The first 100 days of Donald J Trump’s presidency have had few tangible results and many notable setbacks—court blocked travel bans, the failed attempt at Obamacare repeal and replace, a stalled tax reform effort. These politically significant events, however, quickly disappear under the bright lights of Trump’s presidential life, which is thick with the daily drama of a television soap opera.
Is Steve Bannon in or out?
Where is Kellyanne Conway? Has she become an “alternative fact?”
Will the disgraced Michael Flynn spill the beans on Trump and Russia?
Will Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka, the president’s oldest daughter, continue to contribute to unparalleled White House nepotism? Lest we forget, Jared is charged with resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as well as the total reformation of the federal bureaucracy. For her part, Ivanka will make life better for American women, a role that didn’t prevent her from sealing a lucrative Chinese trademark deal during the Chinese President’s state visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Will Donald Trump continue to violate the emoluments clause of the US Constitution?
Will he ever make his tax returns public?
All of these antics, of course, create a smokescreen that obscures the important stuff going on backstage--the “deconstruction” of the federal government. As we all know by now, President Trump has appointed cabinet secretaries most of whom are bent on dismantling their departments. Scott Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t believe in the science of climate change. Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education, is an opponent of public education. What’s more, many important sub-cabinet positions remain unfilled, which depletes the power and expertise of government departments. This move is a clever way to “deconstruct” government.
It’s pretty clear that Donald Trump wants to govern in the same manner he would undertake a real estate development project. In real estate development there are two ways to move forward on a project: (1) raze the existing structure and replace it with something that is entirely new; or (2) keep the existing structure but gut it from the inside and replace it with revolutionary interiors. For anthropologists like me this strategy bears a curious resemblance to what we call millenarian movements. In his classic book, anthropologist Peter Worsley surveyed the characteristics of these movements in Melanesia. Sometimes called cargo cults, millenarian movements, which are both religious and political in character, have occurred past and present and in every corner of the world. In millenarian movements, the oppressive hell of the old order compels a prophet to predict a cataclysmic event that will end the world. When the end comes the structure of the old order is razed like an old building. When the apocalypse arrives, everyone dies except for the prophet and his true-believer followers who inherit the world and build a new utopian society that conforms to the movement’s worldview. Such was the rationale for the American Indian Ghost dances of the 19th Century. Such was the rationale for David Koresh’s Branch Davidian movement and for Jim Jones’s Peoples Temple. Such is the reasoning of millions of Americans who believe that end of the world as we know it is close at hand.
There are countless “End Times” churches in the US. Indeed, the depth and breadth of End Times belief is reflected in the ongoing popularity of the Left Behind book series. Written by the late Tim LeHaye and Jerry Jenkins the Left Behind Series consists of 10 novels about the End Times—the onset of the apocalypse, the rapture in which true believers are saved and the second coming of Christ who will build a new kingdom of believers. These books have sold upwards of 65 million copies.
Sensing similarit of belief and practice, End Times believers seem to like Donald Trump’s destroy and rebuild approach to governing. Many of them see his ascendancy to The White House as a sign that the End Times are near. Consider what Pro-Trump pastor Lance Wallnau said about candidate Trump in a conversation with the televangelist Jim Baaker.
Jesus chose a businessman to give him governmental keys to restore the kingdom… Jesus is putting his hand on a Peter right now; like you’re just saying, it’s a businessman. Trump is a businessman with the keys of the kingdom right now to wreck what hell has been doing over the United States.
Consider this January 3, 2017 statement from the End Times Ministries:
This scripture tells us that the United States will protect Israel against the Antichrist and Satan’s world governmental system, all the way until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the Battle of Armageddon. If Donald Trump keeps his campaign promises, the above events described in scripture are exactly what will happen during his presidency.
Consider what Nelle Smith said in a University of Southern California Religion Dispatch (Janaury 31, 2017)
The thing is: Donald Trump as the savior of Christian America is far from the whole story behind his evangelical support. A distinct subset of evangelical Christians know that Donald Trump is bad news for the entire world—and they’re really, really excited about it.
And here’s the thing: they’re excited about all this. Opinions on Trump’s purpose vary, but the overriding plot point is that Trump was ordained by God, and if he brings chaos, terrific! Bring on the end days! The tone is jovial, even smug, as if they’re discussing the plot of a popcorn flick that doesn’t affect them.
Because in their world, it doesn’t—they’re going to be raptured, just like my family was supposed to be back in ’97. I know this story well.
If you tear down the structure of government, you prepare the world for the End Times and the emergence of the Kingdom of Believers. These are classic millenarian beliefs, which is why so many evangelicals think that Donald Trump is paving the way for a new God-fearing utopia.
Here’s the rub: beyond the predictions for the apocalypse, the expectation for the rapture and the long-desired emergence of new world, millenarian movements don’t end well. The prophecies never seem to pan out.The prophets, who like to ask for donations, are often morally bankrupt. As for the movements themselves, they literally burn out, precipitating much bad feeling, widespread injury and needless destruction, all of which makes me wonder if our End Times President, like the millenarian prophet, will slash and burn his way to oblivion.