White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) that she believes that God put Donald Trump in the White House, CBN reported Wednesday.
While I know there are some die-hard Christian followers of President Trump who believe that, it is a wholly (not holy) different matter when the spokesperson of the president of the United States says it.
{mosads}When spoken at that level, it becomes inappropriate, irresponsible and continues to erode the already faltering credibility of the spokesperson and the White House.
It is inappropriate because the statements that come out of the White House spokesperson’s mouth should be grounded in fact.
I know the country has grown wearily used to a White House that is fact-free and has no use for evidence-based statements, but standards still exist and must be demanded even as they are pushed aside almost every single day.
How does Sanders know that God wanted Trump in the White House? Did God tell her? Did she have a vision?
If it is something she truly feels in her heart, that is of course her right. But she should not share it on national television in her role as press secretary for the president of the United States.
The comments are irresponsible because the nation still adheres to the concept of separation of church and state. When Sanders invokes God’s intent in Donald Trump’s occupation of the White House, she infuses religions connotations on Trump’s tenure that will excite his base but will further erode his support in mainstream America.
It also serves to underscore that Trump and the administration are only interested in being the leaders of a fragment of the American electorate, many of whom voted for him because he would put anti-reproductive rights judges on the courts.
But at some point, those individuals will have to look at themselves in the mirror and accept that they have made a deal with the devil in turning a blind eye to Trump’s myriad of shortcomings as a standard-bearer for people of faith.
Sanders’ words challenged one’s sense of morality, reality, knowledge of the Bible and understanding of Christianity if they are to be taken seriously. Donald Trump is the most corrupt, immoral and dishonest president we have had perhaps in the history of the United States.
Let’s start with his overwhelming penchant for lying. On Dec. 21, the Washington Post stated that Trump has told 7,645 lies over 710 days. That’s an average of more than five lies a day.
Psalms 12:22 states: “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.” Would God put an abomination in the White House? As a practicing Catholic, I sure don’t think he would.
We also cannot discount his behavior throughout his life both in word and deed and in how he has treated women, minorities, even his own Republican colleagues. His own personal history is infamously tainted.
Using the morality meter used by Christian evangelicals in the past, do they really believe that God would put someone in the White House who cheated on his first wife with a mistress and cheated on his third wife by sleeping with a porn star before allegedly paying her $130,000 to keep quiet?
No one is perfect, and I know my critics will bring up Bill Clinton. He was a great president but utterly flawed and would certainly have difficulty in today’s Democratic Party politics given his history. But no one ever said that God put him in the White House.
Let’s go to Trump’s policies. From day one, his policies have been focused on denigrating certain groups of Americans in the country. The ban on travel from several Muslim-majority countries, for example, made many Muslims feel persecuted.
The border wall is a large symbol of xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment based on lies, myths and bizarrely, according to recent reports, the movie “Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado.” There is no need for it other than for Trump to deliver on a campaign promise to his base.
But that campaign promise led to an inhumane, immoral policy at the border that resulted in babies being ripped from the mothers’ arms and children being put in cages.
Do these sound like policies from someone chosen by God to be in the White House?
Recently, we lived through his apathy for American working men and women as the government shutdown impaired their livelihoods all in the name of his vanity project: the border wall. I don’t think Jesus would look kindly on that.
In word and deed, Trump is the antithesis of the teachings of Jesus Christ.
So no, God did not put Donald Trump in the White House. And if he did, he did it to punish us for taking our democracy and institutions for granted and is showing us what we get when that happens.
Maria Cardona is a principal at the Dewey Square Group, a Democratic strategist and a CNN/CNN Español political commentator. Follow her on Twitter @MariaTCardona.