How Trump and the Republican Party Violate Every Core Teaching of Jesus Christ in the New Testament
On March 13, 2026, Donald Trump called Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico — a practicing Christian whose message is that Christianity means loving your neighbor — "such an insult to Jesus." Talarico's offense was believing that God's love extends to everyone.
The irony is beyond staggering. It is spiritually obscene.
Donald Trump and the modern Republican Party have systematically violated virtually every teaching Jesus Christ gave in the New Testament. Not in gray areas. Not in matters of theological interpretation. In the plain, unambiguous, repeated commandments that form the absolute core of what Jesus taught — love the poor, heal the sick, welcome the stranger, tell the truth, be humble, forgive, do not judge, do not hoard wealth, and do not use God's name as a weapon for power.
The New Testament warns extensively about exactly this: false prophets who come in sheep's clothing, wolves who devour the flock while claiming to speak for God, leaders who honor Christ with their lips while their hearts are full of greed and cruelty. Jesus said you will know them by their fruits. The fruits are in. And they are rotten.
What follows is every relevant New Testament teaching, paired with how Trump and the Republican Party have violated it — not in the abstract, but in documented, concrete, ongoing words and actions. This is also a warning to the Christians who follow them. Scripture is unambiguous about what happens to those who follow false prophets and practice the opposite of what Jesus commanded. You will reap what you sow. That is not a metaphor. It is a promise, made by the same Jesus whose name you invoke while supporting the men who betray everything he stood for.
1. "YE SHALL KNOW THEM BY THEIR FRUITS"QuoteMatthew 7:15-20 — "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."
Jesus did not leave his followers without a way to identify false prophets. He gave them the simplest test imaginable: look at what they produce. Not what they say. Not what they promise. Not what flag they wave or what book they hold up for cameras. What are the actual fruits?
Look at the fruits of Trump and the Republican Party. Hunger — millions losing food assistance so billionaires can have tax cuts. Sickness — millions stripped of healthcare coverage. Cruelty — children separated from parents at the border. Lies — tens of thousands of documented falsehoods. Fear — entire communities targeted and scapegoated for political advantage. Greed — the largest upward transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in American history. Hatred — rally crowds chanting against immigrants, trans people, and political opponents while their leader calls human beings "vermin" and "animals." Division — a nation torn apart by deliberate, strategic polarization designed to consolidate power. Violence — an insurrection incited, its perpetrators pardoned, and the threat of more wielded as a political tool.
These are the fruits. Thorns and thistles. Not a grape or a fig among them. Jesus said a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit and that every tree that does not bear good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. He was not speaking in hypotheticals. He was describing exactly this.
2. CARING FOR "THE LEAST OF THESE"QuoteMatthew 25:35-36 — "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."
Matthew 25:40 — "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."
Matthew 25:41-45 — "Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire... For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat... Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."
Luke 4:18 — "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free."
This is the passage where Jesus describes the final judgment — not based on doctrinal purity, not on church attendance, not on who you voted for, but on whether you fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the prisoner, and cared for the sick. He says those who did not do these things will be told "depart from me."
On July 4, 2025, Trump signed the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" into law. It enacted the largest-ever cuts to basic needs programs in U.S. history in order to fund tax cuts for the ultrawealthy. The legislation slashed Medicaid spending by roughly $700 billion and SNAP food assistance by about $300 billion — the largest cuts in both programs' histories. Approximately 11 million people could lose healthcare coverage. CBO projected 3 to 3.5 million people would lose all access to food assistance. Millions of children, elderly people, disabled Americans, and working families will go hungrier and sicker so that billionaires and corporations can pay less in taxes. Nearly 1.4 million low-income people with Medicare could lose their savings program coverage, costing them at least $185 per month.
Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me. Republicans took food from the hungry and medicine from the sick and gave the savings to the rich. By Jesus' own stated standard of judgment, this is not a gray area. This is the road to "depart from me, you who are cursed."
3. LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELFQuoteMatthew 22:37-40 — "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Mark 12:31 — "Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."
Romans 13:9-10 — "The commandments... are summed up in this one command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no harm to a neighbor."
Galatians 5:14 — "For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
Jesus said the entire law — all of it — hangs on love of God and love of neighbor. Paul repeated it. The whole New Testament framework rests on this. Trump and the Republican Party have built their political identity on identifying which neighbors to fear, hate, exclude, and punish — immigrants, the poor, LGBTQ+ people, Muslims, political opponents, racial minorities, women who seek reproductive care, students burdened with debt, disabled people on benefits. The party platform is organized opposition to loving your neighbor. It is a systematic project of determining who does not count as a neighbor and then making their lives worse.
4. LOVE YOUR ENEMIESQuoteMatthew 5:44 — "But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."
Luke 6:27-28 — "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you."
Luke 6:35 — "Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back."
Romans 12:17-21 — "Do not repay anyone evil for evil... Do not take revenge, my dear friends... Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
Trump has publicly said, "I hate some of these people. I hate 'em. I will never forgive 'em." He has said, "I'm so loyal to people that when they're disloyal to me, I go out of my way to make their life miserable." He has called political opponents "vermin," "the enemy within," "human scum," "animals," and "thugs." He has encouraged rally crowds to physically attack protesters and offered to pay their legal fees for doing so. He has weaponized the Department of Justice, the IRS, and federal contracting to punish critics, law firms, universities, and media companies. Jesus didn't demean his captors or those who crucified him — he forgave them as his last act on the cross. Trump cannot forgive a news anchor for asking him a tough question.
5. DO NOT JUDGE / DO NOT CONDEMNQuoteMatthew 7:1-2 — "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
Matthew 7:3-5 — "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"
Luke 6:37 — "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned."
John 8:7 — "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone."
Romans 2:1 — "You who pass judgment on someone else... are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things."
James 4:12 — "There is only one Lawgiver and Judge... But you — who are you to judge your neighbor?"
Trump has had three marriages, cheated on all three wives, was found guilty of 17 felony tax crimes through his organization, and his attorney testified to over 100 extramarital affairs. He has 34 personal felony convictions. He has credible sexual assault accusations from dozens of women. From this position of towering personal sin, he calls others insults to Jesus. His party passes laws judging the poor for not working enough hours, judging immigrants for how they arrived, judging women for their reproductive choices, judging trans people for existing, judging students for their debt, and judging sick people for needing help. Jesus said the measure you use will be measured back to you. Republicans should be terrified of that promise.
6. WELCOMING THE STRANGERQuoteMatthew 25:35 — "I was a stranger and you invited me in."
Matthew 25:43 — "I was a stranger and you did not invite me in."
Hebrews 13:2 — "Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it."
Romans 12:13 — "Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality."
Jesus was a refugee as an infant. His family fled to Egypt to escape a ruler who wanted to kill him. He specifically named welcoming the stranger as one of the acts by which nations will be judged at the end of days.
Clergy argue that Trump's immigration crackdown contradicts core biblical teachings about protecting the vulnerable. Thousands of children were separated from their parents at the border and kept in detention facilities under horrific conditions. Trump has called immigrants "animals" who are "poisoning the blood of our country" — language with direct historical echoes of the rhetoric used to justify genocide. His administration has conducted raids in churches and schools, deported people to the wrong countries, sent asylum seekers to third countries with no due process, and ended protections for people fleeing violence. Hebrews says that by welcoming strangers, you may welcome angels. Trump's answer is to cage them.
7. TRUTH AND HONESTYQuoteMatthew 5:37 — "All you need to say is simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one."
John 8:32 — "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
John 8:44 — "The devil... is a liar and the father of lies."
Ephesians 4:25 — "Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor."
Colossians 3:9 — "Do not lie to each other."
Revelation 21:8 — "All liars — they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur."
Trump made over 30,000 false or misleading claims during his first presidency, meticulously documented by the Washington Post. He lies about the weather. He lies about crowd sizes. He lies about crime statistics, about election results, about his own statements on tape. He lied about COVID-19 while Americans were dying. His administration lies about the effects of its own legislation. His allies lie about immigrants, about the economy, about climate science, about everything that is inconvenient.
Jesus called Satan "the father of lies." The New Testament could not be more explicit: liars face ultimate judgment. Revelation 21:8 places liars alongside murderers in the lake of fire. This is not a minor teaching. And Trump is not a minor liar. He may be the most prolific public liar in American history. Christians who follow a man defined by lying are following the defining characteristic of the one Jesus identified as the adversary.
8. HUMILITY AND SERVANTHOODQuoteMatthew 5:5 — "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."
Matthew 20:26-28 — "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant... just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve."
Matthew 23:12 — "Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
Philippians 2:3-4 — "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves."
James 4:6 — "God opposes the proud but shows grace to the humble."
1 Peter 5:5 — "Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but shows grace to the humble."
Trump lives in a gold-plated penthouse. He puts his name on buildings, steaks, vodka, airlines, universities, and Bibles. He has never, in any public setting, expressed genuine humility, admitted fault, or apologized sincerely for anything. He compared his own legal troubles to the suffering of Christ. His supporters have gone so far as to call him "The Chosen One," a title biblically reserved for Jesus. He has said he has never asked God for forgiveness — which, in Christian theology, means he has never performed the most basic act of faith.
The New Testament says twice that God
actively opposes the proud. Not merely disapproves. Opposes. If Christians believe the Bible, they should understand what it means that their leader embodies the quality God promises to fight against.
9. THE DANGERS OF WEALTH AND GREEDQuoteMatthew 6:19-21 — "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth."
Matthew 6:24 — "No one can serve two masters... You cannot serve both God and money."
Matthew 19:23-24 — "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
Mark 10:21 — "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven."
Luke 6:24 — "Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort."
Luke 12:15 — "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions."
1 Timothy 6:9-10 — "Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap... For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil."
James 5:1-5 — "Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you... Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you."
1 John 3:17 — "If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?"
Jesus said you cannot serve God and money. He said the rich will have extraordinary difficulty entering heaven. He told a rich man to sell everything and give to the poor. James 5 explicitly warns that the unpaid wages of workers cry out to God against the wealthy.
Trump's entire identity is wealth. His golden tower, his branded products, his boasts about his net worth. His charitable giving has been minimal compared to his wealth, and he routinely fabricated it. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act enacted the largest-ever cuts to programs serving the poor to fund tax cuts for the ultrawealthy. The bill cut roughly $187 billion from food assistance while delivering hundreds of billions to corporations and the ultra-wealthy — reflecting political priorities, not fiscal necessity. They robbed the poor to feed the rich. 1 John asks: if you see your brother in need and close your heart, how can the love of God be in you? The answer is that it can't. It isn't. And everyone watching can see it.
Jesus only showed physical anger once in the Gospels — when he flipped the tables of the moneychangers who were commercializing the temple. Trump sells branded Bibles for $60 and $1,000 signed editions. If Jesus walked into that gift shop, we know exactly what he would do.
10. HYPOCRISY AND FALSE RELIGIONQuoteMatthew 6:1 — "Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them."
Matthew 6:5 — "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others."
Matthew 7:21-23 — "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father... Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"
Matthew 15:7-9 — "You hypocrites! Isaiah was right: 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.'"
Matthew 23:27-28 — "You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean."
Mark 12:38-40 — "Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect... They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely."
2 Timothy 3:5 — "Having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people."
Titus 1:16 — "They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him."
Trump refused to place his hand on the Bible at his second inauguration — the same Bible he sells with his name on it. He markets the faith, sells it, and manipulates it for personal gain, but does not embody it. He tear-gassed peaceful protesters, including clergy, to pose with a Bible in front of St. John's Church. He cannot name a Bible verse when asked. He says he has never asked God for forgiveness. He repeatedly claimed religious devotion while exploiting faith groups for political gain.
Matthew 7:21-23 is among the most terrifying passages in scripture. Jesus says that on judgment day, people will say "Lord, Lord, didn't we do things in your name?" And he will reply: "I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers." This is not addressed to atheists. It is addressed to people who use Christ's name while doing the opposite of what he taught. It is addressed to exactly this situation.
Mark 12:40 says those who devour widows' houses and make lengthy prayers for show "will be punished most severely." Not moderately. Most severely. The reconciliation bill strips Medicare savings from low-income seniors, costing them at least $185 per month. They are devouring widows' houses. Scripture says what comes next.
11. PEACEMAKING AND NON-VIOLENCEQuoteMatthew 5:9 — "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."
Matthew 26:52 — "Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword."
Romans 12:17-18 — "Do not repay anyone evil for evil... If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone."
James 3:18 — "Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness."
Trump encouraged violence at rallies — "knock the crap out of them." He incited the January 6th insurrection in which his supporters beat police officers with flagpoles, and then he pardoned them. He has called for the execution of political opponents. He glorifies military strongmen and authoritarian leaders. His rhetoric about immigrants, trans people, political opponents, and the media is consistently designed to provoke fear and aggression, and it has inspired real-world violence repeatedly. He sows discord for political advantage. Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers. Trump is a war-maker — in language, in policy, and in spirit.
12. HEALING THE SICKQuoteMatthew 4:23 — "Jesus went throughout Galilee... healing every disease and sickness among the people."
Matthew 10:8 — "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give."
Matthew 14:14 — "When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick."
Luke 4:18 — "He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free."
Jesus healed everyone who came to him. Without conditions. Without co-pays. Without work requirements. Without asking if they deserved it. He healed on the Sabbath in direct defiance of religious law and was condemned by the Pharisees for it. His answer was: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice."
The reconciliation bill slashes Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP to pay for tax cuts disproportionately benefiting the wealthy, stripping coverage from 17 million Americans. Experts say the impact will hit the most vulnerable — children, people with disabilities, and senior citizens. A last-minute provision cut off federal Medicaid and ACA funding for medically necessary care for all transgender people, regardless of age. The House also passed a separate bill criminalizing gender-affirming care for minors, subjecting doctors to up to 10 years in federal prison for providing treatments supported by every major medical association. They have not just neglected to heal the sick. They are making it illegal for doctors to do so. They are cutting off medicine and food from the elderly, the disabled, and children so that the wealthy can keep more money. They are the Pharisees who condemned Jesus for healing on the Sabbath — except worse, because the Pharisees merely disapproved. Republicans are passing criminal statutes.
13. PROTECTING CHILDRENQuoteMatthew 18:1-5 — "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 18:6 — "If anyone causes one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."
Matthew 19:14 — "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them."
Jesus reserved the harshest language in all of scripture — the millstone and the sea — for those who cause children to suffer.
When adults are cut from SNAP, benefits are significantly reduced for remaining household members including children — approximately half a million additional people will experience cuts, including children, people with disabilities, and older adults. They cut school funding. They defund school lunch programs. They cut children's healthcare. They separate families at the border. Some bills classify supportive parenting as child abuse, opening the door for state-sanctioned removal of children from loving homes. Greene's legislation threatens parents who support their trans children with up to 10 years in prison while explicitly permitting nonconsensual surgeries on intersex infants. They strip food from children to fund tax cuts. They do all of this while claiming to protect children. The millstone passage should keep every one of them awake at night.
14. THE BEATITUDES — JESUS' OPENING MANIFESTOQuoteMatthew 5:3 — "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 5:4 — "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
Matthew 5:5 — "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."
Matthew 5:6 — "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."
Matthew 5:7 — "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy."
Matthew 5:8 — "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."
Matthew 5:9 — "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."
Matthew 5:10 — "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
The Beatitudes are Jesus' foundational declaration — his Sermon on the Mount, his opening statement about who is blessed and what the kingdom of God looks like.
Blessed are the poor in spirit — Trump mocks vulnerability as weakness. Blessed are those who mourn — Trump mocked a disabled reporter, Gold Star families, and prisoners of war. Blessed are the meek — Trump worships dominance and ridicules gentleness. Blessed are those who hunger for righteousness — Trump hungers for revenge and power. Blessed are the merciful — Trump pardons corrupt allies and punishes whistleblowers. Blessed are the pure in heart — Trump's heart is on daily public display and it is full of malice, vanity, and cruelty. Blessed are the peacemakers — Trump sows conflict for sport and profit. Blessed are the persecuted for righteousness — Trump is the persecutor.
The Beatitudes describe the people Trump and the Republican Party target. The poor. The mourning. The meek. The mercy-seekers. The peacemakers. The persecuted. These are Trump's victims, not his base. And the Christians who cheer while their leader tramples the Beatitudes are cheering for the wrong side of Jesus' own sermon.
15. THE GOLDEN RULEQuoteMatthew 7:12 — "In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."
Luke 6:31 — "Do to others as you would have them do to you."
Would Trump want his healthcare taken away? Would he want to go hungry? Would he want his children separated from him and put in cages? Would he want to be deported to the wrong country? Would he want to be denied a driver's license? Would he want to lose his job because of who he is? Would he want to be called vermin? The Golden Rule is the simplest moral test in all of scripture, and Republican policy toward the poor, the sick, immigrants, trans people, women, and anyone who disagrees with them fails it completely.
16. MERCY OVER SACRIFICEQuoteMatthew 9:13 — "Go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Matthew 12:7 — "If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent."
Luke 10:25-37 — The Parable of the Good Samaritan.
Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6 twice — "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" — both times in response to Pharisees who were enforcing religious rules at the expense of human compassion. In the Good Samaritan, the heroes are not the religious establishment. The priest and the Levite walk past the suffering man. The Samaritan — the despised outsider — stops and helps.
Today's Christian nationalists are the priest and the Levite. They walk past the suffering of the poor, the immigrant, the sick, the marginalized — and they do it on the way to church, where they claim to follow the man who told that story specifically to condemn them. James Talarico, who says God loves everyone and that Christianity means loving your neighbor, is the Samaritan. Trump, who calls him an insult to Jesus, is the Pharisee who triggered the parable in the first place.
17. THE PHARISEES — JESUS' PRIMARY WARNINGQuoteMatthew 23:1-4 — "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat... They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them."
Matthew 23:13 — "Woe to you... you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces."
Matthew 23:23 — "You give a tenth of your spices... But you have neglected the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy and faithfulness."
Matthew 23:25-28 — "You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence... You are like whitewashed tombs."
Luke 11:46 — "You load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them."
Luke 18:9-14 — The Pharisee and the Tax Collector — "Those who exalt themselves will be humbled."
The people Jesus was hardest on — relentlessly, in every Gospel, with his most devastating language — were not sinners. They were the religious leaders who used God's name to accumulate power, enforce rigid rules, burden the vulnerable, and shut people out of God's love while living in luxury themselves.
Christian nationalism is Pharisaism. When faith in Christ is conformed to the idol of nationalism, the result is a subservient Christ, the abuse of faith to serve political ends, and a church with no public witness. Clergy call the Christianity practiced by Christian nationalists "diseased and distorted." They tie up heavy burdens — work requirements to eat, documentation requirements to vote, criminal penalties for providing healthcare — and lay them on the shoulders of the people least able to bear them. They themselves live in comfort, wealth, and power. They shut the door of the kingdom in people's faces by telling immigrants, the poor, LGBTQ+ people, and anyone who doesn't conform that God rejects them.
Jesus said woe to you. That was not a polite disagreement. In biblical language, "woe" is a pronouncement of coming judgment and destruction. He meant it.
18. WELCOMING THE OUTCASTQuoteMatthew 9:10-12 — "Many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him... Jesus said, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.'"
Matthew 19:12 — "For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others... The one who can accept this should accept it."
Luke 7:36-50 — Jesus allows a "sinful woman" to anoint his feet while the Pharisee host is scandalized.
Luke 15:1-7 — The Parable of the Lost Sheep — the shepherd leaves the 99 to find the one who is lost.
John 4:7-26 — Jesus speaks with the Samaritan woman, breaking religious, ethnic, and gender taboos.
Acts 8:26-39 — Philip baptizes the Ethiopian eunuch — a gender-nonconforming foreigner — immediately and without conditions.
Galatians 3:28 — "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
Every single time Jesus had a choice between enforcing religious rules and showing compassion to a human being, he chose the person. He ate with tax collectors and prostitutes. He touched lepers. He spoke with Samaritans. He welcomed eunuchs — the gender-nonconforming people of the ancient world — and said some are born that way. Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch without hesitation. Galatians declares that in Christ, the categories that divide us dissolve.
Trump and the Republican Party have done the exact opposite. They have identified every outcast they can find and built policy walls around them. The immigrant. The poor person. The trans person. The disabled person. The prisoner. The woman seeking healthcare. The student drowning in debt. Jesus went to the margins and brought people in. Republicans go to the margins and push people further out.
19. FORGIVENESSQuoteMatthew 6:14-15 — "If you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins."
Matthew 18:21-22 — "Lord, how many times shall I forgive? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, 'Not seven times, but seventy-seven times.'"
Ephesians 4:31-32 — "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger... Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other."
Colossians 3:13 — "Forgive as the Lord forgave you."
Trump has explicitly said he never forgives and goes out of his way to make disloyal people miserable. His entire political operation is built on revenge — punishing critics, revoking security clearances, weaponizing investigations, blacklisting law firms, threatening judges' families, and using executive power against entire states and cities.
Matthew 6:15 is not ambiguous: if you do not forgive others, God will not forgive you. This is a conditional promise from Jesus himself. Trump has publicly and proudly announced he fails this test. Christians who follow a man who boasts about never forgiving should consider what Jesus said about what that means for their own forgiveness.
20. GENEROSITY AND THE EARLY CHURCHQuoteLuke 3:11 — "Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same."
Acts 2:44-45 — "All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need."
Acts 4:34-35 — "There were no needy persons among them."
2 Corinthians 9:7 — "God loves a cheerful giver."
1 John 3:17 — "If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?"
The early church described in Acts practiced radical sharing so that there were no needy persons among them. The Republican bill cut $187 billion from food assistance while delivering hundreds of billions in tax benefits to corporations and the ultra-wealthy. They see 40 million people on food assistance and their answer is to cut the program so the rich pay less. 1 John 3:17 answers the obvious question: the love of God is not in them.
21. SEXUAL MORALITY AND SELECTIVE APPLICATIONQuoteMatthew 5:27-28 — "Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery."
Matthew 19:9 — "Anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery."
This is not raised to weaponize sexual morality — Jesus clearly did not want it wielded that way, which is why he said "let him without sin cast the first stone." This is raised because Republicans weaponize it selectively against everyone else while giving Trump a complete pass. They use scripture to condemn LGBTQ+ people, to restrict women's reproductive choices, to regulate the intimate lives of the powerless. But Trump — with three marriages, serial adultery, credible sexual assault accusations, and hush money payments to a porn star — gets a complete pass. His attorney testified to over 100 extramarital affairs during his marriages. By their own stated standard, Trump is in serial, unrepentant violation of Jesus' explicit teaching. But the rules are never for them. They are only for the people they wish to control.
22. THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT VS. THE WORKS OF THE FLESHQuoteGalatians 5:19-21 — "The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy... Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."
Galatians 5:22-23 — "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."
The New Testament provides its own diagnostic test. The works of the flesh: hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions. That is a clinical description of the Trump movement. The fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Trump exhibits none of these. Not one. His movement produces none of them. By the Bible's own criteria, this is not a movement of the Spirit. It is of the flesh. And Paul says those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
23. IDOLATRYQuoteMatthew 4:10 — "Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only."
1 Corinthians 10:14 — "Flee from idolatry."
1 John 5:21 — "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols."
Elevating national identity above the gospel risks idolatry, leading to a misguided belief that a nation's interests align with God's will. Trump has been made into a golden calf. His image adorns flags, T-shirts, trucks, and churches. His followers buy his branded Bibles, call him "The Chosen One," compare him to Jesus, and describe his assassination attempt as divine intervention. A $1,000 signed Bible includes an inscription calling Trump's survival "the day God intervened." This is textbook idolatry. The first commandment says have no other gods. Evangelical Christians who treat Trump as a messianic figure have broken the first commandment while claiming to defend the faith. They have melted down their principles and molded a golden calf in the shape of a man who cannot name a single thing Jesus actually taught.
24. REAPING WHAT YOU SOW — THE WARNING TO THOSE WHO FOLLOWQuoteGalatians 6:7-8 — "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."
Matthew 7:15-20 — "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits... Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."
2 Peter 2:1-3 — "There will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies... In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping."
2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 — "The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness."
Hosea 8:7 — "They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind."
This is the section that should terrify every Christian who has cast their lot with Trump and the Republican Party.
God cannot be mocked. You reap what you sow. These are not metaphors. They are promises from the same scripture these people claim to believe. If you sow cruelty toward the poor, you will reap cruelty. If you sow lies, you will reap deception — you will believe the lies yourself, and you will be consumed by them. If you sow hatred, you will harvest hatred in your own life, your own family, your own community. If you follow false prophets, you will share in their judgment.
2 Peter 2 describes exactly what is happening: false teachers who introduce destructive heresies and exploit their followers with fabricated stories, motivated by greed. It says their condemnation has long been hanging over them. 2 Thessalonians describes a "lawless one" who works through deception and signs, and warns that God allows those who refuse to love truth to fall into powerful delusion — so that they believe the lie. Read that again. The Bible warns that those who refuse truth will be given over to delusion. If that doesn't describe millions of Americans who believe every word from a man documented to have told 30,000 lies, nothing in scripture has ever described anything.
Ye shall know them by their fruits. The fruits of this movement are hunger, sickness, cruelty, division, lies, greed, hatred, violence, and the perversion of the gospel for political power. A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit. And every tree that does not bear good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
Christians who support this are not innocent bystanders. They are participants. They are funding the cruelty with their votes, their donations, and their moral cover. They are giving a man who embodies every quality Jesus condemned the single thing he needs most: the illusion of divine legitimacy. And scripture is clear — devastatingly, repeatedly, unmistakably clear — about what happens to those who follow false prophets and practice the opposite of what Christ commanded.
CONCLUSIONDonald Trump called James Talarico an "insult to Jesus" because Talarico believes God loves everyone. But the New Testament makes clear who the real insult is. It is the man who lies thirty thousand times and claims to follow the Truth. Who hoards gold and claims to follow the one who said sell everything and give to the poor. Who refuses to forgive and claims to follow the one who forgave his killers from the cross. Who mocks the disabled and claims to follow the healer. Who cages children and claims to follow the one who said let the children come to me. Who calls humans vermin and claims to follow the one who said love your enemies. Who sells Bibles with his name on them and claims to follow the one who flipped the moneychangers' tables. Who takes food from the hungry to feed the rich and claims to follow the one who said whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me.
He is the false prophet in sheep's clothing. The whitewashed tomb. The corrupt tree that cannot bear good fruit. The Pharisee who ties up heavy burdens and lays them on the shoulders of the broken. The one who says "Lord, Lord" and will hear back: "I never knew you."
The Gospel is not complicated. Love God. Love your neighbor. Feed the hungry. Heal the sick. Welcome the stranger. Tell the truth. Be humble. Forgive. Show mercy. Protect children. Do not worship money. Do not follow false prophets.
They have broken all of it. Every word. And they did it in his name.
That is the insult to Jesus.
Ye shall know them by their fruits. 🔗
