Trump's Priorities vs. Jesus' Priorities

Can Christians in good conscience support an administration that actively targets the most vulnerable in our society? Scripture has a lot to say about leaders who would allocate their power and resources in this way, and where followers of Jesus ought to align themselves. (Full conversation between Skye Jethani & David Swanson on The SkyePod: Protesting ICE in Chicago)

Skye:  One of the things that I think has been well documented about President Trump is that he wants a Nobel Peace Prize. 

David: Are you going to nominate him?

Skye: I actually would…if he did a couple things.

 When we were children, we all probably had experience with bullies on some level. Typically, because bullies are deeply insecure and small, they don't pick on people their own size. They don't go after the real problems out there. They find someone weak and vulnerable and destroy them in order to make themselves feel big. A lot of the people that are being swept up in these raids, no doubt, there are some who are dangerous criminals, but the vast majority are not. They may well be undocumented, which is a civil violation. It's not a criminal violation. But they're being treated like hardened criminals, and Donald Trump is cracking down on places like Chicago and Portland.

He's the president of the United States. He's the Commander-in-Chief of the most lethal military the world has ever seen. And there are legitimate problems in the world that he could be leading us to solving. So, you know, rather than zip-tying children in Chicago, why not go after Putin and come alongside the brave citizens of Ukraine who are trying to fight off his invasion? Or rather than standing up to the big, bad, dangerous governor of Illinois, why doesn't he confront Bibi Netanyahu? And say, enough is enough. I'm sending in aid and support and food to Gaza, and I dare you to drop American bombs on American soldiers who are trying to rescue. There are real problems in this world that he has the power and authority to confront. And instead of doing that, he's going after soccer moms and children in American cities bypassing constitutional norms.

And to me, that's just evidence of how truly small and weak and pathetic he is as a leader. And he's in an office that was at various times occupied by amazing men. We're talking about Lincoln. You know, men who confronted authoritarianism and fascism and communism and all kinds of evils in the world.

And he's using it in such a small, just pathetic way. Either rise to the level of the office you've been granted, defend the constitution of the United States or get out of the way. Because you are not helping any of us with this. You're not helping the world and you uniquely have the power to do it. That's what's so frustrating here. There are big problems that could be solved, and he's not going after them which just makes me think for those who want to believe, he's a big, strong, tough man. He's just revealing how truly weak and sad he really is. And the world sees it.  

David: When he says, “unlike Charlie Kirk, I hate my opponent. I want the worst for them.” You know, something along these lines. What I initially pictured was, oh, you're talking about the Democratic party, you're talking about the courts that have opposed you, you're talking about the Never Trumpers. I was picturing other powerful people, but over the past week, watching what's happening in Chicago, what it feels like to me is that the opponent that our president hates are those children being zip-tied together. 

Is the family from the church being ripped apart? Are the citizens in our neighborhood being terrorized? And it's not the powerful; it's not the person with the power of the state behind them; it's not the person with a big bank account, who can hire legal representation.

It's literally the least protected, least defended people in our country. That's extremely discouraging to me. But I think we need to say, whether he means it or not, this is how he's acting, as though these were the people he hates. I think on the hopeful side, our scriptures have a lot to say about those kinds of leaders, about those kinds of figures who make the poor their enemy, who make the widow and the orphan and the foreigner their enemy.

Our scriptures have something to say about that and provide us a vision for where we align ourselves in a situation like that. And it's never with the authoritarian; it's never with the person using their power against those who don't have any. So when Jesus says, “When you, when you fed the hungry, you fed me,” I think he means that thing. I think we know where Jesus is to be found right now. I think the question is whether the church is going to move toward where Jesus is or whether we want to keep trying to cozy up to someone who's using his power so destructively.

 I think the place that I look for some hope in what you're describing, which I would say yes and amen to all of that, is those communities in our country that never really had the full support of our federal government, right? So, in my context, often I've learned a lot of that from our black churches and my peers, black pastors, who have reminded me and taught me that for most of this country's history, they didn't feel that kind of protection and representation from our government.

And so, while I think we should absolutely lament what's happening and speak truth to power, I also think there can be an invitation for those of us who have mostly been insulated from some of the worst corruptions of power to come alongside those sisters and brothers who haven't known the best of our American democracy, and learn from them what it looks like to be a faithful witness in a moment like this.

Some of that is deeply theological spiritual stuff, like what worship looks like. A lot of it is practical. How do you organize yourself as a community? How do you create relationships which can bring flourishing to your neighborhood when your government isn't particularly interested in caring for your neighborhood? And so on.

And so, I do hope that this can be a moment where we remember the witness of some of those saints who've gone before us, of what it can look like to be faithful in a strange land, to sing our songs in a strange land. Because there is a faithful remnant in this country that hasn't forgotten that and has a lot to teach the rest of us.