Despite the fact that Donald Trump has a questionable background to say the least when it comes to morals, millions of Christians cast their votes in the 2016 presidential election for the credibly accused sexual harasser and assaulter.
In the just over a year since his inauguration, Trump has continued to pander to this crowd and considering the fact that it’s not as though there’s some massive conservative Christian uprising against the president, it’s apparently working, with conservative, evangelical Christians by and large just continuing to eat it up.
In that light, President Trump attended this year’s version of the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, offering conventionally airy remarks.
Trump at National Prayer Breakfast: “Our rights are not given to us by man. Our rights come from our creator. No matter what, no earthly force can take those rights away.” pic.twitter.com/UuCmCOgrNJ
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 8, 2018
Ahead of the event, he tweeted a definitively noteworthy message that stands to have third party observers wondering yet again just how uncommitted Trump really is to the conservative ideals he pays lip service to.
Early Thursday, he posted a message to Twitter reading:
‘Will be heading over shortly to make remarks at The National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. Great religious and political leaders, and many friends, including T.V. producer Mark Burnett of our wonderful 14 season Apprentice triumph, will be there. Looking forward to seeing all!’
Really, Trump?
On a day set aside by religious people for honoring their God, Trump has found a way to — wait for it — make it all about himself.
Instead of tweeting a message, say, about the need for Americans to put the “Christian” ideals into practice of love for one’s neighbor and the like, Trump tweeted about his reality television show, The Apprentice.
This is the depth to which conservative Christian America has sunk.
Ironically, this isn’t even the first time that Trump has turned the National Prayer Breakfast — something regularly attended by President Obama despite numerous assurances from Trump supporters that he’s a literal demon or something — into a spectacle dedicated to himself.
Last year, during his remarks at the event, he also incorporated a shout-out to The Apprentice, asking audience members to “pray for” then-host of the most recent incarnation of the show, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Schwarzenegger himself was among the many Americans unimpressed by Trump making the National Prayer Breakfast about himself, jokingly offering to become president and let Trump return as host of The Apprentice/ The Celebrity Apprentice if he was really so concerned about its ratings.
Besides Trump’s disturbing shout-out to Mark Burnett, there were other notable guests in attendance at the breakfast this Thursday morning as well.
According to Newsweek, 50 prominent Russians were slated to attend the event early Thursday morning, which is “three times higher than last year’s quota of Russians.”
The reporting highlights the cooperation in many areas between Russian interests and the interests of domestic conservatives, a cooperation that was exploited by prominent Russians during the lead-up to the 2016 election who were seeking to set up a meeting between then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
In conjunction to this, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of possible ties between the Trump camp and Russian government interests is continuing, whether the president likes it or not.
Featured Image via Mike Theiler-Pool/Getty Images
