Trump just proved he's a ghoul — or a moron

On Thursday, Trump addressed the 2026 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., a tradition President Dwight Eisenhower began in 1953 to solemnify the confluence of faith, gratitude, and public service. At Eisenhower’s ceremony, after he swore the oath of office, he delivered an unscripted and spontaneous prayer of humility, calling on God to “make full and complete our dedication to the service of the people.”

Seventy-odd years later, at this year’s breakfast, Trump met Eisenhower’s prayer of humility and raised him one.

Instead of somber reflection or words to soothe an anxious nation, Trump delivered a blasphemous meditation on Trump: 77 minutes of self-indulgence, grievance and hatred of others.

Making it political

Trump opened by maligning the press, complaining that he never gets “a fair break from the fake news, which is (points dismissively) back there.” By the third sentence he was referring to himself reverentially as “Sir” while calling everyone else by their first name.

Claiming he’d “done more for religion than any other president,” Trump announced that Democrats were anti-religion, and said anyone who votes for Democrats must be Godless.

Treating prayer like a stump ad, Trump claimed Democrats oppose voter identification because “they cheat,” and fondly reminisced over his election win like it was a good game.

“Beating these lunatics was incredible, right, what a great feeling, winning every swing state, winning the popular vote...”

Prayer to promote violence

Forgetting the prayer theme of the breakfast, Trump bantered about murdering people in fishing boats off the coast of Venezuela like it was locker room talk.

“I was just talking to a great leader from El Salvador and he said, man, that was some attack, I've never seen anything like that one. Right? Right?” Going in for the brag, Trump joked to the murderous Nayib Bukele from across the room, laughing, “That was good even by your high standard, right? That was a hell of an attack.”

Only ghouls or morons would think that was funny. In a rule of law world, Trump would be hauled into the International Criminal Court on multiple charges of murder.

He also used his remarks to admire El Salvador’s torture prison, CECOT, saying President Bukele (“so incredible, such a great ally”) operates “prisons so large you can't see from one side to the other.”

Trump said he’d sent CECOT “a lot of the people that we capture, the murderers, the drug dealers, the people that came into our country illegally and have already committed massive crimes… We had 11,888 murderers and many of them are in (Bukele’s) prisons right now.”

Eleven thousand murderers? Drug dealers?? Massive crimes??? Reports from CBS News and the Cato Institute found that under 12 percent of the 250 men illegally sent to CECOT had any prior criminal convictions, even minor. Meanwhile, Trump skipping due process to have innocent people tortured will go down as one of the worst abuses of government power in American history.

Demonizing immigrants

After lying about who he is having deported, and why, Trump continued his un-Christlike tirade against immigrants as "monsters" and "vicious people" who "only gave us the worst."

Encouraging Christians to fear immigrants, Trump said, “You can’t have people going to church and coming out and have criminals taking advantage, and doing things that nobody even wants to describe.” In response to calls from Pope Leo XIV for Trump to deal with immigrants “humanely” and with “dignity,” Trump reverted to, "we have to get the bad ones out."

On brand, he then segued to his ICE crackdown in Washington, D.C., claiming it removed more than 2,000 “monsters” from the streets. Federal arrest data show that over 80 percent of the immigrants arrested in D.C. under Trump’s “crime emergency” campaign had no prior criminal records. None at all, not even unpaid traffic tickets.

Thou shalt not lie

During Trump’s first term, one analyst counted more than 30,000 specific falsehoods. At least his National Prayer Breakfast remarks offered continuity. When he wasn’t lusting after violence and cruelty, every sentence out of Trump’s mouth was an easily disproved lie. In his national push to target law-abiding immigrants, Trump is bearing false witness.

The Bible doesn’t mince words about lying liars who lie.

• “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.“
• “He who breathes out lies will perish.”
• “No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house.”

But Trump’s flock, lavishing him with praise at the prayer breakfast, willingly overlooks lies from their golden calf.

That Christo-nationalists continue to idolize Trump as “Chosen” while he governs by falsehood proves that Christianity in the time of Trump is not about Christ. It’s not about loving thy neighbor, helping the poor, or peace. It’s about power: God’s name appears in the Bible 4,000 times, while Trump’s name appears in the Epstein files more than 38,000 times. Trumpers don’t care. There could be videos of Trump raping children in those files, it wouldn’t matter to MAGA’s “Christians.”

After erecting golden statutes of himself, Trump is now planning to build a 250 foot arch that will dwarf the Lincoln Monument. Trump’s arch, by design, scale, and metaphor, will shrink American history. Next to Trump’s imposing arch (let’s name it “Sir”), sacred monuments to the world’s greatest experiment will be reduced to doll-like replicas.

Christianity under Trump has rotted into unadulterated power-cult worship. It won’t end well. Someone should remind MAGA that God executed the Israelites who worshipped a golden calf, then sent them a plague for good measure.

• Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.