A conservative radio host is taking umbrage with Donald Trump peddling $60 Bibles, claiming that religious individuals, including ministers, are cashing in on the former president's stature while ignoring his faults.
Trump took to Truth Social on Tuesday with a video promoting the "God Bless the USA Bible," published by Trump ally and Grammy-winning country singer-songwriter Lee Greenwood who penned the patriotic anthem decades ago. The King James English translation includes a handwritten chorus of the song, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee said in the three-plus-minute recording, released on Holy Week right before the Easter holiday, that "religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from our country." It was met with criticism from political opponents who described the advertisement as another in a series of "grifts."
Conservative radio host Erick Erickson said Trump's most recent advertising endeavor, which purportedly does not benefit him nor his political campaign, is wrong for multiple reasons, including that the U.S. doesn't actually need more religion, but simply more Jesus Christ.
"Here's what pisses me off and what I do hate," Erickson wrote on Substack. "The former president is surrounded by a group of mainly prosperity gospel ministers who treat him like they treat God—a sugar daddy with whom they transact business. They attest to Trump's bona fides and, in exchange, want donations, policies, pictures, connections, etc.
"They want Trump to give them policy wins and other things, and, in exchange, they give the man their loyalty and support."
Newsweek reached out to Erickson via email for further comment.
Erickson also published an image on Instagram on Tuesday, reading: "I wonder how the Seventh Commandment reads in the Trump Bible."
The Seventh Commandment states: "Thou shall not commit adultery."
Erickson asked, rhetorically or otherwise, whether any clergy associated with Trump or routinely in his orbit have "truly ministered to a man who has repeatedly cheated on his wives and publicly declared on multiple occasions to many that he has never needed to repent?"
"Are the Christians who cheer on Trump so transactional that they'll take what they can get from him now, damn his soul?" he added.
Paul Raushenbush, president of Interfaith Alliance, said via email to Newsweek that Trump was "shameless" for mixing civic texts like the Constitution alongside the text of the Christian Bible and a famous country music song, calling it the latest evidence that the former president employs "tools to be crassly and cynically exploited for the slightest economic or political gain."
"It's also evident that he is happy to uplift the ideology and agenda of Christian nationalism at the expense of the many diverse faiths and beliefs held by millions of Americans and without regard for the constitutional guarantees to freedom of religious belief and practice," Raushenbush said.
Trump's new sales venture has drawn ire from Christians across the country.
Trump selling copies of the Bible "during Holy Week like it's just one more overpriced Trump shoe or steak has really touched a nerve among voters—we've heard from many upset Faithful America members since his video appeared," the Reverend Nathan Empsall, executive director of Faithful America, recently told Newsweek.
"Seeing the indicted, would-be dictator, sell so-called 'patriotic' Bibles does provide a parallel to Holy Week, but it's not with Jesus," Empsall added.
In February, while at a sneaker convention in Philadelphia, Trump introduced a gold pair of $399 "never surrender" high-top shoes.
In December 2022, just before Christmas, Trump announced a digital trading card line. The cards, which sold for $99 each, were described by the former president as "a great Christmas gift."
Update 03/28/24, 9:25 a.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from Paul Raushenbush
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