Trump greeting Putin in Alaska. Image: Screengrab
Trump greeting Putin in Alaska. Image: Screengrab
Have you ever stopped to ask yourself, if Trump is so damn for America, how can he hate so many people who call this place home and who dream of calling it home?
Republished with permission from John Pavlovitz
When you side with the Kremlin, you’ve sorta said all you have to say, haven’t you? There’s no gray area there, no red, white, and blue veneer of patriotism that can make this right, no star-spangled distraction to parade in front of it all.
If you love America as much as you claim (and I’ll have to take you at your word that you do), then it’s time to take off those big red hats and retire them.
That whole MAGA narrative has reached its expiration date.
All your flag-waving histrionics and your hand-wringing anthem outrage have proven to be nothing but fake news.
That America First chest-bumping and God Bless America piety you’ve spent the last decade peddling looks largely ridiculous at this point.
The Emperor’s nakedness is exposed, the Wizard’s curtain has been pulled way, and the Strongman myth is dead
Watching Donald Trump literally roll out a red carpet and gleefully applaud Vladimir Putin’s arrival here, it can’t be lost on you, can it?
Please tell me you see it too.
I know you’d never have missed this with any other past Commander-in-Chief.
When an American President stands alongside a murderous dictator and declares to trust that man more than our public servants across the aisle, more than our nation’s Press, he’s stepped out into the stark light of day and revealed himself.
When he is more willing to collaborate with one of our greatest adversaries, a man guilty of poisonings and murders for hire and war crimes, than with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy or Democrats in Congress, he’s declared who he is.
And when American citizens and politicians refuse to name it all as treasonous, when they choose to remain silent, when they pretend you don’t see it, they declare who they are.
We see it.
The world sees it.
When are you going to see it?
Trump is not for you. He is not for any of us. Trump is for Trump, and he always has been.
America is a means to an end for him.
His weaponizing of ICE and mobilizing of the National Guard isn’t being done to make this nation safer; it’s intended to normalize occupation, to slowly pull us all into a draconian police state, one that will not favor Blue or Red voters.
His reckless, capricious tariff wars are not designed to make groceries or goods more affordable, but to tank our economy so that he can further consolidate wealth among himself and his Peter Thiel techbro army, and Jeff Bezos billionaire club.
His relentless attacks on Trans people and his dismantling of PBS and NPR and his canceling of DEI programs aren’t happening because he’s declaring war on “woke” (whatever the hell that is), but because he wants to distract you with the empty calories of culture wars so you don’t see the erosion of the elemental rights of speech and protest for all Americans.
Look, I know you see the Left and people like me as your enemy, because from the moment he descended a glistening escalator a decade ago, Trump has trafficked in fear and prejudice. He’s made monsters out of immigrants, LGBTQ people, Muslims, scientists, and medical professionals. He’s demonized Atheists, Democrats, Liberals, the Media, the homeless, and the Constitution. He’s continually declared war on liberal athletes and entertainers, on librarians and school teachers, on drag queens and beer companies.
I may be shouting into the void here, but my love for this country and for the diverse humanity who reside here won’t allow me to stop.
Donald Trump has no allegiance other than to holding power. He is not a brilliant businessman or adept deal-maker; he is a several-times bankrupt predator whose strength is all a show. He doesn’t love God beyond the one he sees in the mirror. He is not a patriot; he is a parasite. He and Vladimir Putin are of the same cloth. They are kindred spirits, similar animals.
Long after Trump is gone, we and those who follow us here (of all political affiliations, religious traditions, and nations of origin) will be left with the America he and his collaborators created: one that is less educated, less diverse, more in debt, more fractured, and more compromised by foreign leaders and domestic billionaires than in its history.
You may not be able to see through the charade yet, but take a look again at the way our President treats one of history’s most notorious monsters, a man who is a clear and present danger to not only Ukraine, but to all of Europe, and to the place you call home.
Then answer the question, why is he so happy to welcome him and so reluctant to oppose him?
John Pavlovitz is a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. A 25-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice—both inside and outside faith communities. When not actively working for a more compassionate planet, John enjoys spending time with his family, exercising, cooking, and having time in nature. He is the author of A Bigger Table, Hope and Other Superpowers, Low, and Stuff That Needs to Be Said.
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