Demonic Describes the Dear Leader DJT

 

Dec 17, 2025 It Has to Be Said.

It’s the word evangelicals use for everything they fear. It's no coincidence then that they’ve gone strangely quiet about the absolute damnable, demonic cruelty of the Trump administration. I’m a painter, an author, a one-time movie director—but most of all, I am a father and a grandfather. In my hierarchy of values, any kindness I have in life comes from the relationships in my family. And I find that a lot of my evangelical background—the background I fled from—still informs my idea of kindness, of doing unto others as one would be done by. In dark moments of my life, I still rely on that moral framework, even though I left the theology behind. That said, I want to share what I think is the heaviest burden on my heart these days—and probably on the hearts of many, many millions of Americans. It is the utter betrayal of the historic Christian witness by so-called evangelical Christians, mostly white evangelical Christians, who voted for—and to this day continue to support—the absolute, damnable, demonic cruelty of the Trump administration. Look at Trump’s reaction to the murder that took place in Los Angeles—the tragic murder of a wonderful man, a film director, and his wife, in their own home, allegedly by their own son. Trump gloated. He said, in effect, Rob Reiner opposed me, so no wonder this happened to him. That is essentially what he posted on social media. Now contrast that with Rob Reiner’s reaction to the assassination of Charlie Kirk not so long ago, when he said that he admired Kirk’s wife for forgiving the assassin. As Reiner put it, “I’m Jewish, but I admire this Christian response—this Christ-like response.” You see the contrast between the baseline of humanity we all depend on to get through daily life—at the checkout counter, at the gas station, at work, with family—and the unhinged cruelty of Donald Trump and those who work with him. The inexcusable JD Vance, who has gone along with this. The inexcusable members of the White House staff who have gone along with this. And what stuns me is that we have allowed ourselves to get used to it. We have allowed ourselves to get used to something that should be absolutely unthinkable. A president of the United States who, instead of drawing our country together in times of crisis, pushes us further and further and further apart. There is only one way, from my Christian background, to describe this behavior—using the theological terms I was raised with in an evangelical home, with my father Francis Schaeffer and my mother Edith Schaeffer, famous evangelical writers and leaders. It is a faith I departed, but as I’ve said, I took certain basic values with me. One of those values was this: the kind of behavior Donald Trump indulges in—his cruelty—is demonic. What’s interesting is that the white nationalist, Christian nationalist movement constantly uses language about demonic possession, demonic battles, principalities and powers of darkness, to describe their own efforts to “return America to Christian principles.” The extremism of Project 2025 hinges on a lot of those ideas. And yet, right in front of our faces, we have a clear example of what, in the theological terms of my childhood, would have been called demonic possession.

Dara Starr Tucker hosts Frank Schaeffer

 

 

Dara Starr Tucker guest-hosts today’s interview with Frank Schaeffer, who grew up in a hugely influential conservative Christian family that the New York Times once referred to as “Evangelical Royalty." Frank left the church in “disgust” after witnessing “unchristlike behavior” on a leadership level across the nation. He wrote a memoir, Crazy for God, about this shift in the evangelical movement. He and Dara discuss how the religious right went so badly off the rails, and took the Republican Party with it.

let me be FRANK

 

Frank Schaeffer is a New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen books. Frank is a survivor of both polio and an evangelical/fundamentalist childhood, an acclaimed writer who overcame severe dyslexia, a home-schooled and self-taught documentary movie director, a feature film director of four low budget Hollywood features Frank has described as “pretty terrible.” He is also an acclaimed author of fiction and nonfiction and an artist with a loyal following of international collectors who own many of his paintings.

Frank has been a frequent guest on the Rachel Maddow Show on NBC, has appeared on Oprah, been interviewed by Terri Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air and appeared on the Today Show, BBC News and many other media outlets. He is a much sought after speaker and has lectured at a wide range of venues from Harvard’s Kennedy School to the Hammer Museum/UCLA, Princeton University, Riverside Church Cathedral, DePaul University and the Kansas City Public Library. 

Duty to Warn: the Left/Right Antisemite (Jew Hatred) Coalition

 

 

Tucker Carlson Unites the Left/Right Antisemite Coalition. 

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Both Sides Are Pointing at the Jews. 

It Has to Be Said. - July 19, 2025

The Trump Era Explained

 

 

The Trump era signifies one thing: a damnation and plague on both your houses—liberal and conservative, left and right. This is the hell we’ve created for ourselves through unforgiving, unmerciful pursuit of culture war. Holier-than-thou, self-righteousness from all sides has built walls so high we can no longer see each other as human. Certitude is a killer. The result? We got what we paid for. A fool in the White House. Civil rights destroyed. Concentration camps—literal ones—being built. Fruit unpicked left to rot in fields, cities raided by masked men dragging mothers from children in the night.

In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer • Tim Alberta

Frank Schaeffer In Conversation with Journalist and Author, Tim Alberta, exploring his work and the themes of his new book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism.

 

Frank Schaeffer On CNNi with Christiane Amanpour

How the Evangelical Christian Movement Destroyed America - Frank Schaeff...

 

Zac & Gavin sit down with NYT best selling author of “Crazy for God” and “Keeping Faith”, Frank Schaeffer for a conversation about growing up with and then working alongside his father Francis Shaeffer, one of the most influential figures of the evangelical movement, and how the work of this movement sowed the seeds for what we’re now seeing in America with Donald Trump and an increasingly crazed, delusional and fascistic Republican party.