Donald Trump - A Christian Role Model?

                       Caricature accessed from:

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Is Donald Trump a Christian Role Model?

Cliff Eastham

The never-ending allegiance of Donald Trump supporters continues to amaze me. I believe he was right during the primary campaign, when he told his supporters that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight and not lose any voters. That, is disturbing, to the nth degree. The man appears to be incompetent on various levels.

            The real problem is that I see so many Christians, including pastors, and well-known evangelists supporting him. A simple question, why?  Is it a Republican thing? A conservative thing? An abortion thing? A gun thing? Have you ever seen him on television at a Donald Trump Rally? He works his followers up into a frenzy and encourages them when they chant “Lock her up!!!” Of course, that is after he talks about “Crooked Hillary” in so many demeaning ways it becomes nauseating.

            If you haven’t seen one, watch one, and only one. Believe me, if you have seen one Donald Trump Rally, you have seen every one of them. Seriously. This article is not a cry of desperation from the Clinton campaign. It is one of genuine concern for this country. I am voting for Clinton, and after everything that has been exposed about Trump, I honestly am stunned that born-again Christians are seriously planning on voting for him.  

            Now for his hangers-on, the miscreants. America’s Mayor (really?), Rudi Giuliani, Chris “BridgeGate” Christie, Newt Gingrich, and Steve Bannon, of the infamous Breitbart website. He has brought his influence with the Alt Right movement with him. Trump is supported by the KKK, which should give everyone pause.

            Trump has been prodded by Giuliani and Gingrich, among others, to attack Hillary on her husband’s dalliances. If that isn’t all three pots calling the wife of a kettle black, I don’t know what is. Trump, Giuliani, and Gingrich have all been married thrice, so they probably are not the best suited to launch a preemptive strike on that front.  I am a Christian – not a Republican (we really do exist, contrary to far-right beliefs). If it is an abortion thingy with you, know that Trump has flip flopped on that as well. Also, realize that a president does not have the authority to do anything about abortion. That is a Supreme Court thing, and since the Republicans denied Obama’s constitutional right to nominate a judge for the Bench, they are deadlocked on every issue they will rule on. In the spirit of full disclosure, they couldn’t stop him from nominating, they just refused to hold confirmation hearings.

Nobody really knows Trump’s stance on anything. He is like the Wizard of Oz. He has the answer to all of America’s problems. He and he alone! All he says is that it will be great, he is the only one that can do it, believe me! That doesn’t sound like a presidential candidate, it sounds like a cult leader. Please don’t drink the kool aid. Why is he so afraid to release his income tax returns for public perusal? Every other presidential candidate since Richard Nixon and has done it, in an effort to show voters they believe in transparency.

            I can tell you why I believe he is not releasing his taxes. Not now, not ever. During the 2012 presidential campaign, Republican front-runner Mitt Romney had not released his taxes as of January 18, 2012. Trump called into Fox News (as he now uses them for his source of free advertisement – nod and a wink to Sean Hannity), to the “On the Record” show with Greta van Susteren. She asked him if he thought Romney should have released his taxes. He told her that historically people release them on April 1. She asked what he would say if Romney called for advice about it. He said, “I think he may have to. I think he a step went too far. I think that April 1st or April 2nd was OK. But now I think in light of the fact that he started discussing some of the things, namely the rate or approximately the rate, I think it [would] probably be better off just to release them now.”

            Apparently he has changed his tune since then, in light of the political beatdown Romney received in November 2012. Trump saw Romney winning until his taxes were released, then the air went out of the tires. Look at his advice then. Since Romney had already affirmed his tax rate, he should release it all. Since someone dropped Trump’s 1995 return off at the door of the New York Times, as though it was a baby nobody cared for anymore. The returns showed that Trump with all of his maneuverability and “genius” of the tax code, he found a loophole big enough to drive over 900 million bucks through. Imagine that, a business savant, the King of Debt, who brags about using other people’s money (OPM), lost close to a Billion with a B, dollars in one year. What could he have on his current taxes that would be worse, or more humiliating than losing that kind of money from casinos, with the economy under Bill Clinton flowing decently. The guy or girl working as a teller at Fred’s Bank making $30,000 per year may be offended by that. No taxes for 18 years, sets your mind to wondering, eh?

            He claims he is in the throes of an audit (I wonder why), and can’t let them go until it is over. Nobody has seen any evidence that he is even under an audit now. Nixon gave his tax returns up while he was being audited.