Bishop takes Russian pawn
Trump entourage's reaction to sermon at National Cathedral is free of the 'sin of empathy'
By Sam Bellamy
In the unlikely event you harbored any lingering thought that maybe things couldn’t be worse in Trump’s new reign of terror and treachery than it was in Trump 1.0, that maybe his 2024 campaign was more bluster and bombast than reality, you – like me – no doubt said, “I’m out,” before he even wobbled out of the Capitol Rotunda.
Day after day, the threats from his vicious campaign have become our surreality in his first week in office. Trump and what appears to be a Satan’s workshop full of teeny, trifling Stephen Millers have rolled out one demented executive order, memo and decree after another.
Depravity burst out all over, as soon as Trump, oddly, chose not to put his hand on the Bible during his swearing-in. Instead, Melania stood nearby, bearing the Bible (presumably not the Trump autographed edition) and wearing a brimmed hat that made her look like a shadowy gunslinger from a spaghetti Western.
Soon after, Elon Musk offered what looked an awful lot like two Nazi salutes – then followed the modern neo-Nazi “Who Me, Nazi?” playbook and vehemently denied we’d just seen him give two Nazi salutes.
Proud Boys paraded out of incarceration with other Jan. 6th rioters.
A story broke that Republicans couldn’t risk calling Jan. 6th star witness Cassidy Hutchinson to testify again because some of their House members, if you’ll pardon the phrasing, had texted her sexually explicit messages asking for “favors.”
Yeah, this is Trump 2.0 all right. Those aren’t glitches. Those are features.
Perhaps one of the most telling indications of what we’re in for occurred during Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s prayer service marking Trump’s return to town. If you haven’t seen the video with the camera trained on the president’s retinue, please pause and view it now.
Their collective grimaces and squirms begin as the prelate makes “one final plea”: “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on the people in our country who are scared now.”
Eric Trump, in the far-left corner of screen, looks to be struggling to keep up, but J.D. Vance is clearly taking it all in. At the one-minute mark, he leans toward his wife and says something that, to me, appears to be a word you ordinarily refrain from uttering in a house of worship. If scoffing could take a human form and don a Trumpy red tie, it would be J.D. in these moments.
Tiffany, seated immediately behind Melania, seems bewildered by what’s happening, either flummoxed by the impudent remarks or by the fact that she somehow scored a seat closer to Daddy than Ivanka.
The president’s favorite child and unrequited dream date, Ivanka, is obscured from view during most of the video but seems stunned and alarmed. Lizard-lidded Donald Jr., seated next to her, might be seething but is expressionless, perhaps to avoid sudden jarring of an aching post-inaugural party brain cavity.
Melania, who apparently has attending occasional church services in her pre-nup with a caveat that she lose the gunslinger hat, looks on the verge of having a passive-aggressive Marie Antoinette “cake, anyone?” moment. It’s not hard to imagine her approaching this brassy dame afterward to tell her she looks ridiculous in that outfit.
Throughout, J.D. Vance’s wife, Usha – who was subjected to a torrent of racist comments by MAGAites during the campaign – seemed to be listening intently, maybe a little chagrined. Do we detect remnants of a conscience here?
“The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals,” Bishop Budde pleaded. “I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.”
Asked afterward by a reporter what he thought of Budde’s comments, Trump said, “I didn’t think it was a good service, no.”
He saved his inevitable outrage for Truth Social, posting, “She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.”
He then proceeded to rant about immigrants, of course, concluding with “Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one. She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!”
Sean Hannity, a trusted Trump advisor and Fox News host who would have us believe he eschews both fearmongering and division, declared Budde’s comments “a disgraceful prayer full of fearmongering and division.”
Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, on Fox News (where else?): “She spewed lies. She said that President Trump has called immigrants criminals. He calls illegal immigrants criminals because, in fact, they are criminals by definition.” I’m not sure if she’s including the legal immigrants who allegedly partook in cat snacks and doggie treats, but probably so because the administration is undoubtedly going to hunt those hitherto hidden scofflaws down soon.
Other Trump supporters online were less restrained, of course.
My favorite response came from a fellow named Ben Garrett, whose X profile says he’s a “Christian husband and father. Deacon at Refuge Church in Ogden, UT. Co-host of Haunted Cosmos. Medieval.”
Here it is:
I suspect this “sin of empathy” is part of the King Donald version of the Bible, but I cannot verify. I have not sent my $59.99 to the Trump Organization for my copy yet; I’m saving my money to buy those cheap eggs that should come along any day now.
But let’s accept Medieval Deacon Ben’s word that empathy is indeed sin, maybe even one of the seven deadly sins.
Your guess is as good as mine of which of the longstanding sin-eroos was displaced by empathy – lust, envy, gluttony, pride, greed, wrath or sloth. They all seem acceptable in Trump 2.0, particularly if you’re texting shapely congressional witnesses or eyeing an assault on comely Greenland, the Panama Canal and maybe even Canada.
Perhaps empathy is the sole transgression Trump and Satan’s little workshop want to stamp out?