Donald Trump Continues to Know Nothing About the Bible

Test ticker

Monika Bauerlein,
CEO

Dear Reader,

The next few months are make-or-break for Mother Jones’ fundraising, and we need more online readers to pitch in than have been of late. In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we take a level-headed look at the brutal economics of journalism, why investigative reporting like you get from us matters, and why we're optimistic we can grow our base of support in a big way—starting with hitting a huge $300,000 goal in just three weeks. Please learn more and donate if you can right now.

The next few months are make-or-break for Mother Jones’ fundraising. We need to raise $300,000 quickly, and we need more online readers to pitch in than have been. Please learn more in "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," where we go into the brutal economics of journalism, and what makes Mother Jones unique and worth supporting if you can right now.

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Oh look. Donald Trump has a new favorite Bible verse:

WHAM 1180 AM radio host Bob Lonsberry asked the Republican front-runner if he had a favorite verse or story from the Bible that’s impacted his thinking or character.

“Well, I think many. I mean, you know, when we get into the Bible, I think many. So many,” he responded. “And some people—look, an eye for an eye, you can almost say that. That’s not a particularly nice thing. But you know, if you look at what’s happening to our country, I mean, when you see what’s going on with our country, how people are taking advantage of us, and how they scoff at us and laugh at us.”

“And they laugh at our face, and they’re taking our jobs, they’re taking our money, they’re taking the health of our country,” he continued. “And we have to be firm and have to be very strong. And we can learn a lot from the Bible, that I can tell you.”

I’ll say one thing for this: I actually believe it. It’s entirely plausible that this really is the biggest lesson that Donald Trump has taken from the Bible. I even predicted it six months ago.¹

Sadly, Trump misinterprets this admonition the same way most people do. It was meant to stop endless feuds among his people. If you lose an eye, Yahweh limits you to gouging out the other guy’s eye in retribution. You can’t just go ahead and massacre his entire family.

Still, this should go over OK. As near as I can tell, an awful lot of supposedly devout Christians really do think this is the main lesson of the Bible, right along with getting rich, keeping out immigrants, and fighting welfare programs for the poor. It was a nice, safe choice.

¹Sort of.