What did Donald Trump do today?

He returned to the land of the living with a demand for money to get him into heaven.

On Tuesday of this week, Trump sat through a cabinet meeting, occasionally but ineffectually attempting to hide from view the IV bruise that now regularly appears on his hand. (The White House has refused to say what Trump is receiving treatment for, and continues to insist the bruises are from handshaking—although lately they've started appearing on his left hand, too.)

He wasn't seen again by the public or independent press until this morning, 90 hours later, when he appeared at telephoto distance from the White House press pool while entering a Virginia golf resort. Press were not allowed to approach. It's not known whether Trump went out on the course or, as he sometimes does, simply rested in the clubhouse.

 

Trump's absence from public view, combined with a long history of frankly ridiculous claims about his often fragile health, led to jokes and less-than-friendly speculation online last night about whether he had died. 

He has not. But Trump and his supporters seem perversely determined lately to put the idea in people's heads themselves. Earlier this week, Vice-President JD Vance volunteered in an interview with USA Today that he was ready to assume the presidency at any moment—not the sort of thing someone in his job usually goes out of his way to mention.

And Trump—in an extremely uncharacteristic turn—has recently seemed preoccupied with his own mortality. Earlier this month, on an unscheduled call to a Fox News morning program, Trump reflected on his (failed) attempts to force Ukraine to accept Russian terms to end their war. “I want to try and get to heaven, if possible. I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”

Trump is—theoretically—a member of the Presbyterian faith, which (like most Protestant Christian denominations) rejects the idea that salvation can be attained by worldly accomplishments. Normally, when Trump talks directly about religion, it's in sacrilegious terms, as when he compares himself to Jesus Christ or demands that his followers accept that he has been specially marked by God. But the seemingly abashed language about the possibility of his eternal damnation was out of character for a man who has repeatedly claimed not to confess his sins because he doesn't have any.

With the specter of his not-yet-realized mortality being joked about worldwide, today Trump put a more Trumpian spin on the same language: he sent out an e-mail to supporters reiterating his desire to go to heaven—and telling them to pay his political action committee $15 to help make it happen.

Trump, whose net worth is estimated at about $6 billion (Mt. 19:24), and who has encouraged his followers to build literal golden idols of him (Dan. 3:1-18; Exo. 32:1-35), and who has openly defied the biblical commandments against adultery and bearing false witness and covetousness and theft, and who has in thought, word, and deed spurned the teaching of Jesus to shelter the immigrant (Lk. 10:29–37; Mt. 25:35-36; many others) and to share his wealth with the poor (Lk. 6:20-21; Mk. 10:21-22; many others) and to pay his taxes (Lk. 20:19-26) and to forgive his enemies (Mk. 11:25-26) and treat them gently (Mt. 5:38-39) and to make his charitable donations* in secret rather than make a show of them to appear righteous (Mt. 6:1) and to not exalt himself, lest he be humbled (Mt. 23:8-12) and to store up his treasures in heaven rather than on earth (Mt. 6:19-21) and to not despise in his worldliness those of simple faith (Mt. 18:10) and above all (save for his obligation to love God) to love his neighbors as he loves himself (Mt. 22:36-40), was not seen for the remainder of the day.

Why does this matter?

• There is a difference between a person who falls short of their faith and one who cruelly exploits it in others. 

• Americans are entitled to know how severe their president's health issues are.