My unsatisfying prayer against the 47th President

Praying against those who have invested in Trump's failure versus America's future

God bless Joe Biden. An apt analogy for Biden is the story of Hans Brinker, the Dutch boy who saved his country by plugging a hole in the dike with his finger. Progressive liberals had built a large coffer dam holding in the retrograde reactionaries fighting their brave new world, and Biden, who witnessed eight years of Barack Obama’s lightwork, stepped in to save it from COVID-19, as well as from Donald J. Trump. Biden’s finger did not hold, for reasons best described by Nate Silver.

Image: DALL-e

From the day Donald J. Trump won the Republican nomination in 2016, many who opposed him—me included—did their best to warn the nation about what could happen when someone who valued personal loyalty and getting their own way above everything else, who defined “winning” as a binary outcome, that does not include win-win scenarios. We warned of a person who mouthed the language of cultural Christians without any serious commitment to the Cross or those who bear it. But some did more than warn.

They invested themselves in the opposition—the Resistance—for everything and anything Trump did. I am surprised that The Bulwark didn’t attract liquor brands as sponsors since Trump is a teetotaler. Trump, in his first term, did not take most of the things presidents take seriously, seriously. He tore down traditions such as the White House Correspondents dinner, because they dare make fun of him (which is the point of it). He would not throw out the first ball at baseball games. He would not release his tax returns, or commit to preventing conflicts of interest (his interest). He tried to get the Attorney General and the FBI Director to put personal loyalty to him over their constitutional duties. He stared into the sun during a solar eclipse. He presided over a COVID-19 super-spreader event at the White House rose garden.

All those four years, many evangelical Christians invested a lot of time praying for Trump. Many also invested a lot of time getting close to Trump, in his orbit, in order to enrich themselves and increase their own celebrity. Many conservative groups and causes took up MAGA—meaning “whatever Trump wants”—as their calling card. The Heritage Foundation became Trump’s own personal think tank, writing a tome titled Project 2025. It’s 2025, and Trump has never opened that book, and has publicly disavowed its contents, even if Heritage ends up being right on what policies Trump might want to pursue.

In the Resistance years, the social media tycoons and their tech empires reveled in their opposition and touted their lean in to progressive causes. San Francisco is the result of many of those tech bro dollars. New York City is another product of the Brooklyn crews who supported The Squad and sanctuary cities. Politicians like Kamala Harris and Alvin Bragg filled their big balloon heads with flammable gas.

These calamitous events all culminated on January 6th, 2021, when Trump’s election denial delusion came straight into the face of progressive social engineering. The dike nearly failed. Joe Biden believed he would be able to hold his finger in place until things were repaired, but nobody else believed that. I pray that Joe Biden has the most wonderful retirement, and that he enjoys every moment with his pardoned son, Hunter.

But today begins the dismantling of Joe Biden’s progressive dike (which Biden never really wanted). The dam failed, because lawfare is wrong, the U.S. Senate did not do its duty, and the voters, seeing a choice between the nation envisioned by Kamala Harris and Alvin Bragg versus another four years of Trump, chose the bigger gas bag.

Joe Biden proved lawfare is wrong by pre-emptively pardoning everyone that might have been a target of Trump’s lawfare: Gen. Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Rep. Liz Cheney, the entire Select Committee on January 6th, Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police officers, and others. At noon today, Joe Biden will “spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights” from his home in Wilmington, Delaware.

At noon today, Donald Trump will relinquish some of his power as an outsider, and take up official power as president. I pray against him, but not in the way you might find most satisfying.

Trump’s instincts are to punish and humiliate those who oppose him. The option to prosecute them has been removed from consideration, at least at the federal level. That leaves a gaggle of Republican attorneys general and a smattering of local district attorneys to go after Trump’s enemies. It also leaves a giant swath of civil lawsuits that can be filed by friends of Trump. I pray against efforts to destroy the lives of people who did their duty, whether it was working for Trump in his first term, or performing constitutional duties for the federal government, or for their own state.

Trump has no friends, only rent-seekers, and family. If you’re not in the latter class, you’re one of the former. I pray against those who seek to use prayer, ministry, policy, or celebrity to worm their way into Trump’s orbit. I pray against the social media bros, like the mercurial and cunning Elon Musk, who use their position to influence and control Trump’s actions.

I pray against Trump’s instincts to bully and belittle institutions that serve important purposes but are treated unseriously by Trump. I pray against efforts to weaken NATO, which protects two hundred million free people from living under evil tyranny. I pray against stupid trolling of Mexico and Canada, which are our closest friends and trading partners.

Most of all, I pray against those who are against the United States because Trump will be president. If Trump does something good, like in 2020 when his Operation Warp Speed greatly increased the development of COVID-19 vaccines which saved millions of lives, I pray against the Resistance that tried to slow the vaccine release because Trump would get credit—only to become the most ardent supporters of mandatory vaccinations once Biden was in office. They are ghouls, as bad as RFK, Jr.

I pray against those who want Trump to run wild in his worst instincts, so that NATO will fail, and much of the world will fall into darkness, so they can insist on their own righteousness and scream “I told you so” without personal cost. I pray against those who welcomed the Resistance in tech, and now welcome MAGA with the same gusto. These are the people who invite regulation, because they know regulatory capture turns their innovation into sclerotic, permanent, profit (think AT&T for 80 years). I pray against these fatcats whose political sails trim to “what’s best for me.”

I pray against all the Prelates of the Church of Climate Change who exclaim “The End is Near” but publicly denounce Tesla Motors for making their EVs too good and its CEO for being too bold in gold-digging Trump. They all secretly wish they were Elon. I pray their dike ends up underwater, as Trump bans wind turbines (giant industrial projects that produce mega-size carbon footprints) and approves drilling.

I pray against the oil barons who are just fine with their oil tanker being blown apart by the Houthis as long as they make money on the insurance. I pray against those who would turn their energy profits into political fodder by accepting sinecures working for the Trump administration. I pray that Trump himself turns his humiliation and destruction loose cannon on those people when they cross him.

I pray against anyone who believes the United States achieving good things, protecting the weak, prospering our citizens, and following the immigration laws of the land is an acceptable sacrifice as long as Trump looks bad trying to do those things. These people do more than cast their votes. They have invested themselves in a view of America nobody wants: New York City, Boston, and San Francisco residents are rejecting those views because Joe Biden’s finger in the dike those last four years has shown them the real cost.

Even if Trump looks good, I am for things that make sense and help people. I am for making immigration into the United States, legal, safe, and helpful to those who come here. I am against back alley coyote immigration and unsafe practices to get into the United States. Yes, I know I’m using the language of those people who think abortion is morally sound because legal abortion must be better than unsafe illegal abortion. Abortion is always immoral, when it is done as a choice by a healthy mother to eliminate a baby. There is no more moral option based on what is legal.

I pray against those who oppose Trump because he took a pro-life stance in his first term. I pray against those who think the Supreme Court is invalid because it overturned Roe v. Wade. I pray against those who will think the Supreme Court is wonderful when it rules against something Trump wants. I pray against those who once stood for life, but now pivot to anti-vaccine because Trump is no longer as pro-life as he was (or pretended to be).

I pray against those who would pander to Trump on conspiracy theories, and I also pray against those who would pander to propaganda by paid-for science writers regarding the for-profit science of vaccines for everything. In other words: get your kids vaccinated against measles, mumps, polio and other society-crushing illnesses. Don’t go crazy with every vaccine, though, because fads never work out: Thalidomide happened.

Finally, I pray that Donald J. Trump would find Jesus Christ in his heart. I pray that God would place the right, righteous, people near Trump, and keep those who live for their own kingdoms away from Trump’s ear. I pray that as president, Trump will make right decisions, whether he cares about the right reason or not. I pray that those who seek to use their support or opposition to Trump for their own gain, fail.

I pray that those who labor to carry the Cross of Christ, labor in prayer for the success of the United States, because our liberal democracy, recognition of God-given rights, and protection of the innocent, as imperfect as it is, represents the pinnacle of human self-government. And until Jesus returns, that’s the best it gets. We got another four years of Trump, love it or not. Some people would rather pray for Trump to fail, but that’s not my prayer, unsatisfying as it is. I want the United States to succeed, with God’s blessing.