By My Count Trump Is Batting .900 on the Ten Commandments

Friday, 21 June 2024

Sara Cline, reporting for the AP:

The legislation that Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed into law on Wednesday requires a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities.

“If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses” who got the commandments from God, Landry said.

Opponents questioned the law’s constitutionality and vowed to challenge it in court. Proponents said the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance. In the language of the law, the Ten Commandments are “foundational documents of our state and national government.”

Former president and convicted felon Donald Trump, on his floundering social network, approves:

I LOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AND MANY OTHER PLACES, FOR THAT MATTER. READ IT — HOW CAN WE, AS A NATION, GO WRONG??? THIS MAY BE, IN FACT, THE FIRST MAJOR STEP IN THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION, WHICH IS DESPERATELY NEEDED, IN OUR COUNTRY. BRING BACK TTC!!! MAGA2024

Here is the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments required by the Louisiana law (the Catholic version doesn’t qualify):

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

The Independent, in March: “Trump Compares Himself to Jesus Christ — Again”.

2. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven images.

The Guardian: “Trump Used His Charity’s Money to Pay for Portrait of Himself”.

3. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.

Politico, 2019: “‘Using the Lord’s Name in Vain’: Evangelicals Chafe at Trump’s Blasphemy”. (Trump crowing, “They’ll be hit so goddamn hard,” while bragging about bombing Islamic State militants. And Trump recounting his warning to a wealthy businessman: “If you don’t support me, you’re going to be so goddamn poor.”)

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

People magazine, 2022: “Donald Trump spent the Easter weekend enjoying two of his favorite activities, sources say: golf and greeting adoring guests at his Mar-a-Lago resort. On Saturday and Sunday morning, the former president played rounds of golf with members at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, a source tells People. ‘He is no longer president,’ says one insider, ‘so he doesn’t have to go to church.’”

5. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Trump speaks highly of his father — from whom he inherited his handsome visage and enviable mane — so he’s clear on this one. Quite the man to honor, too. The Washington Post: “Trump’s father, Fred Trump, was arrested twice: in 1927 during a Ku Klux Klan riot, and in 1976 over code violations at a building he owned in Maryland.” The New York Times: “The Justice Department undertook its own investigation and, in 1973, sued Trump Management for discriminating against blacks. Both Fred Trump, the company’s chairman, and Donald Trump, its president, were named as defendants. It was front-page news, and for Donald, amounted to his debut in the public eye.”

6. Thou shalt not kill.

Trump, 2016: “You know what else they say about my people? The polls, they say I have the most loyal people. Did you ever see that? Where I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s like incredible.”

The Guardian, 2021: “US Could Have Averted 40% of Covid Deaths, Says Panel Examining Trump’s Policies”.

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

I mean come on.

8. Thou shalt not steal.

Trump University: “The lawsuits centered around allegations that Trump University defrauded its students by using misleading marketing practices and engaging in aggressive sales tactics. The company and the lawsuits against it received renewed interest due to Trump’s candidacy in the 2016 presidential election. Despite repeatedly insisting he would not settle, Trump settled all three lawsuits in November 2016 for a total of $25 million after being elected president.”

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

CNN: “Former President Donald Trump has spent months spreading lies about the 2020 election, which he himself is now calling “THE BIG LIE” as he continues to claim that a massive conspiracy robbed him of a second term.”

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house.

The Vera Coking house: “In 1993, Donald Trump bought several lots around his Atlantic City casino and hotel, intending to build a parking lot designed for limousines. Coking, who had lived in her house at that time for 32 years, refused to sell. As a result, the city condemned her house, using the power of eminent domain. She was offered $251,000, a quarter of what she was offered by Guccione 10 years earlier.”