By Dan Calabrese —— Bio and Archives May 15, 2017

If you haven’t seen this, do yourself a favor and take the time to watch it. It’s an extraordinary address for a president to give precisely because it cuts to the heart of something that’s been going on in Washington for far too long: The political class does worship government as if it were a god. They obsess over it. They fight over what it should be like. They demand that everyone pay it as much money as possible. And of course, they fight for control of it.

But most of all, they go to government for the solution of every problem that exists, and they insist that everyone else do the same. The thing you regard in that way has become your god, and Trump, who is not by nature a creature of Washington - and is not widely thought to be a man of deep faith either - has noticed it:

But Trump is a special case because he not only doesn’t worship government, he doesn’t even think very highly of the whole political world and its customs and traditions

What Trump has experienced pretty much nonstop since the day he took office is a testament to this. Anyone not participating in the Beltway freakout over Trump’s president can’t help but marvel while observing it. He’s not just a president of the opposition party. He’s treated as the ultimate interloper, who dares to walk in and take over what was theirs - but without their reverence for it or devotion to it.

To some degree the political class reacts to every Republican president this way because they don’t believe government is the answer to every question that has ever been asked like Democrats do. But Trump is a special case because he not only doesn’t worship government, he doesn’t even think very highly of the whole political world and its customs and traditions.

There are people in Washington (even a few Democrats) who have genuine faith in God. But for the most part, they use God as a prop when it serves their purposes. They make sure to attend the churches that will best position them for political success. They invoke God when people are listening. And they browbeat others if their faith in God doesn’t lead them to support the never-ending expansion of government - their real god.

Presidents don’t make speeches like the one above. Or I should say, they didn’t

Many Christians don’t think Trump is a genuine believer. Others say his acceptance of Christ came very recently. I don’t have direct information to tell me one way or another. But I will say this: What Trump has experienced in just under four months in Washington should demonstrate very clearly to him how people behave when their god is something other than the true God. Compare the way these people have treated him to the way he’s treated by the people of faith, and which group do you think he’d be more drawn to.

That doesn’t guarantee he’s saved, but we make decisions based on the experiences in our lives. If Trump’s current experiences aren’t adding new context to the biggest decisions of his life, I don’t know what would.

And one more thing: Presidents don’t make speeches like the one above. Or I should say, they didn’t.