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Simcha Fisher: Beware a victor’s mindset

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US President Donald J. Trump speaks after being sworn in during his inauguration as the 47th president of the United States inside the Rotunda of the US Capitol building in Washington Jan. 20, 2025. (OSV News photo/Kenny Holston, pool via Reuters)

Like many of my friends, I’m nervous and upset about what’s going to happen next in my country.  

The newly-elected president has already put into practice some disastrously ugly policies which may or may not be enforceable, and seems hell-bent on stuffing the cabinet with a rogue’s gallery of people who are laughably unqualified for their professional appointments, and horrifically dishonourable in their private lives. As I said, I’m nervous. I’m upset. 

Not all my Catholic friends feel this way! Lots of them are jubilant and are anticipating the next four years with glee and delight. The president has promised them all kinds of things they have long wished for—a return to greatness, a return to goodness. A return to strength, and a return to power. 

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So I am going to do something I haven’t attempted in many years—I’m going to address Trump supporters directly.  

If you’re Christian, and you’re looking forward to the next four years, then this is for you. It’s not for people who voted against Trump. They will have struggles of their own, and I have other words to say to them.  

But if you have ever once thought that I occasionally, even accidentally, hit upon a solid or useful idea, then please listen to what I have to say.  

You are in danger.  

U.S. President Donald Trump shows a signed executive order during a rally inside Capital One Arena in Washington on Inauguration Day Jan. 20, 2025. Earlier in the day, he was sworn in to his second presidential term during a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda. (OSV News photo/Mike Segar, Reuters)

Let’s assume, for the moment, that you are right, and that the next four years and beyond will see the rebirth and blossoming of a country that’s friendly to Christianity in a way we haven’t seen in generations. Let’s assume that this is going to be a golden age, a dream come true for Christians.  

BEWARE. 

Beware. If you’re getting everything you want, and you no longer feel afraid, and you are secure that the powerful and influential are finally on your side, then that makes you rich. 

That might sound good! But I mean it makes you the rich that Jesus speaks about in the Gospel. More properly, that he warns about, in the direst terms. He tells you that you are at terrible peril, your salvation will be hard to achieve, and you’re on the short path to corruption and spiritual death. 

There is nothing worse for a Christian than to be comfortable, nothing more dangerous than to have power over others. 

This isn’t about Trump or his policies in particular (except in that he claims to speak for Christian values). It’s about human nature.  

Nothing good has ever or can ever come of being comfortable, and having power over the lives of others—even over those you’re sure are thoroughly evil!—is the last thing a Christian should want.  

Sometimes it’s necessary, but we should always remember how dangerous power is. 

I said you’re in danger. I didn’t say you’re doomed, or damned. Look to St John Chrysostom. He frequently warns the rich, and exhorts them not to let their wealth corrupt them.  

U.S. President Donald Trump signs documents in the Oval Office at the White House on Inauguration Day in Washington Jan. 20, 2025. He signed a series of executive orders including on immigration, birthright citizenship and climate. Trump also signed an order directing the U.S. government to only recognize two sexes, male and female. (OSV News photo/Carlos Barria, Reuters)

It’s not because wealth is, itself, bad (or because he thinks there is anything inherently virtuous or innocent in being poor), but because he has seen wealth almost inevitably corrupting the people who hold it. 

Wealth tends to consume and pervert everything else, and holding onto it becomes an end in itself. It is very, very hard to use large amounts of money well, without being corrupted. 

Power is no different. Have you noticed that it’s different?  

Has history shown us Christians becoming more virtuous when the government is on their side?  

Is the past full of stories of the faithful becoming more Christlike when they’re in charge, and can pass all the laws? Can you point to a society that both actively pursues power and effectively encourages virtue—real virtue, the ones Jesus praised in the Beatitudes—in its citizens?  

So this is an exhortation for you, the Christian Trump supporter. Let’s say you’re right. Let’s say things are about to change in a big way. Ask yourself: Will they change you? Will they change you for the better?  

You will say, maybe, that these are exceptional times, and that our country’s soul has become so perverse and godless that we now live with a deep deficit of virtue, civic and otherwise, and that Christian values have been neglected and suppressed for so long, if not actively persecuted, it would take many, many years of gains before they’re even within shouting distance of the danger of excess. 

But that’s not how human nature works. Even a tiny bit of power over other human beings has the capacity to corrupt us profoundly.   

If you’ve ever been to a council meeting in a small town, you’ll know that even the smallest amount of power is enough to encourage absurd levels of corruption.  

I have seen low ranking officials ready to sell their souls over the pettiest issues, because power is that dangerous. It eats people up, and makes them hungry for others to devour, and no one is immune.  

It takes an exceptionally virtuous, self-sacrificial, noble, and level-headed person to keep himself safe from that peril. 

We know that Donald Trump, or Elon Musk, or Vladimir Putin, or anyone else who’s likely to be shaping our futures are not any of those things—but I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about you.  

You want to be back on top. What will happen when you get there? How will it change you? How will it encourage you to live and treat other people? How will you defend your life when you’re alone before the throne of God? 

You can only answer these questions for yourself. I hope you at least ask them.  

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