Are There More People Who Believe "The Trump Prophecy" Or More Who Believe The NY Times Piece That Exposed Trump As A Fraud?

The Trump Prophecy is the story of a guy with PTSD, Mark Taylor, who believes he heard God telling him Trump is da man! He sounds a lot more like a deeply disturbed QAnon guy than like anyone in touch with God.

He also claims, according to The Guardian that "Trump will serve two terms, the landmark supreme court ruling on abortion in the Roe v Wade case will be overturned, and that next month's midterm elections will result in a 'red tsunami,' strengthening Republican control of both houses of Congress. Barack Obama will be charged with treason and Trump will authorise the arrest of 'thousands of corrupt officials, many of whom are part of a massive satanic pedophile ring.' Trump will also force the release of cures for cancer and Alzheimer’s that are currently being withheld by the pharmaceutical industry."

Producer Rick Eldridge told the press that "There's a mandate for us as believers to pray for those in authority over us. That's a deeper message that we really emphasize in the movie."

OK, so that's one portion of the equation. Yesterday Michael D'Antonio, author of tNever Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success wrote an OpEd for CNN, Trump is exposed as the fraud that he is, referencing the blockbuster NY Times exposé that broke Tuesday evening. "In breathtaking detail and with exacting precision," he wrote, "the New York Times has confirmed that for much of his life, though he claimed to be a brilliant businessman, Trump was benefiting from a rigged system, which his family manipulated to transfer enormous wealth from his father to him. This truth, long suspected by those who have peered into Trump's finances, included questionable and potentially fraudulent practices that were used so the Trump clan could avoid paying the kind of taxes ordinary people pay every day... [T]he Times story is quite persuasive. According to the Times, by age 3, Trump was receiving $200,000 per year in today's dollars from his father's operations. By 8, he was a millionaire. And his wealth only grew from there."

Talk about rigged.

Overall, the picture the Times paints comports with much that could be surmised about the family over the years. By the 1960s, his father, Fred, was one of the wealthiest men in New York. His financial prowess backed his son's first big project, a hotel renovation at Grand Central Terminal, and his signature Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. Although the back story about the hotel project and Trump Tower were well established, the facts assembled by the Times show Donald Trump used deception, not just in carrying out those projects, but throughout the course of his career.

The Times notes he profited from his father's largess to the tune of more than $400 million. Much of this money was given to him though business entities, trusts and employment schemes that permitted him to accept multiple salaries at the same time.

...All the evidence gathered by the Times conflicts directly with the message Trump has long promoted. From his early days in Manhattan, when he marketed himself as a young tycoon, Trump insisted he had succeeded on the basis of his own ingenuity, creativity and grit.

This myth is the chief takeaway from his famous best-selling book, The Art of the Deal, and it was the backdrop for the development of his TV show The Apprentice. In the opening montage for the program, he falsely declared he was "the largest real estate developer in New York, by far." Real estate insiders, of course, knew this claim was rubbish.

Not surprisingly, much of Trump's rhetoric was seen as hyperbole in the service of a public image that was playful and ridiculous. However, once his business acumen became one of the pillars of his presidential campaign, it became fair game for intense examination. Trump has impeded the process by refusing to honor the tradition of releasing his tax returns. However, with impressive legwork and number-crunching, the Times has made the picture much less opaque... The wall of secrecy has now been breached, and what lies behind it seems to be proof that, at the very least, the reputation Trump claimed was a fraud all along.

Today our friends from Vote Common Good made it to Lancaster, PA for a rally with Jess King. Good coverage from Earle Cornelius of LancasterOnline. For decades, Republicans and white evangelical voters have been in lockstep on issues ranging from abortion to gun rights to religious freedom," he wrote. "According to the Pew Research Center, more than 80 percent of white evangelical voters supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. But a group of progressive Christians, many of whom are evangelical Democrats, hope to change those numbers."

Wednesday evening, that group, Vote Common Good, staged a rally at  Grace United Church of Christ, 1947 New Holland Pike. Lancaster was the second stop on a scheduled 31-stop tour, designed to rally voters in 20 battleground congressional districts-- including the 11th Congressional District that includes Lancaster County-- across the country.

Doug Pagitt, an evangelical pastor from Minneapolis, and executive director of Vote Common Good, said the election of Donald Trump was the catalyst that birthed the organization.

Pagitt said it was “terrifying” that “Donald Trump was not only a reasonable choice but the preferred choice of evangelicals. This kind of tragedy in the American spirit isn’t just a problem to solve, it’s really a crisis to respond to.”

Speaking to a gathering of roughly 35 people at Grace UCC, Pagitt said the group’s aim is to “flip Congress” as a way to counter the Trump administration’s policies.

He said while he does not to promote either party, “It is the way the Republicans and the Trump administration has acted that has caused my faith to fuel me ... to do something about it,” he said.

“No one is calling for perfection,” he said. “What every religious person I know calls for is that their leaders act in ways that are righteous.”

That message resonated with Juli Knopp, who traveled to the event from York with her husband, Wayne.

A registered Democrat, she said the tone coming out of Washington, D.C.  has angered her.

“So I thought this would be a good first step to figure out how I can do something,” she said.

Her husband, a former Republican who is registered as an independent, worries that legislation now being promoted in Washington, D.C., adversely affects most Americans.

“It seems that the policies being created now are more and more geared toward a smaller and smaller segment of the world and it’s just not right.”

Jeff Dombach, a computer programmer from Centerville is an independent voter. He said he has supported Republican candidates in the past but “is unhappy with the divisiveness that’s being brewed in politics.

“Even though I’m an old white guy, I think the powers in control are just driven out of fear for losing their status and rank in society and maybe it’s time they do.”

Lydia from Lititz, who declined to give her last name, said she was an evengelical for most of her life and a Republican for 40 years. But no longer.

“I was a Goldwater girl,” she said, referring to the late Sen. Barry Goldwater, who was the Republican presidential nominee in 1964. “But I can’t support  any Republicans now.”

As for evangelicals, she posed this question: “Where is the discernment?”

Pagitt said some Republican Christians he has spoken to are more loyal “to the Second Amendment than to the Second Commandment.”

Jess King, the Democratic  candidate in the 11th Congressional District, called this “an unusual political moment.”

Prior to addressing the gathering, she said people don’t believe their values are being represented in Washington. D.C.

Among the speakers was Robb Ryerse, a pastor from Fayetteville, Arkansas, who lost in the 2018 Republican primary election to incumbent Steve Womack.

Ryerse describes himself as a pro-life Republican who supports universal health care. Those two issues are not mutually exclusive, he said, because health care is not only about protecting babies but about making sure all Americans have health care coverage.

“I have stayed in the  Republican Party to fight for the historic values of the party,” he said. “It’s the party that used to be the progressive party in the United States.”

America is split now, between those who believe The Trump Prophesy or some other nonsensical garbage just like it, and those who believe that Trump is a crook and a fraud, a modern day P.T. Barnum. That, alas, is pretty much what the midterm elections are all about next month.