"You must sacrifice": MAGA excuses for Trump's trade war echo "prosperity" preachers [View all]

[marmar]

"You must sacrifice": MAGA excuses for Trump's trade war echo "prosperity" preachers
Trump's closest faith "advisor" teaches that if you give her money, God will reward you with riches

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published March 14, 2025 6:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) "Go forward boldly into your destiny," declares Paula White, the head of Donald Trump's newly-minted White House Faith Office. The charismatic preacher's new video instructs her followers, whose ranks have swollen as a result of her close relationship to Trump, that "you must sacrifice some way during this prophetic season, because it's through sacrifice that your spirit opens up so wide that you can receive divine direction." She promises "increase" for those who sow a "seed," citing Proverbs 1:33, which promises "safety" and "ease" to believers. What is this "sacrifice" White wishes her followers to make for their safety and ease? Why, sending her a check for $133, which she implies will be returned to them many times over by God.

White is one of the country's most prominent peddlers of the "prosperity gospel." As religious studies expert Kate Bowler explained in Vox in 2018, it's a Christian movement that teaches "God will give you your heart’s desires: money in the bank, a healthy body, a thriving family, and boundless happiness." All you need to do is prove your faith by writing checks to the leaders, even — perhaps especially — if you can't afford it. By doing so, they promise, God will reward them amply, often in cold, hard cash.

....(snip)....

But what's striking about the prosperity gospel and its empty promises of future wealth in exchange for current privation is how much it sounds exactly like the excuses Trump and his allies are making for the economic wreckage he's inflicting on the U.S. through unnecessary and unjustifiable tariffs. During the campaign, Trump promised, "When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one." Instead, he's doing the opposite: Imposing tariffs on most major trading partners, which function like a sales tax that will almost certainly cause inflation, which had been dwindling in the last year of President Joe Biden's term, to skyrocket again.

....(snip)....

The message spread throughout the Trump propaganda apparatus to command the MAGA base to see their sudden loss of purchasing power as a necessary sacrifice for future riches. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick admitted that the tariffs will likely spur a recession, but insisted it would be "worth it" because they will supposedly "produce growth." "No pain, no gain — that’s what we used to tell our football players," Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said, falsely equating exercise, which promotes muscle growth, with sales taxes, which suppress consumer spending and shrink the economy. Fox News host Greg Gutfeld also invoked the language of sacrifice, instructing viewers, "don't buy the goods" if they don't want to pay the tax. That may be not possible with necessary goods, like food and fuel. But even with luxury items, the "don't spend money" message is death to economic growth. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/03/14/you-must-sacrifice-maga-excuses-for-trade-echo-prosperity-preachers/