The Apostle Paul, John, and the Book of Revelation agree: Donald Trump is the anti-Christ¹
The secular media have done their share of covering conservative Christian support of Donald Trump, while centrist and progressive Christian media wring their hands over the millions of Christians who claim to follow both Jesus Christ and a lawless, adulterous, tyrannical, heartless rapist.
As a person of faith, I am struck by how few fellow believers² have discussed the possibility that Donald Trump might be Satan’s favorite spawn, the Antichrist. Admittedly, dozens, perhaps hundreds, of historical figures have received that mantle from oppressed and disgruntled people over the millennia. Their choices have included emperors, popes, Adolf Hitler, Henry Kissinger, Saddam Hussein, Barack Obama, and Barney the Dinosaur. One could make a good case for Hitler, Kissinger, and certainly a few of the Emperors and Popes.
I John 2:18 suggests that multiple Antichrists are out and about. So couldn’t their number include Donald Trump? John continues in 4:2–3
By this, you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.³
I’ve never heard Donald Trump say he believes in the Incarnation, have you?
The Apostle Paul, in 2 Thessalonians 2:9, refers to the Antichrist as “the lawless one.” What word better describes Donald Trump than “lawless”? He cheats on his taxes, refuses to pay his contractors, evades the consequences for sexually assaulting women and at least one child,⁴ and violates the Hatch Act, which stipulates that he must not use his political office for profit. Then there’s
- 18 U.S. Code § 872: “Extortion by officers or employees of the United States.
- 2 U.S. Code § 192, “Refusal of witness to testify or produce papers
- 18 U.S. Code § 610, “Coercion of political activity.”
- 52 U.S. Code § 30121, “Contributions and donations by foreign nationals.
And all that’s before what the January 6 committee turned up and continues to discover.
Paul also refers to the “lying wonders” of the lawless one in 2 Thessalonians 2:9. Was there ever so wondrous a liar as Trump? The Washington Post clocked him in at 30,573 lies during his presidency, an average of about 21 per day. Note that these are just the lies he told in public, and do not count his lies before and since. Some lies have killed people. More than a million have died because of misinformation about Covid-19. The Big Lie about the 2020 election caused seven January 6-related deaths and is currently killing representative government. I find the weird fabrications most wondrous, like his claim that windmills cause cancer or telling a crowd of Michiganders that he had received the honor of “Michigan’s Man of the Year.” He had never lived in Michigan, and no such award exists.
Paul goes on to say in 2 Thessalonians 2:10–12, that the Antichrist
“practices every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned.”
So let’s pick that apart. Despite all the recounts, audits, and court rulings that confirm Joe Biden won the 2020 election, 70% of Republicans still believe that Trump won. They believed that Trump’s tax cuts would help the middle class. More than half believe Barack Obama was born in Kenya. They believe that Critical Race Theory, which, like all Critical Theory, is a university-level discipline, is taught to elementary school children. Their denial of human-caused climate change is killing the planet, and their denial of Covid-19’s lethality, as mentioned above, killed more than a million residents of the United States and permanently disabled others. Indeed, Psychologist John Gartner has said this denial makes Trump the “most successful bio-terrorist in human history.” (Although I suspect Indigenous people might like to have a word.) Sure seem like powerful delusions to me, although I think it’s hard-hearted of God to send them these phantasms, given what the consequences are for the rest of us.
Next, let’s examine Trump’s followers “taking pleasure in unrighteousness.” As Adam Serwer noted in his seminal 2018 Atlantic essay, “The Cruelty Is the Point,” for Trump and his followers. Trump lifted the social restrictions that made their meanness unpopular. A look at pro-Trump T-shirts illustrates this point:
Trump has repeatedly advocated and condoned violence, often at rallies in front of cheering supporters. Indeed these assemblies are textbook cases of mob incitement, with zealots applauding his vicious statements about marginalized people—including immigrants, Muslims, and victims of police violence. They chant hateful rhetoric about the people he targets, and physically attack protesters. So much unrighteousness, so much pleasure.
Now we come to the Book of Revelation, where the Antichrist, referred to as the Beast, has a starring role.
Revelations 13:1 describes a beast with seven heads, and on the heads were blasphemous names. Now, I often fall far short of the glory of God. But I sincerely love Jesus and have since I was a child. When I read the Gospels, my heart still glows. That’s why when I saw these billboards and art print
I thought, well, it’s come to this. We’re not talking about metaphorical blasphemy anymore — such as when churches promote teachings directly contrary to those of Jesus. We’re talking about actual blasphemy.
For those of you not in the know “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” comes from the first chapter of John’s Gospel. It’s referring to Jesus (i.e., the Word was God, and God incarnated as Jesus). In other words, that billboard is super-blasphemous.
And check out this tweet thread:
“Thank you to Wayne Allyn Root for the very nice words. “President Trump is the greatest President for Jews and for Israel in the history of the world, not just America, he is the best President for Israel in the history of the world…and the Jewish people in Israel love him….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2019
….like he’s the King of Israel. They love him like he is the second coming of God…But American Jews don’t know him or like him. They don’t even know what they’re doing or saying anymore. It makes no sense! But that’s OK, if he keeps doing what he’s doing, he’s good for…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2019
Windsor Mann, in The Week, noted: “A couple of hours later, Trump referred to himself as ‘the chosen one.’ Many people are saying this. Trump is beloved, even worshipped, by people who love Jesus and abhor Mexicans named Jesús.”
Revelation 13:3 goes on to say that one of the Beast’s heads has a mortal wound that was healed.
I ask you, how is it that a man can be impeached twice, lose an election, cheat his followers out of millions of dollars, boast about groping women, have 25 women credibly accuse him of rape, sexual assault, and harassment and still be the most powerful man in the Republican party? What else would explain his ability to suffer no consequences other than a supernatural power granted by Satan?
And then Revelation 13:4 speaks of vast numbers worshipping the Beast (see billboards above) and saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’
Or, as U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham put it, “You know what I liked about Trump? Everybody was afraid of him, including me.” (Note: If people wish to alert Senator Graham to his likely eternal damnation for choosing Team Antichrist, contact him at @LindseyGrahamSC on Twitter or via his contact form.
13:5 The Beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.
People who have worked with him in the Trump organization and on his campaign scoff at the thought of Donald Trump having any religion. He has publicly claimed that he has no need to seek God’s forgiveness. Indeed, when pastors laid hands and prayed over him, he laughed at them afterward and said they were full of shit.
As far as exercising authority for forty-two months, we know that four years in office equals 48 months, but while in office, he was on vacation, some of which he said he spent working, for 32 months. On the other hand, since Trump left office, the sniveling oblations of Republican politicians show that he still exercises a great deal of authority. I’m sure we can make it all add up.
I am not an expert on who dwells in heaven, but records show that Trump has called soldiers who were captured and killed “suckers” and “losers.” He mocked the mother of a Muslim soldier who died in Iraq and suggested at a rally in Michigan that the former representative John Dingell, whose widow succeeded him in office, was in Hell. As people across the country succumbed to the coronavirus pandemic, he made light of their deaths.
13:7 Also, it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.
Who is more saintly than parents willing to leave everything they know in their homelands to protect their children from hunger and violence? Or Indigenous people laying down their bodies to prevent yet another fossil fuel pipeline from raping the earth and water sources? Or organizers fighting for their communities to have the same access to education, healthcare, security, and environmental protections that wealthier communities do? Or those who say, “Not one more Black or Brown person made in the image of God will die in police custody without the System feeling our outrage?”
13:8 and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life
I think we’ve covered this part. Of course, die-hard Trump worshippers are probably about 20–25% of the U.S. population, and most of the world despises him, but let’s allow for some poetic license.
Now a second Beast appears, also called the false prophet.
13:12 It exercises all the authority of the first Beast on its behalf and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first Beast, whose mortal wound had been healed.
The Republican Party? Trump’s Press Secretaries? How about Mike Pence, who tried to lend Trump’s vulgar, incoherent ramblings some gravitas? Or maybe post-presidency Trump talking about when he was president? Again, we’ll take some poetic license here. Medieval Christians linked it to Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, has been suggested in the past and, more recently Barack Obama, because of course, it’s Obama.
13:13 It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of all;
How about those fireworks Trump authorized over Mt. Rushmore, even though the National Park Service told him the danger of a forest fire was too great? Or the Trump 2020 fireworks at the Republican National Convention?
13:14 and by the signs that it is allowed to perform on behalf of the Beast, it deceives the inhabitants of earth, telling them to make an image for the Beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet lived;
Remember this guy from the 2021 CPAC Convention?
13:16 Also, it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead,
MAGA hats, duh. (As many people on Twitter have already discerned.)
13:18 This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the Beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred and sixty-six.
Apocalypse-watchers have associated 666 with a lot of people throughout history. “Vicarius Filii Dei,” or “Representative of the Son of God,” was a title applied to Peter, whom Catholics regard as the first pope. The numerical value of the letters add up to 666. People have also found ways to adjust the names of Muhammad, Martin Luther, Napoleon, Hitler, and Mussolini to fit the number 666. Famously “Ronald,” “Wilson,” and “Reagan” have six letters each
Thomas Hartmann noted that Donald Trump’s grandfather’s name was Friedrich Drumpf. Trump’s father anglicized his name to Frederick Trump. So if we Germanize Donald John Trump’s middle name and surname, we come up with Donald Johann Drumpf: 666.⁵ Also, Donald Trump was the 45th president of the United States, and unemployment peaked at 14.8% during his presidency: 45x14.8=666.
Other indications suggested by Thom Hartmann: MAGA means “sorcerer” in Latin and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, bought 666 5th Avenue.⁵ Among the evils related to that address: when Kushner fell into debt and couldn’t pay the mortgage on the property, he asked the government of Qatar to bail him out. Soon after, Saudi Arabia, which is bombing and starving Yemen all to Hell, imposed a blockade on Qatar because it has diplomatic relations with Iran (also, I’m guessing, because it hosts Al-Jazeera, which reports on Saudi Arabia’s human rights atrocities.) Kushner, an advisor to Trump, urged him to support the blockade. Qatar gave Kushner the loan. The State Department then told Saudi Arabia to lift the blockade.⁶
Of course, some textual arguments against assigning the role of Antichrist make sense. As I mentioned above, far from worshipping him, all but around .002-.003 of the world’s population despises him. And given his open disdain for people who choose to join the military, it’s hard to picture him leading the “kings of the earth and their armies” to fight a heavenly rider on a white horse and his angelic hosts, as described in Revelation 18:19.
However, if you read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5–7, you will see that Trump preaches and models its antithesis. Egotism, violence, and never, ever forgiving anyone are foundational to his theology, such as it is. Then we have Matthew 25:37–46, in which Jesus says those who attend to the physical needs of desperate people, welcome strangers, and visit people in prison bestow those same acts of mercy on him. We need only brief reminders of Trump’s contempt for people trapped in poverty and the criminal justice system, as well as his crimes against the immigrant community to call him the Anti-Jesus Christ, or Antichrist for short.
And Matthew 25:41 tells us in the final days, God will say to Donald J. Trump,
You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Endnotes
¹DISCLAIMER: I have a Masters’s in Biblical Studies and believe the Book of Revelation, like the Book of Daniel, was written in coded language to provide comfort and hope to people suffering under military occupation and the egregious abuses of their human rights. (Revelation was intended for first-century Christians living under persecution by the Roman Empire, and Daniel for Jews suffering under the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes in the 2nd-century BCE.) But if Hal Lindsey, Frank Peretti, Tim LaHaye, John Hagee, and random people on the internet can speculate on the identity of the Antichrist, I think I have the authority to do so as well. Oh, and check out Revelation 21. Its pathos and beauty never fail to touch me.
²Thomas Hartmann is a notable exception. He does not claim to be a believer, but he makes a good case for the Antichristhood of Donald Trump. I am indebted to him for his research.
³Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
⁴‘All the Assault Allegations against Donald Trump, Recapped’. PBS NewsHour, 14 Oct. 2016, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/assault-allegations-donald-trump-recapped; Yuhas, Alan. ‘Woman Who Accused Donald Trump of Raping Her at 13 Drops Lawsuit’. The Guardian, 5 November 2016, sec. US news. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/04/donald-trump-teenage-rape-accusations-lawsuit-dropped.
⁵Ibid.
⁶An extreeeemely simplified description. For a better analysis, check out this article from Just Security.
