Refusing To Bow To Trump’s Golden Idol

Donald Trump understands one thing better than many pastors: religious imagery works. Not theology. Not discipleship. Just Imagery.

He knows that if you hold up a Bible, stand in front of a church, and say “God,” you can turn faith into branding, and turn branding into cash. You can smile for the camera, wrap what’s sacred in a flag, and watch a scary number of Christians fall in line like sheep to the slaughter because they’ve forgotten the difference between a president and a butcher.

Brandishing the Bible

In 2020, while many in the nation protested George Floyd’s murder, law enforcement swept demonstrators from Lafayette Square to create a photo op for Trump posing with a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church. The claim that he held it up upside down went viral. Fact checkers proved this claim false. So, yes, he held it right-side up. But spiritually speaking, he still used it upside down. Instead of opening it and reading from it, he brandished it. And his weapon did its work. He showed us all that if you smile and hold a Bible, the sheep will follow.

The Trump Bible

And then, in 2024, Trump’s God Bless the USA Bible went on sale at $59.99 a copy. Instead of separating church and state, Trump bundled religion and politics together in a volume that bundled the King James Version together with the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance, and Lee Greenwood’s “I’m Proud to Be an American.” During Holy Week, he promoted the sale with the slogan, “Let’s Make America Pray Again.”

But, in doing so, he showed himself to be anti-Jesus by monetizing Scripture during the same week that Jesus cleared the money changers out of the Temple and went to the cross for it.

But evangelicals didn’t mind. They followed Trump’s grift because he made it feel like catechism. They swallowed his teaching that they could put the Bible, nationalism, celebrity-worship, and Trump’s brand in the same ark of the covenant. Trump trained them to ignore Jesus’s statement that his kingdom is not of this world.

Jesus Christ! It’s Donald Trump!

Then came the more blatant imagery. Just one week after Easter Sunday, when he threatened to destroy the Iranian civilization, he posted an AI image depicting himself as Jesus, healing a man who looked suspiciously like his bestie Epstein. After backlash, including criticism from some conservative leaders, Trump deleted the image. Later, he backpedaled, claiming it was supposed to show him as a doctor.

Right. Because doctors wear robes reminiscent of Christian icons and lay haloed healing hands on the sick, surrounded by divine light. Apparently the stethoscope was hidden somewhere behind the American flag, eagles, fighter jets, and whatever fever-dream angelic creature was hovering in the background.

Then, days later, Trump reposted another AI-generated image of himself standing at a microphone, touching heads with Jesus. The original caption read, “I was never a very religious man .. but doesn’t it seem , with all these satanic , demonic , child sacrificing monsters being exposed … that God might be playing his Trump card !”

Later, on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this, but I think it is quite nice!!!”

Lump Trump Together with Jesus

Of course, he thought it was nice. That’s the whole point. These images aren’t random internet nonsense. They’re intentional—and they’re devotional propaganda. They’re designed to collapse the distance between Savior and strongman, and to confuse the allegiance that Christians once declared when they stood in the face of Empire and said, “Christ is Lord!” Judging by the applause, the president has been successful. He’s trained the evangelical eye to lump Trump together with Jesus.

Once religious people get used to seeing this kind of iconography, it’s hard not to become confused. He’s selling the Bible. He’s posing with Jesus. He’s dressing in Christ’s robes. Sure, his critics are calling it blasphemy—but if you’re a follower, you just call it faith.

The Golden Statue

Then came the golden statue. At Trump National Doral in Miami, evangelical pastor and spiritual adviser Mark Burns dedicated a twenty-two-foot gold-leafed statue of Trump. The statue depicts the president’s fist-pumping gesture after the 2024 assassination attempt. On social media, Burns said, “Let me be clear: this is not a golden calf. We worship the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone.” He also described the statue in terms of patriotism, resilience, and divine protection.

Let’s stop there for a minute. When your ceremony for a giant golden statue of a political leader requires the sentence, “This is not a golden calf,” it just may be—you guessed it—a golden calf.

The Bible is pretty clear about this. It has a word for golden objects that become the focus of religious devotion. That word is idolatry.

The Golden Calf

The first, most obvious story is the golden calf from Exodus 32:1-4. Moses is on the mountain, receiving the Ten Commandments (including “no other gods” and “no graven images”) from God. The people grow anxious waiting for him. They want something they can trust, like the gods of Egypt. So, Moses’s brother Aaron gathers their gold and fashions a calf for them to worship. Read the chapter and you’ll see how well that went down.

But this is how idolatry works. It doesn’t usually begin with people saying, “Let’s abandon God.” Instead, idolatry happens when people say, “Let’s put God to our own use. Let’s make God visible, marketable, and manageable. Let’s turn God into a national symbol.”

Notice that Aaron didn’t give up his position as a religious leader when he did this. He built an altar and announced a feast to the LORD (Exodus 32:5). This is what most people miss—the golden calf was not an abandonment of God. It was a branding of God, sold as worship but really designed to rally the people around the leader who gave it to them. The way I read it, Aaron assumed Moses had died on the mountain, and he was using the golden calf to get the people’s vote.

The Golden Image

Next comes the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3. King Nebuchadnezzar built a giant golden image and summoned the empire’s leaders for the dedication. When the music played, everyone was expected to bow. It was pretty much the same thing we saw in Miami—politics as worship. Empire as liturgy. National unity enforced through public reverence of an idolized leader.

But the three Hebrew men refused. They didn’t give the old MAGA chant, “Our leader is flawed, but God is using him.” They didn’t rationalize it by saying, “We are not worshiping the statue; we are just honoring the office.” They just said no. Even though it might mean their lives were forfeit. And this is what the faithful must do in the face of idolatry.

The Abomination of Desolation

In Matthew 24, Jesus borrows from Daniel’s language when he warns his disciples about the “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place. Historically, that phrase was associated with the desecration of the Jewish temple under Antiochus IV Epiphanes, in which the Seleucid ruler set up pagan worship in the temple and sacrificed a pig on the altar.

It wasn’t simply a matter of something offensive happening in sacred space. As grotesque as it was, it was a more than the violation of a building. It was political power masquerading as worship. It was a ruler’s image intruding where only God belongs.

Jesus says when you see this, flee. Have nothing to do with it. It’s important to note that Jesus’s Jewish audience understood the significance of abandoning the temple in favor of the mountains. Before the temple was built, mountaintop altars were where people worshiped God. What Jesus is saying is this: when you see established religion embracing politics as religion, it’s time to abandon that religion. Go back to something simpler and unmoored from the world’s power structures.

No, I’m not saying Trump is Antiochus Epiphanes. What I’m saying is that the Bible shows a pattern of people abandoning faith in the invisible God, in exchange for golden statues. And we should not refuse to recognize it just because the statue is of a U.S. president.

The Image of the Beast

The book of Revelation shines a bright light on all this gold. It doesn’t describe a golden statue—if you’re thinking it does, then you’re remembering Daniel. But Revelation does describe an image of the beast, a symbol of political power that becomes an object of worship (Revelation 13:14-15).

Now, unlike many fundamentalists, I do not read Revelation as a literal end-times newspaper. John of Patmos was not secretly writing a coded message about Donald Trump. But Revelation is absolutely about empire and propaganda. It’s about rulers who demand worship and religious systems that support the brutality of powerful men. And it’s about people so dazed by power that they cannot distinguish the Lamb from the Beast.

Though Revelation describes a horned beast, we must remember that true beasts don’t look like monsters from the beginning. Sometimes they arrive wrapped in a flag, quoting Scripture, selling Bibles. Sometimes beasts stand beside pastors, equating themselves with Jesus, setting up giant golden images of themselves and calling it holy.

Is Trump the Antichrist?

No, I’m not saying Donald Trump is the Antichrist. Revelation doesn’t use that word for the Beast, and I don’t believe there will be one single person with that title. (To read more, check out my articles here and here and here.)

But if I were looking for a literal fulfillment of Revelation’s biggest bad guy, I’d look for a wealthy political leader who profits from Bible sales, poses with Scripture, depicts himself in Jesus-imagery, surrounds himself with religious sycophants, inspires a personality cult, and now has a golden statue dedicated in his honor by evangelical leaders. Oh, and one who starts wars while vying for a Nobel Peace Prize. If I were looking for a literal Antichrist, he’d look an awful lot like Trump.

The Bigger Question

But the bigger question isn’t whether Trump is the Antichrist. The more urgent question is why so many Christians can’t recognize idolatry when it’s twenty-two feet tall and covered in gold. Jesus warned that false messiahs and false prophets could deceive even the elect (Matthew 24:24). He didn’t say this so religious people could congratulate themselves for being too smart to be deceived. He said this specifically because religious people are absolutely capable of falling for this kind of deception.

Pastors can be deceived. Churches and denominations can, too. The “elect” can be deceived when they start letting the rod and staff of fear guide them. When powerful people promise protection, faithful people can be deceived. Politicians know this—and they know how to push the right buttons. Hold the Bible. Sell the Bible. Post pictures of yourself as Jesus. Talk about God’s hand preserving your life. Build the golden image and let people bow down. This isn’t complicated—it’s something faithful believers have fallen for since the invention of religion. And it’s embarrassing.

What Jesus Doesn’t Need

Christianity already has a Savior. His name is Jesus. He doesn’t need a Moral Majority, Christian Coalition, or a MAGA movement. Jesus doesn’t need a political strongman to defend him—remember, he could have called legions of angels if he wanted to. And, you want to know what else Jesus doesn’t need?

He doesn’t need pastors polishing Caesar’s image and calling it spiritual leadership. He doesn’t need wolves in sheep’s clothing masquerading as ministers deceiving the sheep.

Jesus also doesn’t need moderate-minded ministers who see the blasphemy in Donald Trump to softly remind their flocks to “be careful.” And he certainly doesn’t need them keeping silent to avoid confrontation.

What Jesus Does Need

What he does need is for faithful leaders to pick up their shepherd’s staves and beat off the wolves. He needs “woke” Christians to speak so clearly they can’t be misunderstood. For those who still have ears to hear, Paul’s words are not a lullaby. They are an alarm: “Awake, O sleeper! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you (Ephesians 5:14)!”

It’s time to wake up. Can’t you hear the image of the beast calling his faithful? Can’t you hear the faithless shepherds flattering Caesar?

The wolves are already in the sanctuary.