MAGA die-hards somehow still seem convinced that the “J” in Donald J. Trump stands for “Jesus.”

In a miracle worthy of Jesus, Trump continues to mesmerize his devoted flock who delusionally believe their only path towards salvation is through this bogus billionaire. These strict adherents to the Gospel according to Trump, will follow him faithfully in his battles of winners and losers, certain they are on the side of right.

Donald Trump called Micki Larson-Olson, a QAnon supporter who served prison time for her actions during the January 6 Capitol attack and wants former Vice President Mike Pence executed for treason, “terrific.” Photo Jabin Botsford Washington Post

Last week, after being embraced by Donald Trump at a campaign meet and greet in a New Hampshire diner, a smitten  QAnon supporter Micki Larson-Olson, gushed:

If I were to imagine what it would be like to hug Jesus Christ — not that I’m saying President Trump is Jesus Christ — but, just, you know, if I was to imagine what it would be like to hug Jesus Christ, that’s what it felt like for me. It was so personal and intimate.

In a complete reversal of Jesus but no less miraculous, he has taken those with perfectly fine vision and turned them blind.

While most Christians are deeply offended at the comparison of Jesus with a businessman, 100 years ago the notion of Christ as a “manly, super-successful businessman”  swept the nation.

Trump might like to think he is the greatest marketing genius of all time, but that moniker goes to Jesus Christ.

Yup, Jesus was once sold to the American people as a crackerjack executive, and salesman skilled at branding.

Kinda like Trump.

The Selling Of Jesus the  Businessman

In 1925, ad man Bruce Barton reconfigured Jesus for the Roaring Twenties in one of the great best-sellers of the century.

In The Man Nobody Knows, Barton depicted Christ as a man’s man, not the meek, effeminate figure he had encountered in Sunday School. He urged readers to dismiss the image of the long-haired, “sissified” figure who gazed woefully from Victorian lithographs.

Barton’s Jesus was a muscular “outdoorsman” and a “sociable” fellow in demand at Jerusalem’s best banquet tables. “The most popular dinner guest in Jerusalem.” Nobody was more popular than Jesus.

Barton the original Mad Man who founded the legendary advertising firm of Batten, Barton, Durstine, and Osborne,  recast Jesus as the world’s first advertising man, whose parables sparkled as models for modern jingle writers.

Here was Christ, the world’s greatest business executive.

More to the point, he was a masterly entrepreneur. Hadn’t this humble carpenter “picked up 12 men from the bottom ranks of business and forged them into an organization that conquered the world”?

Jesus,  Barton said, “recognized the basic principle that all good advertising is news.” He was, Barton concluded “the founder of modern business.”

Bartons’ book showed how committed Americans were to market capitalism and the culture of affluence.

Very Trumpian-like characteristics.

From his religious father, Barton had learned that a “preacher is really a salesman.” The son simply reversed the nouns.

Ego-centric Trump is nothing if not a great salesman, even if what he is selling is pure grift.

While Jesus could turn water into wine, Trump has his followers believing his claim that everything he touches turns to gold. Tragically  MAGA supporters are blind to see that his gold is always tarnished.

If they follow him to walk on water, they are sure to drown.