On Jan. 20, a convicted felon took the presidential oath of office in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. This is the same building that was stormed by the MAGA mob, incited by Donald Trump, on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress was certifying the 2020 electoral college votes. The process was delayed but not completely obstructed.
Since Trump took the oath of office — without putting his hand on a Bible — many Americans are wondering what is going on in Washington. In the strange world of the Trump 2.0 administration, Trump has applied his florid signature to a raft of executive orders, which range from the ridiculous (the Gulf of Mexico is now the Gulf of America; Denali, the highest peak in North America, is once again Mt. McKinley) to the ominous (dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programs and signaling that trans people have no humanity).
On the DEI tip, Trump proclaims without any sense of irony that government hires henceforth will be based on merit; this from a child of privilege whose father, Fred Trump, pumped more than $400 million into the son’s failing businesses.
The face of U.S. government benevolence to the world, the Agency for International Development, has been mainly shuttered, under the aegis of the new secretary of state, Marco Rubio. Famine relief for those starving and malaria eradication efforts are on hold. At this writing, Kash Patel, a demented Trump sycophant who has written about prosecuting the president’s political opponents (shades of Nixon’s enemies list) is being considered for FBI director. A proponent of quack medical remedies, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been picked to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
And Elon Musk, billed in the press as “the world’s richest man,” has sent his youthful minions into the Treasury Department and other agencies to do something or other with secured government computer systems. We don’t know what this particular computer hack portends.
Elections have consequences, it’s said; especially an election that brings an insane criminal into the Oval Office.
Getting back to Musk, the world was shocked to see him deliver two “Sieg Heil” salutes at an inauguration celebration on Jan. 20. This is the way JTA described the occurrence:
The billionaire, who was Trump’s top donor during the 2024 election, told a crowd in Washington, D.C., “This is what victory feels like.” Then he saluted those in attendance, twice, with a straight-armed salute.
“My heart goes out to you,” Musk then said. “It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured.”
To some of his supporters and fans, the salute appeared to be a gesture of his gratitude that was distorted as clips were shared on social media. To many others, mostly among his critics but also including some on the far right, it bore an uncanny resemblance to the straight-armed, palm-down salute of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party.
“For the record, the distance between Trump declaring that he was saved by God to make America great again & Musk delivering the Hitler salute was less than 4 hours,” tweeted Steve Schmidt, a former Republican operative turned critic of the party with 1.4 million followers on X, the social network Musk owns.
The ADL, under the leadership of Jonathan Greenblatt, tweeted: “This is a delicate moment. It’s a new day and yet so many are on edge. Our politics are inflamed, and social media only adds to the anxiety. It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge.”
The group tasked with opposing antisemitism across the land added: “In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning. Let’s hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead.”
Does Musk merit a “bit of grace”?
As a person on Twitter, which has been rebranded as X, I’ve witnessed the new owner, Musk, who bought the social platform for $44 billion, restore the accounts of previously banned neo-Nazis. He has affirmed posts that invoke the antisemitic Great Replacement conspiracy theory. Two days before International Holocaust Commemoration Day, Musk decided to post some offensive Holocaust “jokes,” which drew a rebuke from the ADL.
I’ve been mystified by the Jewish pundits that have tried to defend Musk and rationalized his words and actions. He and his fellow tech billionaires — Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, et al. — are busy toadying to Trump, who is willing to cede power to a cast of grifters and right-wing extremists.
Trump’s pardon of 1,500 January 6 convicts also should be mentioned. Even Trump’s supporters in law enforcement were taken aback by that decision. In the current upside down world of Washington, the MAGA criminals are the “patriots” and “weaponized” attempts to hold criminals accountable are suspect. Above all, Trump always behaves as a perfect little angel. Things have come to a sorry pass.
To get another perspective on the deranged state of U.S. politics, I recently spoke with Talia Lavin, who recently published her second book on the far-right in this country. The title is Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America (Legacy Lit). It’s a fascinating and grim read: Much of the book comes from Lavin’s interviews with former Christian evangelicals who have been psychologically and emotionally scarred from the abuse that they suffered in their families. These true believers hold that a wife should be submissive and child-rearing should not spare the rod. I never considered the fact that some churches offer child-beating implements for sale.
“Within many evangelical homes, violent abuse of children is cast as a direct act of service to God and eschewing it a grave, even mortal sin that puts children in peril of losing their eternal souls,” she writes. Lavin discusses several cases of children in fundamentalist Christian homes that were beaten to death.
The marriage of Christian evangelical fervor and politics has created a toxic brew in society. The nutty QAnon conspiracy theories permeate contemporary political debates, if talk of “spiritual warfare” can be construed as part of a rational debate; there is not much common ground to be found with folks that view Democrats as satan-worshipping pedophiles.
Lavin quotes Benny Hinn, “of the eponymous — and cash-flush — Benny Hinn Ministries”: “We are facing greater spiritual battles today than ever before. There has been a release of demonic activity on earth during the past few months — unseen in world history.”
She notes that “Trump himself has coyly and not so coyly cozied up to a movement that conveniently views him as a supernatural savior figure with the power to hide codes in clocks and rescue trafficked children — and even more conveniently, potentially show up as a supportive mob. He has certainly leaned into the Red Scare elements that underlie much of American right-wing conservative paranoia, as well as crudely sowing skepticism about the integrity of the American justice system and the country’s elections.”
In my chat with Lavin, I mentioned that American Jews generally view extremely fundamentalist Christians, those who speak in tongues and bring poisonous snakes into church, as weird. And Lavin, who comes from an Orthodox Jewish background, commented that “people really discount faith and religion as reasons behind these extreme political actions.” In her talks with evangelicals, the idea of a life ordered by God, in all the particulars, “was so familiar to me.” She suggested that the press goes wrong in looking for “other, secret motivations” behind the actions of the Christian faithful — a “combo of condescension and disbelief” is being brought to the subject.
And Lavin is impressed by the “creepy” way that the Christian right folks regard Jews, whose souls are always in need of saving. She cites “Jews for Jesus, which is a predatory evangelical cult that specifically preys on Jews; their relationship to us is this ferocious hunger for our souls.”
She adds, “I find forced conversion, coerced conversion, to be one of the darkest throughlines in our history as a people.” This aggressive proselytization ends in “our erasure as a people, I find it very chilling. … I don’t like that as a woman, I don’t like it as a queer person, I don’t like that as a Jew.”
Behind the scenes in the Trump 2.0 administration, Christian nationalists are dictating the policies behind the executive orders that the mindless boss likes to sign in front of reporters. Trump enjoys the support of this popular faction, and our communal leaders have been bamboozled by the Christian Zionists in the mix that profess their love for the State of Israel. Leaders of this movement have been given a platform and visibility by groups like AIPAC and local Jewish organizations around the country.
It’s time for those who profess to defend our community to wake up to the threat from the Christian nationalist ideologues. They do not have our best interests at heart. We shouldn’t be making excuses for their benighted behavior. When there is talk of divisiveness in our politics, think about the faction that promotes spiritual warfare — that is the group dividing us.
We might be at the end of the American experiment in representative democracy.
Mordecai Specktor / editor [at] ajwnews [dot] com
(American Jewish World, February 2025)
