The Media Research Center’s complaints about the pope being insufficiently right-wing took anm evanghelical direction in an April 19 post by Mark Finkelstein, who groused that a group of Trump supporters was highlighted as right-wing enough for Trump:
On Saturday’s The Weekend: Primetime,MS NOW hosts Antonia Hylton and Charles Coleman Jr. combined for a remarkable escalation—from stylistic nitpicking to smearing an entire group of Christians as extremists.
After opening with a polished aside about Trump’s recent use of “God is good,” which she said had not previously been part of his ‘linguistic repertoire,’” Hylton quickly pivoted to a jaw-dropping—and wholly unsupported—claim: that Trump is surrounded by religious advisers who are “telling him that he is God,” or effectively God’s representative on Earth.
Hylton offered no evidence for the assertion, presenting it instead as her personal “read” based on following “extremist” Christian figures. But she didn’t name a single adviser making such a claim—let alone anyone literally telling Trump he is God.
Finkelstein whined that it was pointed out how these right-wing Christians have been effusive about Trump:
So in the span of a single segment, MS NOW went from parsing Trump’s phrasing to portraying his Christian advisers as both blasphemous and racially extremist—without offering concrete evidence for either charge.
The charge is also hard to square with reality. Trump’s most prominent faith adviser, Paula White, has long been associated with a racially diverse network of Pentecostal and Charismatic leaders, and for years pastored a congregation in which non-white members made up a majority.
Hylton’s supposed proof point? A lighthearted remark from Rep. Troy Nehls—who is not a spiritual adviser to Trump—saying the president is “better than sliced bread” and “almost a second coming.”
“Almost,” of course, means not. And paired with a “sliced bread” setup, the line reads as obvious hyperbole, not theology. But Hylton treated it as evidence of “blasphemy,” asking, “Does it get any more blasphemous than that?”
Finkelstein seems to have missed the time White likened Trump to Jesus — something black theologians have criticized for racial elements. He then played Obama whataboutism: “Back in the MSNBC days, no one blinked when Newsweek published a provocative Obama the ‘Second Coming’ cover story in 2013, or when MSNBC contributor Michael Eric Dyson suggested ‘Obama is Jesus’ to many of his followers.” He then dropped his pope reference:
From there, the conversation spiraled into broader claims about exclusionary, “white” Christianity supposedly threatened by the Pope’s more “inclusive” message.
Lost in the rush to condemn was any attempt to substantiate the core accusation—that Trump’s advisers are telling him he is God—or to justify branding them as proponents of white supremacy.
Finkelstein seems to have missed the repeated laying of hands on Trump by right-wing Christians — an ostentatious display seemingly designed to appease his evangelical supporters.