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"All those legal fees are apparently really making Donald Trump's pockets hurt because his latest commercial venture, after selling sneakers and cologne, is as a Bible salesman," said one critic.
Critics of former U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday derided the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee for hawking $60 patriotic-themed Bibles, with one prominent progressive cleric warning that the so-called Good Book "exposes grifters who try to exploit it."
The
God Bless the USA Bible—which is actually a rebranded 9/11 commemorative Bible first offered for sale in 2021 by country musician Lee Greenwood of "God Bless the USA" fame—has been slammed by devout Christians for having an American flag emblazoned on its cover and for containing nationalist documents including the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Pledge of Allegiance.
"You all should get a copy of God Bless the USA Bible," Trump said in a 3-minute video promoting the book—which is not connected with his campaign. "You have to have it for your heart, for your soul."
"Replacing the real Bible with Trump Bibles is a too-perfect symbol of what has happened to evangelical Christianity."
Critics from across the political spectrum slammed what Slate senior writer Amanda Marcotte called Trump's "newest grift to squeeze money out of his cult followers."
"The not-at-all subtle message of the video is that Trump doesn't believe any of this faith-in-God crap, but he definitely believes in using Christian identity as a weapon to make money and dominate his foe," Marcotte wrote.
Bishop William Barber, the founding director of the Center for Public Theology & Public Policy at Yale Divinity School and a co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign,
said on social media that "the prophet Ezekiel named it in his day: Greedy politicians make an unholy alliance with false religion that says God is on their side when God has said no such thing!"
Conservative political commentator Charlie Sykes on Wednesday
blasted Trump for "commodifying the Bible during Holy Week," while former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming said that "instead of selling Bibles, you should probably buy one. And read it, including Exodus 20:14."
The volume's release comes during Christian Holy Week, and as Trump struggles to pay a $175 million bond after a New York judge found that he and his company committed massive fraud.
"Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country," Trump said in the promotional video. "It's one of the biggest problems we have, and it's why our country is going haywire. We've lost religion in our country."
"All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many. It's my favorite book," he added. "We must make America pray again."
Some observers noted how Trump used Christianity and the Bible as a prop during his White House tenure, including the time in 2020 when he ordered the violent dispersal of racial justice protesters in the wake of George Floyd's murder by Minneapolis police so he could pose for a photo-op outside a Washington, D.C. church.
Despite facing 91 federal and state criminal charges, Trump is all but certain to secure the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Christian nationalists have been busily preparing for a second Trump term, in part by drafting Project 2025, which one watchdog described as a "far-right playbook for American authoritarianism."
While his words and deeds may be antithetical to Christian doctrine, Trump is wildly popular among Evangelical Christians.
"Replacing the real Bible with Trump Bibles is a too-perfect symbol of what has happened to evangelical Christianity," Marcotte wrote. "The mistake is in believing Trump's followers are confused or ashamed about their devotion to a godless creep who laughs at true believers. In Trump's hands, the Bible is not a text for prayer and reflection, it's just a weapon. It's much easier to beat people down with a book if it's closed."
"We are putting politicians in every state on notice," said Rev. Dr. William Barber.
Leaders of the Poor People's Campaign delivered its policy agenda to lawmakers at statehouses across the United States on Monday and warned that if elected representatives don't act, they won't get the votes of low-wage workers who were integral to the defeat of former President Donald Trump four years ago.
Monday's actions, which included visits with state lawmakers from both major parties, were part of a broader 42-week mobilization of poor voters that the Poor People's Campaign announced last month.
"Do not listen to those who say poor and low-wage voters are apathetic about politics or marginal to election outcomes," Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, national co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, said during a rally in North Carolina over the weekend.
"Poor and low-wage voters have the power to change electoral outcomes up and down the ballot in November," said Barber, pointing to the slim 2020 margins in key battleground states such as Michigan and Arizona. "We are putting politicians in every state on notice: If you want our votes, you must legislate to end the crisis of death by poverty in America."
The agenda that organizers presented to state lawmakers on Monday calls for immediate action to abolish "poverty as the fourth-leading cause of death in the U.S.," end "voter suppression in all its forms," raise minimum wages to a living wage, guarantee healthcare and affordable housing for all, bolster worker protections, and more.
"We are seeing from state houses all over the nation that we will not be silenced or ignored anymore," Von Allen Goodman, tri-chair of the Massachusetts Poor People's Campaign, said during a rally in Boston on Saturday.
"When our politics makes it easier to get a gun than to get food, quality education, living wages, or healthcare, then there's a problem with the soul of our nation."
The Poor People's Campaign estimates that there are around 85 million poor and low-wage eligible voters across the U.S.—roughly 30% of the country's electorate. In 2020, according to a study released by the campaign and its allies, 168 million Americans who voted had an annual household income of less than $50,000.
Research published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimated that a decade or more of uninterrupted poverty is linked to 295,000 deaths per year in the U.S.—roughly 800 deaths per day. That made long-term poverty the country's fourth-leading cause of death in 2019, behind heart disease, cancer, and smoking.
"In our campaign across the country, poor and low-wage allies have decided that we are not accepting the silence from the media and political establishment that ignores 800 daily deaths of poor and low-wealth people," said Barber. "Poverty by America is an abolishable and unnecessary reality that can be eradicated by enacting policies that address the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation and the denial of healthcare, militarism, and the false moral narrative of religious nationalism."
"When our politics makes it easier to get a gun than to get food, quality education, living wages, or healthcare," he added, "then there's a problem with the soul of our nation."
"Our government's refusal to fully address poverty and low wages even after the worst days of Covid is not only killing our brothers and sisters," said Rev. Dr. William Barber. "It's killing our public conscience."
Low-wage workers, faith leaders, and allies rallied in state capitals across the United States on Saturday as part of a mass mobilization of poor voters ahead of the pivotal 2024 election.
The nationwide demonstrations were organized by the Poor People's Campaign, a multiracial movement calling on state legislators and members of the U.S. Congress to act immediately to end the "crisis of death by poverty" in the richest country in the world. Research published last year found that poverty is the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States.
Thousands gathered and marched Saturday in 32 states—from Maine to Indiana to North Carolina—and Washington, D.C., carrying signs that read "abolish poverty" and "our votes are demands." In South Carolina and other states, activists placed mock coffins on the steps of state Capitol buildings as they demanded living wages, stronger workplace protections, and universal healthcare.
William J. Barber, national co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, said during a demonstration in Raleigh that "the low-wage voices you hear today are living testimony... telling their stories, crying out against the forces of death."
"Our government's refusal to fully address poverty and low wages even after the worst days of Covid is not only killing our brothers and sisters," added Barber. "It's killing our public conscience."
Eric Winston, a member of the Union of Southern Service Workers and a catering cook for a minor league baseball team, told the crowd in Raleigh that he's "tired of working low-wage jobs over and over thinking just working hard would get me what I need."
"I'm tired of working 70 to 80 hours a week and still not having money for the necessity of bills," said Winston. "I'm tired of getting sick and not being able to go see the doctor."
"I organize today because I'm sick and tired of fighting by myself. There's more people in my situation who may not look like me but go through the same struggles as I do," Winston continued. "As working people, we should only vote for politicians who support the rights of workers. Period."
In Columbus, Rev. Dr. Jack Sullivan noted during remarks from the steps of Ohio's Capitol building that long-term poverty kills more than 800 people per day in the United States.
"I have to believe that if 800 politicians were to die every day, if 800 CEOs were to die every day, there would be congressional hearings, Senate subcommittee gatherings, documentation to prevent the tragic deaths of those leaders," said Sullivan. "How 'bout some documentation to prevent the tragic deaths of the poor!"
The nationwide rallies came after the Poor People's Campaign launched a 42-week mobilization of low-income voters who were critical in defeating former President Donald Trump in 2020.
"There are approximately 85 million poor and low-wage eligible voters in this country who represent at least 30% of the electorate. In so-called battleground states, it's close to and over 40%," the campaign said ahead of Saturday's demonstrations. "High percentages of poor and low-wage voters don't vote because politicians fail to enact policies or address the issues that affect their lives."
On March 4, advocates with the Poor People's Campaign are planning to gather at legislative offices in state capitals across the U.S. to deliver a "package to legislators on both sides of the political aisle documenting the conditions poor people are facing in their state and the bold actions that can be taken to address these crises."
"It is not a mistake that we are meeting here before the State of the Union address in Congress, because we intend to drive this issue right into the heart of our politics," Barber said Saturday. "Two hundred and ninety-five thousand people will die this year and have died every year for the last few years from poverty. That's on our own front door."
"Nobody ever calls their name," said Barber. "Nobody challenges this political violence."