David Rem is probably not a childhood friend of Donald Trump, at least not as advertised by the campaign. He nevertheless enjoyed a prime speaking slot at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, where he proceeded to make headlines by calling Vice-President Kamala Harris “the Devil” and “the Antichrist.” Although it would be a fascinating time for us all if this were true, there is no evidence that Harris is the Antichrist. She is, however, a liberal woman of color, and that is enough to make her evil in the eyes of the Christian right. In calling her the Antichrist, Rem echoed the language of spiritual warfare — a tendency that is gathering strength among Trump’s Evangelical backers.
"Kamala Harris is the devil! She is the Antichrist!" — Top Trump surrogate David Rem pic.twitter.com/Awu1Xl0VXn
— Christopher Hale (@chrisjollyhale) October 27, 2024
It’s not altogether new for some Evangelicals to perceive electoral politics in biblical, even apocalyptic terms. I recall hearing as a child and young adult that the end-times were imminent, which lent additional urgency to the election of George W. Bush. (Later, I also heard people call then-President Barack Obama the Antichrist; sometimes in jest, sometimes not.) Rem is hardly the first person to link a politician to the Antichrist. In 2014, for example, the Reverend Robert Jeffress published a book claiming Obama’s support for marriage equality had somehow set the stage for the Antichrist.
Now, such beliefs seem to be intensifying, becoming more popular and more extreme. As the Associated Press reported earlier this month, Christian-nationalist leaders associated with the New Apostolic Reformation movement have referred to Harris as a “Jezebel spirit,” a term with violently racist and misogynist implications. In the Old Testament, the promiscuous Jezebel persecuted the prophets only to perish; her remains were eaten by dogs. The term has a particularly horrific connotation in the U.S., where it “was used to justify the systemic sexual assault and rape of Black women and girls” during slavery, the AP added. “Any woman who is stepping into her power in any kind of way is going to be seen as this Jezebel who is deserving of violence,” professor Tamura Lomax of Michigan State University told the news outlet.
Despite — or perhaps because of — the term’s history and meaning, it is being used by Lance Wallnau, a popular NAR leader who also claimed Harris engages in “witchcraft.” In a video posted to X, Wallnau said that “with Kamala you have a Jezebel spirit, a characteristic in the Bible, that is a Jezebel spirit. The personification of intimidation, seduction, domination and manipulation.” He added that Harris is “an amalgam of the spirit of Jezebel in a way that’ll be even more ominous than Hillary [Clinton], because she’ll bring a racial component, and she’s younger.” Though Wallnau is extreme, the Trump campaign has not disavowed him: J.D. Vance even appeared at an event Wallnau hosted in September.
Wallnau boasts a million Facebook followers, and his profile has only risen along with Trump’s. “Wallnau was already popular,” scholar Matthew D. Taylor told The Wall Street Journal this month. “But he became a mega evangelical celebrity through his endorsement of Trump and using his ideas to backstop Trump.” Wallnau’s vision of spiritual warfare can be dangerous, as we all learned on January 6, 2021. Taylor has linked key architects of January 6 to NAR, and Wallnau himself was in Washington, D.C., the day of the riot, though he told the Journal he wasn’t present at the Capitol during the violence.
With the election a week away, Rem’s bizarre speech is another reminder that a victory for Trump would be a victory for a movement bent on far-right Christian supremacy. That movement views its enemies in subhuman terms and attacks them as such. Harris is not simply a political opponent but a witch, a devil, even a demonic Jezebel. Her race, gender, and partisan affiliation would have made her a target for the right wing in times past, too, but the language adopted by Trump’s allies and surrogates reveals new dangers. The fringe is no longer the fringe, and as it rises, it threatens everyone outside its embrace.
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