We have all been basking in the afterglow of Trump’s victory on November 5, and we should. But I have had other thoughts about him floating through my mind, and so I wanted to share them with you, as they bear on much that has happened and might also provide some clues as to what we can expect from Trump in the future.
When Donald Trump was first elected in 2016, he was a very different man than he is now. He was less serious and more ego-driven, and he was also a political novice. When he got to Washington, he was overwhelmed by the Deep State and its minions in both parties. Worse, Trump allowed much of his administration to be hijacked by Neocons, and also his son-in-law and daughter (neither of whom received a single vote).
In other words, Trump made a lot of mistakes and, at times, he was his own worst enemy in terms of how he governed. It was clear by the end of 2016 that his administration was a failure in many ways. Part of that failure occurred because of the Deep State, but some of it was also Trump’s own fault. His personality and his failure to defend and fight for his White working-class base cost him dearly in 2020, when such weakness opened the door for Biden and the Democrats to steal the election.
It was clear that Donald Trump needed to be shaped and molded the same way a sculptor shapes and molds a piece of clay. He needed fine-tuning, and he needed to change and grow. There was no way that would have happened if he had won the 2020 election. He would have governed more or less the same as he did in his first term, and he would now be winding down his second term and getting ready to retire from politics forever.
But how does one shape a human being? How does one alter a man like Donald Trump? He is a billionaire, old in terms of years, and he was very set in his ways and his behavioral patterns. He had had a lifetime of success, riches and fame. Such a man cannot be easily or quickly changed.
The answer is simple: You cast him down from his high office, and you subject him to unrelenting persecution through lawfare, and you put him in a situation where he was nearly killed to open his eyes and to make him see that the high office he held previously was given to him for certain reasons. You also surround him with an entirely different group of people who are more in tune with your expectations for Trump.
That is what happened to Donald Trump. He went from being one of the most powerful men in the world as president to being a has-been and a vulnerable, hapless target of his political enemies. He was persecuted mercilessly, and he came within a whisker of having part of his head blown apart by an assassin. Air Force One, the White House, and all the presidential bling were gone. His enemies closed in around him and did their worst to try to utterly destroy him.
Donald Trump was removed from the presidency and cast into the wilderness for four years to change him from what he was then into what he is now. He is not the same man as he was four years ago. How could he be? No one who has lived through what he has endured would be the same. Adversity brings out the hero, or it crushes the weak. His years in the wilderness did not crush Trump; instead, they made him smarter and stronger, and they taught him just how dangerous the Deep State and woke communism are to America.
We got a sense of this change when Trump was nearly killed. Instead of fleeing for his life from that stage in a fit of narcissistic terror, he raised his fist into the air and yelled, “FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” No better performance by Trump could indicate his seriousness of purpose and his absolute refusal to bow to the will of his enemies.
The Donald Trump of 2016 did not possess such qualities, he was much more focused on his own ego and self-glorification. But after being shot, his focus immediately shifted to his supporters, and he acted to defy his enemies for their benefit and to encourage all of them to stand strong, no matter what might have happened next.
Trump is a more serious man now, and he knows what he must do. Moreover, he knows that he cannot play nice with his enemies and that his actions over the next four years will define him for all time in history. He knows that this is his second chance and that he must rise to this challenge, and he also knows that there will be no third chance.
Now for the most important part of all of this: Whose hand was it that cast Trump down and remolded him into what he is today?
The answer, my dear friends, is simple:
Christ often uses the most unlikely of tools for His purposes. So it was with Donald Trump. The narcissistic, bombastic billionaire was called to serve a higher calling in 2016, and when he failed he was removed from his high office and cast down into the muck. From that point until the election on November 5, Trump was tested by adversity to remold him into the man he is today.
Trump needed to be changed, and so he has been, by the hand of Christ. 🙏🏻