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Donald Trump crashes The Last Supper: I'm being persecuted like`the late great Jesus Christ' [1]

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Date: 2023-04-09

Is that a real Trump quote or a parody in the headline?

It might be hard to tell because some of Trump’s MAGA disciples like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene have already likened Trump’s arrest to Jesus’ arrest by the Romans.

The quote in the headline actually comes from the hilarious cold open of the latest Saturday Night Live in which James Austin Johnson as Trump says: “I am being persecuted on a level, the likes of which the world has never seen. Even worse than the late, great Jesus.”

The sketch begins with a depiction of Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper in which Mikey Day as Jesus says: “It is foretold and though I have committed no crime, I will be arrested, tried and found guilty.”

That’s the cue for Trump/Johnson to jump in and declare: “Sound familiar? A famous, wonderful man arrested for no reason at all. If you haven’t put it together folks, I’m comparing myself to Jesus, again. And what better time than on his birthday, Easter?

Well Trump did actually once refer to “Two Corinthians” as a book of The Bible in a speech at Liberty University. And he couldn’t even quote a favorite verse from The Bible, which he described as his favorite book, just beating out his own ghostwritten The Art of the Deal.

Portraying Trump, Johnson then began offering absurd comparisons with Jesus.

— “We’re both very tall, very popular, and both, frankly, white Americans.”

__ “Just like Jesus, all I did was be friendly to a sex worker and now they want to put me in jail. Just awful.”

__ “He had a good mind for business, water into wine, pure profit.”

__ “He had big, big rallies, just like me, and a lot of his followers got in big,big trouble. Just like mine. All because I told them exactly what Jesus would have said: “Get very violent and start a war’”

— “I’ve even got my very own Judas — Ron DeSantis. Ron DeSantis came to me, tears in his eyes, and said, ‘Help me, Mr. Trump, I’m going to lose my election.’ So I very generously pretended to like him. And then he did a Judas, and now he can’t even get the gays out of Disney World.”

And of course, Trump/Johnson had to boast that he would have done things better than Jesus.

— “He rose from the dead on the third day. I would have done it faster, Possibly two days. I would have done it a lot faster.”

__ “Mr. Jesus, quite a guy, but now perhaps people are saying I’m even better than Jesus because I’m a self-made billionaire, and Christ was, let’s call it what it is, a ‘nepo baby.’ OK. I mean his dad was God. It’s pretty easy to start a religion when your dad is God.

“He did Good Friday, I said why not make it ‘Great.’ We could make it great. With me we’ll be doing ‘Great Friday,’ perhaps even ‘DGI Fridays.’”

And Trump’s Easter narrative included how much he loves hiding all “the beautiful eggs from my time in the White House.”

“And now the Department of Justice is saying ‘Where are the eggs. We need the eggs back.’ But I hid them. They’re my egg. They’re my eggs to take.”

And he added” “Maybe prison will make me more popular like Jesus of Azkaban.”

So how different is the SNL parody to what we’re hearing from Trump and his MAGA disciples in real life?

Here’s Greene in a car outside the Manhattan courthouse where Trump was arrested and arraigned last Tuesday: “President Trump is joining some of the most incredible people in history being arrested today. Nelson Mandela was arrested, served time in prison. Jesus was arrested and murdered by the Roman government. There have been many people throughout history that have been arrested and persecuted by radical corrupt governments, and it’s beginning today in New York City.”

Joseph McBride, a Trump supporter and attorney, said on social media last month that “President Trump will be arrested during Lent—a time of suffering and purification for the followers of Jesus Christ. As Christ was crucified, and then rose again on the 3rd day, so too will Donald. Violence is never the answer. Winning the election is.”’

Now Trump might have broken nearly all of the Ten Commandments (perhaps we can give him ‘Honor Thy Father’) and committed all Seven Deadly Sins, but that hasn’t stopped extreme MAGA Republicans from likening him to Jesus.

The Associated Press reported:

So when ex-President Donald Trump was arraigned Tuesday on charges that he falsified business records to obscure hush money payments in an effort to influence the 2016 election, some of his most ardent followers quickly noted the court appearance came during Christianity’s most sacred week, Holy Week, when many Christians commemorate Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. “Seems there was someone else who was tortured and crucified this week,” read one post on Gab, a platform popular with Trump supporters. A similar post on Telegram put Trump’s case in apocalyptic terms: “Good vs Evil. Biblical times. Divine timing.” Comparisons likening Trump to Christ were among the top online narratives about the Republican former president and his criminal charges circulating in the last several days, according to an analysis of online and social media content conducted by Zignal Labs, a media intelligence firm, on behalf of The Associated Press.

The AP added that Zignal’s analysis found that the number of mentions calling Trump a martyr more than doubled after Greene made the Trump-Jesus comparison.

And this isn’t even the first time that a Georgia Republican House member has compared Trump to Jesus. Durng a 2019 debate on the House floor over Trump’s first impeachment, Rep. Barry Loudermilk actually said:

"When Jesus was falsely accused of treason, Pontius Pilate gave Jesus the opportunity to face his accusers," said Loudermilk, per TIME magazine. "During that sham trial, Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats have afforded this President in this process."

Trump, a toxic narcissist, hasn’t shied away from promoting comments comparing him with Jesus. Last year, the former president shared a post on his Truth Social account by a user who wrote: “Jesus is the greatest. President Trump is the second greatest.” And in 2019, he shared tweets describing him as the "King of Israel" and "the second coming of God."

But the post-indictment Holy Week comparisons went too far even for some on the religious right. Catholic conservative Eric Sammons, editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine, pleaded in a Tweet that Trump supporters should “Please stop. Just stop. For the love of God, stop!” comparing “Trump’s arrest the week before Easter to Christ’s arrest the week before Easter.”

x To Trump supporters comparing Trump's arrest the week before Easter to Christ's arrest the week before Easter:



Please stop. Just stop. For the love of God, stop! — Eric Sammons (@EricRSammons) April 4, 2023

A prominent black church leader. Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, who oversees more than 500 African Methodist Episcopal churches in Greene’s home state of Georgia, denounced her comments as blasphemous and disgusting, according to the AP.

“While Marjorie Taylor Greene may put her political loyalty ahead of God, Christians do not,” Jackson said. “Those of faith believe Christ always has, and always will, stand alone.”

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/9/2163003/-Donald-Trump-crashes-The-Last-Supper-I-m-being-persecuted-like-the-late-great-Jesus-Christ

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