As I read 2025 articles of Trump's prayer meets, prayer reps, and religious cabinet members, I see many questionable names come up. I don't feel qualified to pass judgement on them, but it does appear that Trump may have a distorted view of Christianity that prevents him from choosing more obvious, Biblical leaders to advocate.
That's a highly charitable read of the situation.
I think a more realistic read is that Trump has a near-zero understanding, respect, or concern for Christianity and views the Christians who occupy his political base of support as a means toward his own ends, and as a life-long unethical conman has zero scruples using the pretense of "Christianity" to manipulate support for himself.
I don't think Trump is even a political conservative, he is a Republican by way of convenience. He is engaged in a longterm con for personal gain and aggrandisement, and the fruit of this is the erosion of the Constitutional Republic, American democracy, over a century of diplomatic ties and alliances and international reputation, and ultimately the very soul of the United States.
Toward that end, he will surround himself with those who stroke his ego, will lick his boots, and not challenge him. During his first tenure in the White House he made the "mistake" of having people who cared about the rule of law, about checks and balances, and were loyal to the Constitution and their interpretation of the Constitutional rule of law and thus were willing to say "no" to Trump. This time, however, there is no such obstacles. And so why not, for the sake of brand, power, and glory, have religious talking heads who will do his bidding, spread the gospel of Donald Trump, and fleece the flock? It makes absolute perfect sense that he would bring on unscrupulous prophets of ba'al to perpetuate his dark evangelism to increase the Trump cult, and rake in the worship of this false messiah.
As for Paula White being a Christian? Like other prosperity teacher/preachers who claim allegiance to the Christian faith while getting rich spreading a false gospel message, I wouldn't want to judge whether she's saved or not. Consider, there are multitudes of misguided people who embrace Jesus and self identify as Christian but hold unbiblical beliefs and blatently defy God's Word. How far can one be away from the truth and the objective standard of God and still be saved? I don't know, but I think such people will have a price to pay on judgement day, be it outright damnation or just unearned rewards in heaven. Meanwhile, Christians would do well to not follow or enable the false teachers or false religious beliefs that plague our society.
It's not really a matter of whether she is saved or not, that's up to the only One fit to judge, and that's none of us here on earth. The issue is, as you note one of theology, and fidelity to God's word; but it shouldn't be shocking that a heretic who preaches the false gospel of wealth and power would, themselves, become the prophets of a false messiah who is a living embodiment of nearly all the classic vices, and whose god is avarice.
Fascism and False religion make easy bedfellows, both are offspring of the devil, and their incestual union means death both here and abroad.
The Christian Church has a spiritual obligation to not only preach against false religion, but has a moral obligation toward our neighbor, toward common justice, to be a voice of social righteousness when principalities and powers cause harm.
When the Nazi government claimed that the German Church could not receive Jewish converts to Christianity, this became an Ecclesiastical Crisis, which resulted in one of the first major acts of Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer to speak up to address "the Jewish question", for the state acted outside of its ordained role to interfere in what was fundamentally the affairs of the Church, which is called and commanded by her Lord Jesus to make disciples through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, of
all nations. And, as it was the case, the state violated its own validity by becoming an instrument of oppression, rather than an instrument of good order--by targeting Jews (and other demographics)--the state was invalidating itself; and thus Bonhoeffer argued that when the state in such a position oversteps its ordained authority (for ultimately it is God who is Sovereign over all things, and even the temporal powers are subject to Christ who has conquered death and all worldly powers by His death and resurrection and has received Eternal Dominion and kingdom, seated at the right hand of the Father--whether they know it or not, whether they like it or not, for
every knee will bow) it may mean that the Church must not merely throw itself upon the victim to block the unjust sword or shelter the victim or bandage the victim's wounds--but if absolutely necessary, become an antagonizing force that has its hand forced by such extraordinary circumstance.
That the Church must stand up, rise up, speak up, and resist--even at personal cost.
-CryptoLutheran
