1. Introduction
Donald Trump as God’s chosen messiah—this is a motif that appeared in 2015 in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election. Hundreds of texts, speeches, lectures, and sermons given since 2015 by charismatic preachers and representatives of the prosperity gospel from evangelical circles—such as Robert Jeffress, Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Jr., Tony Perkins, Bryan Fischer etc.—increasingly show a messianic pattern applied to Donald Trump (cf. Barrett-Fox).
Early on, this argument was focused on the Persian king Cyrus (559–530 BCE), who is described in Isa as God’s anointed and his messiah. In presenting Trump as such a biblical king and messiah, Cyrus is understood as a ruler who does not share the belief of God but is nonetheless understood as God’s chosen messiah.
This biblically based argumentation of a messianic ruler enables Donald Trump to be integrated precisely into the values and norms of evangelical Christians. In this way, the leading evangelical preachers use the biblical motif of Cyrus as the Messiah chosen by God and functionalize it to promote Donald Trump in the social milieu of evangelical Christians, which is becoming increasingly popular.
2. Donald Trump as “God’s Chaos Candidate” (Lance Wallnau)
Lance Wallnau is an evangelical preacher and entrepreneur who presents himself on his website as a “strategist, futurist and compelling communicator” (Link). He is one of the earliest of Trump’s supporters who popularized the interpretation of Donald Trump as biblical messiah on various media channels.
I was updating some random social media activity when I ran across a simple PowerPoint showing Trump seated in the oval office with the words “Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States.” The image made a peculiar impression on my mind. I was dazed.
The Spirit impressed upon my mind “read Isaiah 45.” To be honest, I didn’t recall what the chapter was about. I opened a Bible and began to read “Thus sayeth the Lord to Cyrus whom I’ve anointed.”
With 16 candidates running, many who were clear conservative evangelicals, why would God be talking about Cyrus? Wallnau quickly looked up the number of the next president and read Isaiah 45 as a prophetic template for Trump’s political role.
3. King Cyrus as Messianic Model
In the biblical book of Isaiah, the Persian king Cyrus is presented as a messianic figure, whom God has chosen as his instrument, although the Persian king did not know the God of Israel. In Ezr 1:1–3, Cyrus is understood as the one who leads Judah back to Israel from captivity and rebuilds the temple.
In reception history, the Persian king Cyrus has been understood—mostly by the Jewish side—as an interpretive figure for a good non-Jewish ruler chosen by God to do good deeds for the people of Israel. Thus, he served as an interpretation for the Hapsburg Emperor Joseph II, Tsar Alexander II, or Napoleon Bonaparte.
While in these receptions the deeds of the political ruler for Israel were in the foreground and were mostly drawn from the Jewish side, the pattern of interpretation changes with the Donald Trump interpretation of Cyrus. This interpretation is drawn from the Christian-evangelical side and serves to minimize Donald Trump’s moral “deficits” by integrating them into a biblical explanatory pattern.
4. The movie: “The Trump Prophecy”
In 2018, a film entitled The Trump Prophecy was produced as a collaboration between Reel Works Studio and the evangelical Liberty University’s Cinematic Arts program. The first part of the film tells the story of fireman Mark Taylor from Orlando, which includes Trump’s stylization as King and Messiah Cyrus, and the second part consists of conversations with well-known interviewees from the evangelical milieu (Link).
Taylor hears a message from God telling him, “You’re hearing the voice of the president.” This becomes Taylor’s vocation: he notes in his diary that Trump will be God’s chosen next president and calls it “The Commander-in-Chief Prophecy.”
Although the 2012 election does not confirm his message of God, Taylor continues to write down the messages of God in his diary. After the improbable happens and Trump is elected, Taylor’s prophecy appears to be true, curing him of PTSD.
5. Benjamin Netanyahu on March 5, 2018
In the context of the opening of the U.S. embassy on May 14, 2018, on the 70th anniversary of Israel’s Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Netanyahu visited President Trump at the White House on March 5, 2018. This visit came after Trump had announced on December 6, 2017, that he would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
I want to tell you that the Jewish people have a long memory, so we remember the proclamation of the great king, Cyrus the Great, the Persian king 2,500 years ago. He proclaimed that the Jewish exiles in Babylon could come back and rebuild our Temple in Jerusalem.
We remember 70 years ago, President Harry S. Truman was the first leader to recognize the Jewish state. And we remember how a few weeks ago, President Donald J. Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Mr. President, this will be remembered by our people through the ages.
In his statement, Benjamin Netanyahu takes up Trump’s stylizations as God’s anointed messiah and chosen ruler Cyrus. Furthermore, Benjamin Netanyahu takes up formulations that Chief Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog made to the president and thereby links both events.
6. Trump-Cyrus-Coin
On the occasion of the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and the 70th anniversary of the Israeli Declaration of Independence, the Mikdash Educational Center in Jerusalem issued coins in three variants, each working iconographically with the stylization of Cyrus and Trump by showing both superimposed on each other in side portraits (Link).
The first coin shows Cyrus and Trump with the inscription “Cyrus - Balfour - Trump Declaration 1917–2017” and a second parallelizes Netanyahu and Trump with the inscription “War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness” and Cyrus and the Temple on the reverse.
One of the aims of the Mikdash Educational Center is to rebuild the temple in the near future on the Temple Mount/al-ḥaram aš-šarīf in Jerusalem and therefore connects Donald Trump with Cyrus.