteness, Christianity is not the faith system that most white Christians (evangelicals, Southern Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, etc.) practice, preach, and propagate. Their real faith system, their real religion, their real Christ/Messiah is whiteness itself.
How else can you justify the KKK being grounded in the white Christian church? How else can you explain the vast majority of white faith leaders siding with slavery, then Jim Crow, then mass incarceration, then police brutality adherents, then voter suppression efforts, etc.? How else can you explain away white “ministers” paternalistically berating Black congregations as being “disobedient” and “evil” for doing their best to “preach good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, and liberation to those in chains”—the things Jesus literally spelled out as his foundational mission (Luke 4:18)?
King basically defines “whiteness” as a faith system (a religion unto itself), identity structure, and power mechanism that requires Black suffering to sustain its own moral self-image and value. In other words, their religion is pro-whiteness that requires anti-Blackness for its justification.
And when you look at white (and white-identifying) “Christians” who replace their Christ with Trump as their “Lord and savior,” it makes perfect sense. The obsession with inflicting pain upon Blackfolk lines up. The constant, obsessive need to monitor, berate, and denigrate us, while simultaneously devouring our creativity, art, intellect, etc., like the vampire in Sinners, makes sense.
The elevation of their faith (and thus, their congregants) requires that they step on, kill, and bury everything about us, for them to have life and have it more abundantly.
It all makes (non)sense
From this perspective, Trump is Jesus, healing his people who have for too long endured the pain of Black people falsely treated as human beings.
From this perspective, an image of Trump healing the sick should only be the beginning of a tsunami of images created celebrating Trump’s divinity.
From this perspective, a 22-foot golden statue is the least society can do to show savior Trump the appreciation he deserves for literally “calling a spade a spade.”
King goes on to say, “This so-called United States was built upon the organized delusion of white moral authority—a psychopathic order that confuses domination with divinity,” and adds, “What white America has accomplished with Black people is what other tyrants have only attempted: the normalization of genocide… Anti-Blackness is the primary software of this nation’s consciousness—the code that runs beneath every social system.”
Hence, the opposite of Blackness—divine whiteness—is literally heaven, Jesus, God, and the KKK all rolled into one. And this is a faith system that has the institutional muscle of the U.S. Supreme Court, Congress, the Department of Justice, national news media, social media giants, tech bro/gazillionaire money backing, and the U.S. military.
So, kneel before him. And if you don’t like it, go find you a God that offers you enough power to do something about it.
