Former President Donald Trump spent Holy Week (the week between Palm Sunday and Easter) hawking a Trump-branded version of the Bible. While he was roundly criticized by Democrats for the stunt, several experts said the move was on-brand for Trump given his personality.
Last week Trump compared himself to Jesus Christ, saying his nine-figure bond for appealing the loss of his civil fraud case was not unlike the persecution Christ faced when preparing to sacrifice his life to forgive the sins of humanity. Then on Easter Sunday, Trump took to his Truth Social platform and posted a lengthy, all-caps screed wishing a happy Easter to everyone, "INCLUDING CROOKED AND CORRUPT PROSECUTORS AND JUDGES THAT ARE DOING EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO INTERFERE WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2024, AND PUT ME IN PRISON."
Salon's Chauncey DeVega interviewed several experts about Trump's Bible merch for a recent column, including professors, theologians, medical professionals and commentators. Dr. John Gartner, a psychologist who contributed to the bestselling book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President, said it wasn't surprising that the former president compared himself to the Messiah.
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"Of course, a malignant narcissist like Trump, physically sitting at the defendant’s table being prosecuted for his multiple crimes, would liken himself to the crucified Christ," Dr. Gartner told DeVega. "It fits perfectly into both his personality disorder’s hypomanic grandiosity and its paranoid sense of grievance and persecution."
"History is full of strongmen who declared themselves to be divine. It follows that anyone who does not bow down mindlessly in obeisance to them is evil, and must be purged, for society to be cleansed, to usher in the 'Great Leap Forward' or 'Thousand Year Reich,'" he added.
Theology professor André Gagné of Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec told DeVega that Trump has consistently grifted his supporters by leaning on the Bible. He recalled an interview Trump gave during his first campaign for the presidency in which he was asked what his favorite verse, and he declined to give a direct answer. Gagné also brought up Trump's speech at Liberty University — founded by far-right Evangelical pioneer Jerry Falwell — in which he referenced the book of "two Corinthians" rather than "second Corinthians" (the second of the apostle Paul's two epistles to Christians in Corinth).
"There is little evidence of biblical literacy on the part of Trump, and this new stunt will likely serve him through his financial problems," Gagné said.
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Trump's $60 Bibles are the latest effort by the former president to raise money for his astronomical legal expenses and the remaining seven months of his 2024 campaign. Trump also rolled out gold-colored sneakers emblazoned with the American flag and is asking supporters to pay nearly $400 per pair.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee have seen some of their best fundraising numbers of the 2024 cycle in recent weeks. In the 24 hours following his fiery State of the Union address, Biden raised roughly $10 million. And during a New York fundraiser with former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, Biden brought in $25 million, which is the best single-day fundraising haul of either candidate this cycle.
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