A Toasted Kitten Sandwich

As I write this, we’re not even two weeks into Donald J. Trump’s second presidency, and already the opinions are flying online. Evangelicals who voted for him are generally positive about the way he hit the ground running, others are concerned that too many Christians visibly associated with a secular Trump presidency spells trouble for the church down the road. Still others are, for now at least, holding their peace and waiting to see where this all goes.

Let’s not even talk about the reaction from the Left. You’d think the President had just eaten a toasted kitten sandwich live on national TV. (He didn’t. Let me just head that rumor off before someone starts it.)

No Handsprings Yet

I’m not about to do handsprings yet, largely because in my opinion navigating this coming four years involves a degree of difficulty and a need for discernment unprecedented in both US history and in Mr. Trump’s own personal track record. That’s not to say America’s problems are unsolvable, but that solving any of them invariably involves taking measures — like repatriation or the end of dual citizenship and anchor babies — bound to alienate some faction in the President’s currently disparate, reactive base and his all-star cast of cobbled-together allies, which in turn will make the midterms a different story again. Try telling Vivek, “Too many immigrating Indians in the tech sector will not fly with our voters down south”, and watch the fur fly.

Oh. Wait. That already happened. One “ally” down, a bunch more to go.

To put it another way, no small number of people who voted for Trump are just now realizing they have aligned themselves with a fair number of individuals they’re not sure they like having in their corner. To simultaneously keep the Christian Nationalists, Civic Nationalists, the black community and Hispanic Trump voters on board the Trump Train without serious internecine acrimony is a trick I’d like to see. In the long term, prospects of MAGA unity are not great.

Nasty and Nastier

Then there is the media, desperate to portray Trump’s popular lightning deportation strikes as family-wrecking attacks on hard-working Hispanic single mothers and little brown babies instead of what they are: the lawful eviction of draft-age male criminals, drug runners and gang members imported by globalist NGOs to use as a beachhead for their anti-American, chaos creating agenda. Low information Trump voters spending too much time on CNN are not beyond falling for the media rhetoric when Selina Gomez starts wailing away (“my people”, “the children”) for the cameras.

There is Ukraine and the Middle East. In both cases, it remains to be seen whether DJT can thread the needle between irreconcilable opposing factions in wars he didn’t start and can hardly be expected to end, but for which he will be held accountable every time one side or another squawks out its disinformation on TV, and which he will effectively own the moment he makes his first move to try to resolve.

Fickle Popular Sentiment

Popular sentiment is currently (and only marginally) on the President’s side. If Christians were asked which political stance is likely to make our faith appear most presentable to the unsaved, many in this moment would say a MAGA mindset will not hurt their chances at being a good testimony to the world. That view may flip 180 degrees in the next six months as events unwind and the media figures out how to keep pace with the manic implementation of the Trump agenda and paints it in a less flattering color scheme.

There’s also the distinct possibility Mr. Trump will feel forced to make some moves Christians don’t like quite so much. Probably the least prudent thing he did last time around was to own the warp speed development of a largely useless, occasionally deadly vaccine whose entire slate of possible outcomes is still either unknown or yet to be made public. A misstep of that magnitude this time around could be fatal to his legacy and hugely embarrassing to his online Christian fanboys and fangirls.

Unnecessary Exposure

Speaking of which, I wonder what makes us so eager to get on social media and express our opinions about things that are at best irrelevant to our Christianity, and at worst may turn out to be a source of personal humiliation at some later date. I have learned to be careful about expressing my views on subjects that are not crucial to the kingdom of heaven when it isn’t strictly necessary. One minor comment about how Trump didn’t start any foreign wars last time around (which is simply the truth) turns so easily into “How do you like your boy now?” the moment something he is trying to implement goes sideways, which it most surely will. Where the kingdom of heaven and the second coming of Christ are concerned, all this hoopla just doesn’t matter. Not a whit.

So sure, I have my opinions, my preferences and my hopes for the next four years. You will not see them explored in detail here, let alone on Facebook, Instagram or X. Still less am I inclined to discuss them at work, where nobody has any idea what my political leanings might be. Why? Because I like the folks I work with and I’d love to see them saved. Disagreeing with them about any issue downstream of Christ himself and his claims on them is not worth the energy and the danger it might make my witness less productive down the road. If they ask, they ask, but nobody’s asking.

Nobody’s Asking

That’s the funny thing online too. Christian, nobody on social media is asking what you think of Donald J. Trump or how many illegal Colombians you’d like sent back to Colombia. Why do you feel compelled to inflame them by telling them? Have you really got so little to do in your life? Can you not find something less potentially hazardous to your testimony to do with your time? I recommend starting in Galatians and adding a little more daily Bible reading in lieu of daily online pontificating.

Four years is a long time, and maybe the result of your endless vocalizing about issues that don’t matter will be the spiritual equivalent of a pie in the face. (Imagine here that you had at one time unwisely expressed enthusiasm online for the works of Neil Gaiman.) Or imagine coming across a picture of yourself eating a toasted kitten sandwich, which may or may not have actually happened.

The internet doesn’t much care either way.