Some political observers have identified a biblical trajectory in President Donald Trump’s hospitalization for COVID-19 treatment.
Scripture tells of Jesus’ resurrection three days after his crucifixion; Trump emerged from Walter Reed Medical Center on Monday almost exactly 72 hours after he checked-in.
The reaction: A number of Trump’s critics on Twitter worried aloud about what they saw as his Christ-like return to the White House, speculating the whole saga was a stunt to rally Christian supporters ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
Indeed, a handful of pro-Trump commentators cast the president’s self-proclaimed recovery as a kind of Second Coming.
- But they did not appear to be devout Christians.
Comfortably Smug, a popular Twitter user whose irony borders on nihilism, tweeted Fox News footage of Trump walking out of Walter Reed along with the caption, “HE IS RISEN.”
A blogger and fellow traveler who goes by Publius turned Trump’s “resurrection” into a meme, complete with a representation of liberal outrage.
Meanwhile, Fox News contributor Dan Bongino and others evoked religious language in praising Trump while stopping well short of declaring him the messiah.
WWJD: Sincere Christians have disagreed about how Christ’s teachings apply to the current political moment.
Rev. Franklin Graham, a prominent conservative evangelical, on Monday called for continued prayers for Trump — noting the president’s personal doctor, while optimistic-sounding, had said the president “may not be out of the woods yet.”
David French, an evangelical editor at The Dispatch, argued in an essay on Sunday that Trump deserves Christians’ prayers — but not necessarily their votes.
- “Believers must pray for President Trump’s speedy recovery, but justice may still demand his resounding defeat,” French wrote.
Trump speaketh: In a Twitter video posted shortly after his triumphant return to the White House on Monday, Trump declared he had contracted the coronavirus on behalf of the American people — and was back stronger than ever and with a message of national redemption.
- “I went, I didn’t feel so good,” Trump said of his hospital stay, but now “[I feel] better than 20 years ago.”
- “We have the greatest country in the world. We’re going back. We’re going back to work. We’re gonna be out front,” he continued. “As your leader, I had to do that. I knew there’s danger to it, but I had to do it. … And now I’m better, and maybe I’m immune, I don’t know.”
In tweets on Tuesday, Trump said he was “FEELING GREAT!” and “looking forward” to facing off against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden next Thursday in their second debate.
White House physician Sean Conley later released a memo saying the president was not experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and was doing “extremely well.”
