Friends, the title is satire….if you hadn’t figured that out yet.

Now that the election is over, the cabinet selection completed and the agenda for the next four years published by the media machine, how are you feeling about King Trump?

Oops, or must I say ‘President Trump’. This is America isn’t it, we are guaranteed freedom of speech in our Constitution, or are we still being silenced and being told what to say about the President of the Free World? Will political satire exist in Trump’s America, or are we still living in communist left-wing America?

Trump and America. Reminds me of a young maiden in a love affair with an older gentleman. An adult eye would observe the obvious power imbalance: her nativity to his experienced advances. America is young compared to other sovereign nations, she’s only a few hundred years old. While her Beau, the seasoned stag, knows what he’s doing with his never-ending proclamations of sweet-nothings.

Oh America, what kind of wife will you be?

A permissive wife who allows her husband to whatever he wants with her, or a mature woman who keeps his ego in check? An adult would caution the need for her to preserve her individuality. Relational boundaries, checks and balances, restraints on presidential power; these need no repeating for such intelligent citizenry should have already taken a basic civics class. What makes America what she is are her sacred freedoms and intended restraints on government.

Marriage and politics are really the same thing: the delicate negotiation of power. What an egotistical husband really needs is a wife who will tell him the truth. A real man appreciates a woman who can think for herself.

Now that courtship is over and married life begins, my question is: what type of leader did America vote into office? A benevolent dictator, a shrewd businessman or Bob the Builder who will Make America Great Again, Again… At first I was thinking Bob the Builder. Small-town, grey-haired with denim overalls riding his John Deere down the sunset in heart of Americana. Nothing could be more alluring to a conservative woman like myself: a hardworking, hardy and honest man.

The fantasy of a many women is a husband who will do everything for her, but fantasy is always different from reality. I don’t think King Trump ever rode a John Deere or thought of owning one. The McDonald’s businessman is closer to reality, especially when he made a surprise visit to one and handed out french fries to his voter base on his campaign trail. How endearing Americans can be, there’s only one way to the heart and it’s through the stomach. That’s why fiscal policies will be first in King Trump’s America and that’s why he won in case Obama never figured out. It wasn’t his rugged masculinity that increased his voter base it’s his common sense strategy: if it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense.

But King Trump

Let’s go back to King Trump. Anyone grow up in the Land of Kings? I did. I grew up in the Land of Dictators that was post-colonial Africa.

When the Africans finally kicked out the European colonial powers and liberated the dark continent they never dreamed that the continent would grow darker. The post-colonial rulers became like the dictators they removed: they went from external colonization to internal colonization. Turns out, it wasn’t the White man who was the greatest threat to Africa, it was the type of leadership that they modeled that African leaders emulated and superseded. Then the White man intervened again in Africa, through a large channel of non-governmental agencies, embassies, charities, tariffs and international agreements, to curb the overwhelming greed of the Black ruling class that precipitated the burgeoning poverty you see in charity commercials today. The enemy of Africa became her ultimate rescuing friend. The truth does make us uncomfortable doesn’t it? Still truth, though.

Years ago, Trevor Noah, a South African Comedian in America, made a comedy sketch about Trump. Trevor Noah’s argument was simple, people didn’t appreciate Trump because they misunderstood him: he wasn’t behaving like an American president he was behaving like a typical African benevolent dictator. That’s no insult at all.

Ask anyone who grew up under President’s Mugabe’s reign, the premier dictator of Africa. They would describe him in paternalistic terms: the father of the nation, the one who has our best interest, he’s one of us doing everything he can to make our country better for us now that those outsider enemies are out of the way.

Sentimentalism can be blinding, so can infatuation. I have neither when it comes to Trump. He does possess the trifacta of leadership: people skills, raw talent and experience required, and I have no doubts about his ability. My concern is how he will accomplish his ends and for whom. As they say, “the devil is in the details.”

After all marriage, especially that of a political nature, is all about contracts. Why am I overly cautious about Trump’s second term? Two things have changed: his undeniable national and congressional popularity that yields unprecedented power.

Kingly power like that requires more not less restraint, the Founding Fathers perceived. When it comes to politics, my strategy is simple: I sit back and watch very carefully.

I had planned not to write again until after the inauguration to give him the benefit of time. But then I received an irresistible email. A regular reader wrote lengthily to me about Trump’s cabinet choices. Don’t you see it? The cabinet: all White grey haired men with tons of experience, so basically he hired himself in several bodies, right? Look deeper and don’t be so superficial! They all think the same. Hmm, that’s interesting. Why would someone surround himself with men who all think like him with no deviant to challenge or oppose him but instead create an army of yes-men in a country where he already possesses such undeniable popularity? That’s an interesting question.

What is more interesting is the phenomenon that to even point out any of King Trump’s leadership flaws, such as this decision to inoculate himself to remain intellectually unchallenged, would be dismissed as an act of political treason or disloyalty to the conservative cause. If not, then my question in effect should not offend thee since he being a man cannot claim infallibility. Who would deny criticism as an opportunity for improvement? Does loyalty make us blind or is it just love? We are conservatives because we know how to think for ourselves not because we all think the same.

When I finished reading the fantastic biography of Detrick Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxes, I gained a great knowledge about Hitler. It was strange feeling: it felt like I almost started to admire him. (almost) These are the facts those closest to him narrate: he was incredibly intelligent and had a crazy sixth sense (by the way, it’s worth noting that he escaped the myriad of assassination attempts almost on a whim of intuition.

Hitler also had a beloved German Shepherd who are known for their killer sense of smell). But it was his Germanic obsession in meticulous organization that created the machine of Nazi Germany. What a marvel to study. I felt like I had taken an engineering course at Mercedes Benz. The man Hilter was an organizational genius. He could have taught at Harvard Business School. The first thing Hitler did when he took office was clear all the taints of his predecessor’s regime and entirely wiped out any divergent way of thinking in only a matter of years. His way of thinking was the only way of thinking in Nazi Germany. Hitler owned the brilliant brains of Germans: he taught them what to think, when to think and how to think about what he wanted to think about. From Hilter’s Youth to the Propaganda media machine under Goebbels, the whole thing was an unbelievable and unmatched intellectual feat. Why, again, do men who are already popular and so beloved by their own countrymen, surround themselves with men who think like them? Hilter’s reason was easy to pinpoint: Hilter was deeply superstitious and believed finally he would be killed in office because karma would avenge his bloodstained conscience. All those closest to Hitler unanimously confessed it, and during the Allied invasion, how meticulously they walked on eggshells around Hitler so he wouldn’t suspect them of treason. Hilter, as bold and brave as he was, was the most insecure man in Germany.

Why do I bring up Hitler? It was only in hindsight Germany’s vision was restored to 20-20, but in the heat of the moment the blinding infatuation of a strong masculine leader proved him to be the ultimate Prince Charming. Charm, fantasy, blinding infatuation for rogue masculinity with a touch of organizational finesse and political paranoia seem to be the intoxicating cologne that is quickly permeating our political atmosphere. The secret ingredient in benevolent dictatorships is the penchant for unanimity not diversity of thinking and that’s what concerns me.

As for King Trump, there’s no need to speculate or postulate for now. But I will make an important statement: it takes an immigrant to safeguard the soul of America. Let me explain. The reason why Trump won the hearts and votes of millions of Cuban, Venezuelan, post-communist Asian, post-Soviet Eastern European, Caribbean and African-born naturalized Americans is solely on the promise that America would never be like the lands they fled from. Those who have escaped the brutal hands of dictatorships, socialism, Marxism, communism, were the first to ring the alarm on Biden’s, or should I say King Obama’s, agenda.

It was the bravery of American immigrants who went on late night television telling their harrowing experiences of the left-wing globalist agenda and why America must, not should, vote for Trump. American immigrants understood the cost of freedom, understood what was at stake and knew the price they would pay if Lady Liberty sold her soul to the dark left-wing world. American immigrants are the soul of America because they’ve lived in both worlds: one of freedom and opportunity, and the other of control and privation. American immigrants are the litmus test on freedom because their sixth sense is their sensitivity from personal experience with political abuse, bondage and oppression. As we forge ahead we can count on American immigrants to do what they did for the past four years, that is to tell the truth.

The truth is I intend to keep telling it. How can you love someone and not tell them the truth? There should be no censorship in Trump’s America. There should be no silencing of voices that are au contraire. There should be no banning, public shamming or cancelling opinions that run against the narrative. There should be no gaslighting or hypocrisy or sugar-coating to appease the Emperor’s New Clothes.

If America will be great again it is because she has given to us the freedom to think, to express ourselves, share our views with the world, and not subvert our conscientious objections.
If America will be great again it is because she will be restrained enough not to overreach her constitutional powers and regain her identity as a constitutional republic in honor of the legacy of the Founding Fathers who fought against tyrannical rule.
If Adventists will be great again it will be because we have no King but Jesus (Philippians 2:9).

Let’s Make America Great Again

America is not an egocentric world of one, not even a King, or a President, but a summation of the people in it. America is made of us, not him.

Hail King Trump

Those three words should never pass our lips. The day they do you will know, as I have emphatically stated, the echoes of the dark past have resurged into a foreboding future.

America has no kings because she is a self-efficacious society of hard-working, intelligent, freedom lovers, and for this we are grateful this Thanksgiving weekend.

America’s only husband is her Creator. But as Abraham Lincoln said, the day America forgets her Creator and begins to hail another, we will know it is the beginning of the end. We live in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

The price we pay for our freedom requires us to be steadfastly brave, especially as we move into the Time of the End. We must be brave enough to think, brave enough to ask tough questions, and brave enough to engage in robust public intellectual discourse.

What do we have to fear in Trump’s America? It is: In God We Trust. God, not Trump. The Creator, not a temporal king (John 19:15). The Eternal Omnipotent One, not man. The One Whom our soul loveth (Song of Solomon 3:4).

“Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.” -Daniel 2:20-22

Until next time folks, see you at the rodeo.

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