Today’s Example of the Endless Grift
Trump Bibles: made in China.
Reports the AP: Trump has long blasted China’s trade practices. His ‘God Bless the USA’ Bibles were printed there.
Global trade records reviewed by The Associated Press show a printing company in China’s eastern city of Hangzhou shipped close to 120,000 of the Bibles to the United States between early February and late March.
The estimated value of the three separate shipments was $342,000, or less than $3 per Bible, according to databases that use customs data to track exports and imports. The minimum price for the Trump-backed Bible is $59.99, putting the potential sales revenue at about $7 million.
This is just a very simple illustration that the man does not mean what he says, but instead everything is for show.
First, the entire idea of selling Bibles, especially ones that have text added to them, should be seen as sacrilegious.
I would note, for those who carer about such things, “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this .” Revelation 22:18 (see, also Proverbs 30:5-6).
If the Philadelphia Eagles sold a Bible with its logo on the cover, the entire text of the Old and New Testaments, the team’s roster, and the lyrics to “Fly, Eagles, Fly” this would be obviously grotesque.
Putting the US flag on the cover of a Bible is no different than emblazoning it with the logo of the Miami Heat.
Or, what if a Marxist put a hammer and sickle on the cover and add the Communist Manifesto to the text?
To be clear: people can do what they like. But the rest of us are free to assess why they do what they do.
Second, the text of the Bible, the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence are all in the public domain. There is no good reason to pay $59.99 for such a document. And if one needs them, one can google the lyrics to “God Bless the USA.” As such: it has screamed grifty scam from the word jump.
The fact that this product is printed in China is not, in and of itself, an issue. But for Trump to go so, as he rails against China and about imports in general, is just a clear illustration that everything he says is bullshit and that he is in it for himself.
Yes, there are countless other such examples (and worse ones, at that), but this one is pretty easy to understand.
A version of the $59.99 Bible memorializes the July 13 assassination attempt on the former president in Pennsylvania. Trump’s name is on the cover above the phrase, “The Day God Intervened.” The wording appears to have been stamped on after the Bible was produced. Trump said Saturday his would-be assassin did not succeed “by the hand of providence and the grace of God.”
The Bibles are sold exclusively through a website that states it is not affiliated with any political campaign nor is it owned or controlled by Trump.
[…]
The website states that Trump’s name and image are used under a paid license from CIC Ventures, a company Trump reported owning in his most recent financial disclosure. CIC Ventures earned $300,000 in Bible sales royalties, according to the disclosure. It’s unclear what period that covers or how much Trump received in additional payments since the disclosure was released in August.
This is supposed to be a sacred text to millions in the United States. Here is it used as a money-maker and is repurposed as Trump paraphernalia (a signed copy can be had for $1000!). And the usage of a China as a the source for the product underscores the utterly hypocritical nature of Trump’s approach to policy.
I would love to hear someone explain to me how everything about this is story is anything other than a way for Trump to make money and how it says anything positive about him.
Again, I know this is minor, but it shows him to be a con man, a grifter, and a hypocrite. Moreover, he does not care about Christianity one whit.
And this is the least of it.
I write this partially out of frustration and partially in the likely vain hope that someone will read this and consider what their vote for Trump means.
BTW: the photo at the top is of Trump dourly holding a Bible as a prop after force was used to clear Lafayette Square so that he could take the photo.
I wrote about the event in the following posts, which I share below:
Donald Trump is clearly a man who sees the Bible as a political prop and nothing more. Christians take note.
Yet they will still vote for him in November. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@Sleeping Dog:
Well, God’s earthly representatives are often flawed.
I’m betting this would actually do gang busters as a kickstarter
Related: Oklahoma got caught trying to use the Trump Bible to shift millions of taxpayer dollars to Trump’s pocket:
A Trump-backed Bible seems a suspicious fit for Oklahoma’s narrow school text criteria
Remember when the right was enthusiastic about burning copies of the Quran?
I wouldn’t advocate burning copies of the Bible, though. that’s a frivolous, unnecessary release of CO2 and other pollutants. But shredding a few thousands to recycle the paper, that’s a better idea.
And the other day, Trump’s “take” on the Bibles so far was said to be roughly $300k.
This guy is the/a king of the grift?? REALLY?!?!?!?!?
@Stormy Dragon: Some OK Democrat needs to make a big stink about amending the bible RFP to disqualify any bible made in China. Watch the rats squirm.
Trump Bibles need to be released on ereaders so the text is always upright regardless of the orientation of the reader. That would help minimize photo-op gaffes…
I will never cease to be amazed that so many Americans would vote for what is one of the most blatant fools and con men to enter politics, no matter how much help he’s had along the way.
How Trump’s utter phoniness escapes even the dullest observer escapes me. It radiates from this picture.
Boring partisan moralising aside, this rather feels like a nice Neg advert, as like “Two faced trump selling you down the river, his Bibles printed in Communist China, going to sell you out.” Short, negativity. Play up the shiftiness.
And blanket Arab Michigan districts with Trump investing in Israeli hotels that NYT reports.
Knife work on tender underbellies
I agree, and commented yesterday that a Bible plus other documents is not a Bible. But psychology is fascinating. I would bet many Trumpers would say a Miami Heat logo is beyond the pale but an American flag is just natural.
I don’t know why we spend billions on fusion research when motivated reasoning is the most powerful force in the universe.