In yet another fundraising pitch in which President Donald Trump tells supporters that God saved him from an assassin’s bullet so Trump could save America, the president enlists supporters in his much-discussed desire to get into heaven.
“I want to try and get to heaven,” starts an email sent to supporters on Sunday. He describes being on stage in Butler, Pennsylvania and “feeling the hand of God tilt my head at the very last millisecond.”
“He didn’t save me for a participation trophy,” the email says. “He saved me because I have a date with Heaven and the only way I earn my place there is by finishing the mission He spared me for: saving America.”
The idea that Trump can only “earn” a place in heaven by successfully enacting his agenda as president is contrary to core Christian teachings about grace, faith, and salvation. But it seems to be a rhetorical advice he deploys to appear spiritually humble and appeal to his conservative Christian supporters.
It also suggests that if Trump can only succeed as president with a continuous flow of contributions, then sending him cash could actually be helping get him into heaven.
Another Trump fundraising email sent earlier in the day on Sunday came with the subject line, “I was born to do this.” It also opens with a religious claim about his assassination attempt: “On July 13th, Faith shielded me from an assassin’s bullet.”
The email denounced the “radical left” that he charged with “trying to block our America-First agenda.”
“They hate our Faith. They mock our values. They want to crush our Freedom,” the email said. “I will NEVER let that happen.”
“This is the moment every patriot has prayed for. This is why he spared me. This is why we won.”
Trump’s email signs off with, “For God. For Family. For Freedom. For America.”
Meanwhile, MAGA zealot and religious-right pundit Eric Metaxas cannot stop talking about Trump’s recent offhand remark at a Mar-a-Lago wedding that Metaxas might be the guy that gets him into heaven. Video of the incident shared on Metaxas’s social media accounts has racked up millions of views.
“Did you hear what President Trump said to me?!?!?!” gushed the subject line of a Metaxas email last Tuesday. He urged supporters to share media coverage of the event.
Later in the week Metaxas devoted part of his show to talking about the video and complaining about people whose response was to criticize Metaxas for not using the moment to give Trump a gospel message. In response to those critics, Metaxas went beyond saying it was noisy and a wedding and not the right time; he accused those critics of not trusting the Lord or the Holy Spirit to take care of Trump’s salvation.
