Trump on Trial

“His ways are always prosperous; your laws are rejected by him; he sneers at all his enemies. He says to himself, ‘Nothing will ever shake me.’ He swears, ‘No one will ever do me harm.’ His mouth is full of lies and threats; trouble and evil are under his tongue.” (Psalm 10:5-7)

It’s no secret that I consider Donald Trump one of our country’s greatest threats, especially if he were to get a second presidential term. (It makes me nauseous to think about it.) Yet, regarding his being found guilty of 34 federal crimes, I refuse to gloat. Sure, I’m glad that justice seems to be served, but this first in American history of a former president is nothing to celebrate, but grieve.

I grieve not only how his crimes besmirch the office of President, but what his continued celebrity among millions of Americans, many of which are self-purported “Christians,” says about American voters. To me, it says we’ve lost our minds!

I wear a lot of T-shirts (not all at once). Most of them display text, the bulk of which were gifts from a ministry in San Francisco of which I’m a part. I wear them proudly. But one that I actually purchased on purpose says “MAKE AMERICA THINK AGAIN.” It’s this one for which I get the most comments while out in public, most of which are positive. (No surprise there. I live in a very left leaning coastal California town.) I wear it proudly also, mostly to illicit some response, either positive or negative. I just think people ought to think about thinking more often. Don’t you? And if there’s anything that could make America great it would be partially due to better thinking.

Back to Donald Trump. Did you track with his trial and guilty conviction about his paying a porn star to keep quiet about the time he hired her for sex in order to keep it out of the press while he was running for president? Here are a few things he said in between court appearances out in the hall. Most of them, he repeated over and over in case we didn’t hear him the first 25 times:

• “Witch Hunt!”

• “A scam”

• “I’m a very innocent man.”

• “Political theater” (By the next day his campaign raised $34 million! So, the production paid well.)

• “This is all done by Biden and his people.” (No. It was brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. The trial did not take place in federal court, but rather within the court system in New York. There’s no evidence that the White House had anything to do with the indictment or verdict.)

• “This is election interference” (On January 2, 2021, during an hour-long conference call, he pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to change the state’s election results from the 2020 presidential election. And that’s not election interference?!)

• “There’s never been a more conflicted judge.” (Judge Merchan was randomly selected for the case and a separate panel of judges denied Trump’s request to have him recuse himself.)

• “I’m not allowed to testify” because of a gag order. (The gag order didn’t prevent him from taking the stand in court. A judge cannot deny someone their constitutional right to testify. The gag order barred him from talking about witnesses, court staff, and jurors. BTW, it was his lawyer who kept him from testifying.)

• “We’re going to vanquish the evil forces that are destroying our country!” (By evil forces, did he mean demons or anyone disloyal to him or his political rivals or all of the above? Russell Moore said, “A dentist who screams profanities at opponents and promises a practice built around “revenge and retribution” and the tearing down of all the norms of modern dentistry is not someone you should trust with a drill in your mouth. How much more so when it comes to entrusting a person with nuclear codes.”)

• “THOSE WHO RIGGED AND STOLE THE ELECTION ARE THE SLIME THAT SHOULD BE PROSECUTED!” (He said this on his Truth Social. I retained his characteristic all caps.)

“Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.” (1 Samuel 2:3)

Here are some things his avid supporters claimed about the trial:

• “This is the most high profile politically charged case…”

• “The judge donated to Trump’s political rival!” (That’s true. He donated $15 in 2020 to Biden’s campaign and $20 to two progressive groups. The judge is obviously a far-left agitator!)

• “The judge has an anti-Trump bias” (It’s important to point out that it wasn’t the judge, but a twelve-member jury of Trump’s peers, who were chosen by both the defense and the prosecutor, that arrived at the guilty verdict. One of the jurors said she gets her news exclusively from Truth Social, the social media company owned principally by Trump. And one of the potential jurors, who got her news from the left-leaning NY Times asked to be removed from the jury as she was being bullied by Trump supporters after her information got out.)

Remember that Trump said he could shoot someone on 5^th Ave in New York City without losing any voters. Unfortunately, that seems to be one of the only true things he’s said!