Who Does Trump Lie Most About?

Turning neighbors into enemies is what demagogues do.

In the 25^th Chapter of Matthew, Jesus says whether we welcome the stranger, or not, demonstrates how we welcome or don’t welcome him. It’s very clear. The word “stranger” in the gospel text literally means “immigrant” and “refugee.” He says “As you have done to the least of these, you have done to me.” 

In the presidential debate on Tuesday night, Donald Trump claimed that in Springfield, Ohio, Haitian immigrants are stealing and eating other people’s household pets. “They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” said Trump in answer to a question about immigration with millions of Americans watching. “They’re eating the pets of the people who live there, and that is what’s happening in this country, and it is a shame.” 

This false claim has quickly become a right-wing media conspiracy theory that has gone viral in part thanks to Trump and J.D. Vance’s regular mentioning. David Muir, the ABC news anchor who was co-moderating the debate, responded that his network had actually fact-checked this and reported that the Springfield city manager told ABC “there had been no credible reports of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by people in the city’s immigrant community.” Trump responded, “I’ve seen people on television who said immigrants were eating the pets of people who lived there.” It was a moment in the debate that many people have talked about since.

Such a lie seems outlandish and farcical but deep down it’s also sinister and revealing. There were many lies that media fact checkers reported in Trump's debate statements. But people said that we should expect nothing less from the pathological liar we have all gotten used to. “That’s just Trump!” many shrugged. 

I believe it’s more than just  another lie. Let’s ask the question: who does Donald Trump lie the most about?

Over and over again: it’s migrants, refugees, asylum seekers–the very people that Jesus calls us to welcome as “strangers.” Donald Trump specifically and perhaps strategically lies about those who are racially different from white Americans, his base whom he tries to make angrier and angrier. He once famously said he won’t mind more immigrants from Norway. Donald Trump has constantly demeaned and demonized the people that Jesus told us to welcome, and now promises to remove millions of them from America in what he and his future administration officials brag will be the most massive deportation in our country’s history.

Immigrants were the primary target of Trump’s opening campaign speech when he came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower. Mexican immigrants were the focus that day and were subject to ugly racial attacks as “rapists” and “criminals” who bring dangerous violence with addictive drugs and disease across our borders. Since then, Trump has gotten worse, saying that most of the immigrants now coming are all from prisons, insane asylums, are terrorists, gang members, and drug dealers; and the very worst people sent by their countries and only coming to do us harm.

Demagogues don’t like data and they say their lies over and over enough that people start to believe it. Migrant crime is always less than crimes committed by native U.S. citizens. Undocumented immigrants can’t vote, only citizens can in every state in America, but the flood of “illegal aliens” voting to support Democrats is a myth that never stops Republican repetition.

Anyone who has had contact with the families and children coming from south of the border know that the constant attacks on them are all based on lies. But most don’t have any personal contact and the lies work. And what many white Christians who support Trump lack is what I call a theology of proximity which would wipe away all the lies. Getting to know real people and their stories and their children is what always changes hearts and minds–in my experience, even white conservative stereotypes and caricatures. Everything is about relationships.

Creating fear and divisions is what demagogues do, and that’s what Donald Trump did again in the debate. He spoke admiringly about Hungarian dictator, Viktor Orbán, and Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin. 

Demagogues run and rule on racial fear and lies which fuel human divisions.  They want people to believe only strong men can restore order. Our religious language calls this “othering” and all faith traditions clearly and consistently condemn it. Fear and division helps demagogues win as they try to narrow the definition of who our neighbors are. Turning neighbors into enemies is what demagogues do.  And that’s what the weird dogs and cats language was all about Tuesday night: fear, hate, violence, and power. Expanding the definition of our neighbor– which faith does– defeats demagogues. 

So sadly, Trump’s white evangelical supporters have had little to say about all his attacks on immigrants and his strategy to narrow our sense of who our neighbors are. We still wait to hear any of those white evangelical leaders speak against Trump’s accusations that the strangers that Jesus told us to welcome are really taking and  eating our pets. Apparently, these white evangelicals have not read Matthew 25. Their pastor’s preaching on the text would be a great topic on the Sunday after the Tuesday debate. Let’s watch for that. There are over 400 verses in the Bible about caring for immigrants so maybe it's a good time to encourage white Christians to do more Bible studies. 

Watching the debate Tuesday in Washington D.C. became a Matthew 25 night for me. Wednesday in Tucson, Arizona, became a Mt 25 day for me, as I was given a tour of  a wonderful and quite amazing community center where Christians care for those seeking asylum and have just arrived and are now legally on their way to families and sponsors in America.

After such long dangerous and very difficult journeys, people who have been exploited, robbed, ransomed, raped, tortured, and watched friends  die find the loving welcome they are so longing for. I saw the smiles on the faces of mothers, fathers, and young children. Then we had a packed house on a Wednesday night with people of faith from all over southern Arizona in the prophetic Southside Presbyterian Church, where  their now retired pastor John Fife and others had been charged as felons for welcoming  strangers across the border in a faithful ministry of Christ for many decades. My dear friend John is a Matthew 25 felon, but last night a wonderfully diverse crowd of Christians could feel the joy of following Jesus.

Check out the brand new companion study guide for The False White Gospel here.