Zingrin Shishak
In the US presidential election of 2024, many Naga Christians expressed joy and satisfaction when Donald Trump won. They felt that this was good for Christianity; that Trump was pro-Christian, pro family values, anti LGBTQ, anti abortion, etc, and so this was a good outcome for the election. American Evangelical Christians largely supported Trump. We Nagas are heavily influenced by American Christians; after all, they are the ones who evangelized us. Therefore it makes sense that many Nagas supported Trump. It is also true that many of us are influenced by social media and receive much of our information and news about the world through that medium. We may have seen some video clips, short quotations, articles and memes that made it seem like Trump and the Republican Party are strongly pro-Christian and the opposite side, Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party, are unsupportive of Christian morality or even hostile to it.
As a Christian who is both American and Naga, let me try make the case why Trump is a danger to American Christians, the country at large, and the world as a whole. When Trump first appeared in the public eye as a presidential candidate, his morally deficient character was immediately evident in his coarse talk, bullying nature, sexual promiscuity, lack of compassion for others, constant lies, and his obvious narcissism. Which brings us to the first point; Trump’s character defects are so severe as to disqualify him from a position of tremendous power in which concern for others (i.e. his fellow citizens) requires the bare minimum of personal ethics and decency. Matthew 7:18 states that “a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.” Trump is a bad tree. He is a psychologically damaged individual who has no concern for anyone except himself. Supporters who genuinely believe that he actually cares for his country and fellow citizens are terribly misguided.
One common critique of this view is that all politicians are morally flawed. For example, they say that all politicians lie. But the flood of mistruths that Trump puts out almost on a daily basis is on a completely different level than the average politician. All politicians to some degree have narcissistic tendencies and big egos; one could not be a politician without some degree of this. But Trump’s narcissism goes way beyond a normal politician, let alone a person. Another argument for supporting Trump in spite of his character flaws is that God is using him to achieve good things in society. It goes something like this, “I’m voting for a president, not a pastor.” Firstly, Trump’s tremendously flawed nature means everything he does is guided by corrupt self interest. That means he will never put his country first above his self-interest. If by supporting the interests of Christians he is able to garner political support and power, then there is an alignment between him and Christians. But the moment supporting “Christian values” does not help him politically, he is sure to drop the whole act without hesitation. Secondly, for decades US Christians and the Republican Party have maintained that a leader’s character matters. That’s why they strongly condemned President Bill Clinton’s sexual failings while in office and pursued his impeachment. Back then they said “character matters.” But these days, it apparently doesn’t matter much. So long as Trump supports certain political aims that Christians want, they are willing to completely overlook his deep character flaws. For decades the secular world has accused the Christians of hypocrisy. By so completely and enthusiastically supporting Trump, any doubt has been removed; they know we Christians are hypocrites.
The second point is this; Trump is a danger to democracy and the rule of law. After his loss in the 2020 election, instead of following the tradition of conceding, Trump refused to concede that he had lost. Instead, he made attempts to overturn the results of the election, citing unproven fraud which was struck down in the courts as he had no evidence to back up his claims. His consistent accusations that the election was stolen from him drove his supporters to violently attack and take over the capitol building. Trump doesn’t believe that laws, rules, and norms apply to him. In Trump 2.0, he and his administration give every indication that they may refuse to obey court orders, even Supreme Court orders, which they don’t like. If this happens, it will indeed be a constitutional crisis and the breakdown of the rule of law in America.
Trump talks about “the deep state” and about “draining the swamp,” a metaphor for cleaning the government of waste and corruption, but Trump 2.0 is shaping up to be an incredibly corrupt administration. The richest man in the world is trying to gain control over virtually every government dept, and in the process firing scores of civil servants, including in the departments that are investigating him or his companies for various legal violations. The richest man in the world, who himself has billions of dollars of contracts with the government, is tasked with eliminating unneeded contracts, getting rid of inefficient government spending and so on. Somehow I doubt that SpaceX’s contracts will be found to be superfluous.
Finally, the third point is Trump’s policies, especially his foreign policy. Trump seems to think that “Make America Great Again” is the same as “Make America Alone Again.” He seems determined to antagonize America’s allies and thinks that the US can do things on its own. He is infatuated with Russia’s Putin, who is an authoritarian who restricts freedom of speech in his country and has a habit of making his critics accidentally fall out of high-rise buildings. Trump/Musk has cut USAID programs, which are an effective use of “soft power” in the world by providing humanitarian assistance in the name of the US people. The sad thing is that the election of 2024 has proven one thing; American society is in decline. If a majority of voters really believed that Trump was the lesser of two evils, then US society lacks either intelligence, moral character, or both. If they believe that Trump policies will bring about a “golden age” in the country, they are mistaken. If they believe isolationism, the weakening of the rule of law, and the abandonment of the Constitution is good, then they are lost. And if the US retreats from the world stage, who is going to take over? It will be China, and I am uncertain and fearful of a world where the international order will be set by China, a communist country with one-party rule, that persecutes minority groups like the Uyghurs and critics of the government.
To summarize, let us look with clear, sober eyes at Trump and the situation in the US. Christians have decided that the promotion of “Christian values” through the power of the government is worth abandoning the rule of law, weakening democracy, ignoring the Constitution, enabling corruption, abandoning allies, and ceding the world stage to China. From our Christian friends in the US, and through the misleading power of social media, we hear things about “gays”, “trans”, “abortion”, and whatnot and we get all excited. In exchange for political power to make the USA “Christian” again, do we not realize that it is destroying Christian witness? In Matthew 4: 8-10 it is written “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away from me, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” I believe that God has been using Trump as a test to the American Church, and they have been failing badly. They have made a devilish bargain; they have chosen a worldly kingdom, and it will not turn out well for them.
