President Donald Trump concluded his Republican midterm convention on Thursday by leading the audience in a pledge … to himself.
Trump asked the crowd to raise their right hands and begin: “I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States.”
The crowd dutifully repeated the line, calling Trump “the greatest president in the history of the United States.”
Trump added: “that loves us so much he can’t even breathe.”
The crowd again repeated the line, but then it got a little harder to follow.
“That I will go out with my family, my friends, I’ll do it anyway, I don’t care if I’m registered or not. I’m going to try and cheat like hell like they do,” he said. “There’s never been bigger cheaters, they don’t care. I am going to go out and I am going to get my friends, my family, and we are going to vote on November 3rd or we are going to vote before that.”
Unable to repeat all of that, the crowd cheered.
Trump realized he lost them and reset.
“Are you ready?” he asked. “Here’s the way you ― “
But he wasn’t ready himself as he got sidetracked by people in the audience. He tried once more to finish, with the crowd repeating after him, but left them behind as he went off on another tangent.
“So help me God,” he concluded.
The crowd repeated that part heartily.
“You know what happens if you don’t vote?” Trump asked. “You go to hell!”
So much blasphemy that he’s telling his supporters they’re going to hell!
It’s far worse than that. He’s trying to get them to take a vow, to make a personal promise – literally “so help me god” – so that those who promise will then believe they will be held accountable before “god” to fulfill.
He’s literally trying to make this promise have religious consequences for failing to live up to it in the minds of those who took it.
People who think this is all imaginary have no idea how real it is for those heavily propagandized in this way, who have had their real faith hijacked by Christian nationalist propaganda. It’s no joke. It’s all VERY legal, tick the box, “You said this and now you’re bound by it” with actual threat of hellfire attached at the end. Just like Trump did here. Most of us would laugh; MAGAs do not.
This exact dynamic is why Republicans are so terrified of James Talarico down in Texas: he’s offering the MAGAs who have equated Christianity with MAGA Christian nationalism a real off ramp from Trump that allows them to keep their church, faith, and local community.
If you’re in a rural area where all you know are the 500 people that live in your mostly MAGA town, and you can’t afford to be ostracized or you’ll literally have no community left, it’s a big fucking deal.
This faux “Christianization” of politics is very real, and that’s what he’s trying to capitalize on by making the rubes take a “repeat after me, so help me god” kind of vow.
Fortunately, he fucked it up, so they all have plausible deniability if they want it. But that’s why he was struggling so hard to get them back on track and to repeat the whole thing: he knew exactly what he was doing, and to what end.