In Trump We Trust?
What two inaugural addresses show about the faith of Donald Trump and Barack Obama
President Obama referred to God five times in his second inaugural address. Yesterday President Trump mentioned God three times.
They invoked God in nearly identical closings.
Trump: Thank you, God Bless You, And God Bless America.
Obama: Thank you. God bless you, and may He forever bless these United States of America.
I note that President Trump omitted “the United States of” in his speech. But what most interests me is what the two addresses tell us about each president’s faith.
On January 21, 2013, President Obama began his inaugural address by quoting the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Self-evident perhaps, Obama said — but not self-executing. He asserted that history tells us “that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth.”
My plan here is to take each president’s references to God at face value, because there is no way of knowing truly the heart and mind of another person. By that measure, President Obama believes, with the Founders, that the inalienable rights of all people — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — are gifts from God. These rights are sacred and not reserved for citizens of the United States.
He invoked the Deity again in his call for the U.S. to lead the world’s transition to sustainable energy sources. “That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God.”
In his third reference to God, President Obama said:
My fellow Americans, the oath I have sworn before you today, like the one recited by others who serve in this Capitol, was an oath to God and country, not party or faction.
President Trump’s references to God come much later in his inaugural address and are quite different.
At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.
When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.
The Bible tells us, “how good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.”
The juxtaposition of the President’s call to patriotism with the Scripture reference clearly equates the citizens of one nation, ours, with “God’s people.”
President Trump’s next reference to God is similarly limited to America:
We will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement and, most importantly, we are protected by God.
Each president concludes by asking for God’s blessings on our nation. But only one of them included in the body of his address a strikingly personal promise of infallibility.
I will fight for you with every breath in my body — and I will never, ever let you down.
That was the 45th President, whose faith in himself is boundless. Given the seemingly miraculous victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential election, that faith might not be misplaced.
We can perhaps see the genesis of President Trump’s faith in himself and in a God who takes sides in the affairs of men by looking to the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, the man who married Donald and his first wife, Ivana, on the Sunday before Easter in 1977.
Peale, author of the bestseller The Power of Positive Thinking, was pastor at New York’s Marble Collegiate Church, which the President’s parents occasionally attended.
Washington Post reporters Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher in their book Trump Revealed: The Definitive Biography of the 45th President, write the following:
Peale “would give the best sermons of anyone; he was an amazing public speaker,” Trump said. “He thought I was his greatest student of all time.” Trump’s parents first took him to hear Peale’s sermons as early as the 1950s, when the minister was at the apex of his fame, with a newspaper column and radio show that reached millions. “I know that with God’s help, I can sell vacuum cleaners,” Peale once said, a perspective that appealed to entrepreneurs, including Fred Trump and his son. As Donald Trump found success, Peale predicted Donald would become “the greatest builder of our time.” Trump, in turn, credited Peale with teaching him to win by thinking only of the best outcomes: “The mind can overcome any obstacle. I never think of the negative.”
Peale’s greatest student of all time might well turn out to be President Trump, who still believes his mind can overcome any obstacle. He is thus probably telling the truth when he promises that he will never, ever let us down.
President Obama’s radically different view of God is described in a 2015 Washington Post piece titled “The Quiet Impact of Obama’s Christian Faith” by Greg Jaffe. The author quotes Obama’s 2009 commencement address at the University of Notre Dame:
The ultimate irony of faith is that it necessarily admits doubt. It’s the belief in things not seen. It should humble us. It should temper our passions, cause us to be wary of too much self righteousness.
Jaffe’s article recalls Obama’s moving eulogy for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, gunned down along with eight other parishioners at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., in June of 2015.
In the tragedy of the Charleston shootings, Obama saw a chance to recapture some of the spirit that had fueled his rise in 2004 and animated the early hope of his presidency.
“That’s what I’ve felt this week — an open heart,” he told the mourners in Charleston. “That, more than any particular policy analysis, is what’s called upon right now.”
He looked out at the crowd. “If we can find that grace, anything is possible,” he continued. “If we can tap that grace, everything can change.”
Twice Obama spoke the opening words of the Christian hymn “Amazing Grace.” He then closed his eyes and bowed his head. Slowly and hesitantly, he began to sing.
I believe, with Obama, that “God works in mysterious ways.” I believe He can use the presidency of Donald Trump to bless the United States of America and the whole world.
I will be praying for that blessing every single day of his Presidency.
