As offensive as anything Trump has ever said

Larry Persily has been in and out of the newspaper world in Alaska for his entire adult life. He is the publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel. What follows is a column he wrote for this week’s edition of his newspaper about how Trump asked Congressional Republicans to pass a bill for Jesus. I’ll just say that you could fill a book with the most offensive things Trump has ever said.

By LARRY PERSILY

I had started a column for this week, criticizing — in a humorous way, of course — how some people are so quick to break off a conversation because their cell phone pings or rings or dings.

As if whoever is calling or texting or emailing or messaging — or whatever automated feed is telling them something they didn’t even know they needed to know — whatever it is on their screen is more important than talking with the real person in front of them.

I learned it actually has a name, well, an acronym, but it seems everything in the world these days is expressed in acronyms: Fear of Missing Out, or FOMO. As if that call or text or scroll alert might be so important that they are afraid of missing it.

I know a guy named Jomo, but I don’t think they’re related.

Though I am feeling proud at learning a new acronym, I still don’t like it.

Maybe it’s just me being old and cranky — I excel at both — but I think it’s rude to end a conversation or even interrupt it just because an electronic prod lights up in your hand. That pinging prompt on your phone shouldn’t be treated as a message from God, though I suspect more people put their faith in social media than religion these days.

Which gets me to the transition in this week’s column to something more serious than making fun of people who treat their phone as the gospel according to Saint FOMO. A lot more serious.

We have a president who uses and abuses religion to promote himself, to rally support for his views, to invoke a higher power so that he can gain even more power over the country.

President Donald Trump wants Congress to pass the SAVE America Act — yes, another acronym — that he claims will save the country from illegal voting, but which really is about saving his political rear end in the midterm elections this fall and future elections. The purpose is to make it harder for voters who may not be his supporters to cast their ballots.

It’s all about holding onto power.

Speaking a week ago — actually in person, not on social media, maybe his phone was in the shop for a new battery — Trump urged Republicans in Congress to delay their Easter break to pass the SAVE Act.

“Don’t worry about ⁠Easter, going home. In fact, make this one for Jesus,” Trump said at an event in Memphis, Tennessee.

That’s about as offensive a statement as ever spoken by the guy, and that’s saying a lot. It also shows how little he cares for anyone’s faith but his own faith that the world should revolve around him. Not just the political world, but now the Christian world too.

I am not particularly religious, but I thought the message of Jesus Christ is to feed the hungry, help the sick, teach and support the needy, lead people to do good things for their neighbors — not join a political booster club.

It’s particularly offensive this week, when Christians around the world will celebrate Easter and Jews will celebrate Passover, that the president believes his political goals should be linked with Jesus.

If Trump were honest, which is a huge leap of faith, he would have told congressional Republicans, “Make this one for me.” That’s what it’s all about anyway.