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(RNS) — On Easter Sunday (April 5), President Donald Trump shared a profanity-laced message for the people of Iran on his Truth Social platform, capping a Holy Week filled with both sacred and profane messages from the White House. <\/span><\/p>\n “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell,” the president<\/span> posted<\/span><\/a> early on Easter. <\/span>He then added: “Praise be to Allah.” <\/span><\/p>\n The post repeated Trump’s threat to destroy power plants and other infrastructure in Iran if the country did not lift a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for the world’s oil and gas.<\/span><\/p>\n Two days earlier, on Good Friday, Trump hosted an Easter lunch for a group of pastors, including Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress, Bishop Robert Barron, Marilyn Rivera and White House faith adviser Paula White, who compared the president to Jesus. <\/span>Like Jesus, White said, Trump was “betrayed and arrested and falsely accused.” <\/span><\/p>\n “Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price,” White said before leading a prayer for Trump. “It almost cost you your life.”<\/span><\/p>\n White went on to say to the president that, “Because of His victory, you will be victorious in all that you put your hand to, amen, because God is with you and God is using you.”<\/span><\/p>\n In his prayer, Graham compared the current conflict with Iran to the biblical book of Esther, in which a Persian leader threatened to kill Jews living in that country — only to be thwarted by a young Jewish woman named Esther. Graham said that God had raised up Trump, “for such a time as this,” a well-known quote from that book of the Bible.<\/span><\/p>\n “We pray for the people of Iran, who want freedom, to be set free from these Islamic lunatics,” he prayed.<\/span><\/p>\n Later that day, Trump<\/span> posted a video message<\/span> wishing the nation a Happy Easter and quoting John 3:16, a familiar passage. He also seemed to claim credit for a religious revival in the country —<\/span> a claim that is hotly contested. <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n “As I have often said, to be a great nation, you must have religion, and you must have God,” he said in that video. “In churches across the nation on Sunday, the pews will be fuller, younger and more faithful than they have at any time in many, many years.”<\/span><\/p>\n Trump also took time in the last week<\/span> to fire<\/span><\/a> Attorney General Pam Bondi, to<\/span> criticize NATO<\/span><\/a> and<\/span> The New York Times<\/span> and to threaten Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT,”<\/span> he wrote<\/span><\/a>. “Time is running out – 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to GOD!”<\/span><\/p>\n Also on Good Friday, The Ingraham Angle, a popular conservative political talk show hosted by Laura Ingraham, followed Trump as he pulled back two large, dark blue curtains in the Oval Office to reveal a framed copy of<\/span> Warner Sallman’s “Head of Christ” painting<\/span><\/a> on the White House wall. The portrait has long been one of the most popular images<\/a> of Jesus in the United States but has come under criticism in recent years for depicting Jesus, who was a Middle Eastern Jew, as if he were Scandinavian. <\/span><\/p>\n “Isn’t that great?” Trump said, showing off the painting in a<\/span> clip<\/span><\/a> of the show posted by his son, Barron. “It just went up yesterday.” <\/span><\/p>\n Holy Saturday brought an <\/span>anti-immigrant<\/span><\/a> message, <\/span>more criticism of Iran<\/span> and <\/span>a poll<\/span><\/a> from CPAC showing support for Vice President JD Vance. <\/span><\/p>\n He began Easter with a hopeful message, just after midnight, that an Air Force officer whose jet was shot down over Iran had been rescued. <\/span>“WE GOT HIM,” Trump posted. “My fellow Americans, over the past several hours, the United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History.”<\/span><\/p>\n The president then added holiday greetings: <\/span>“GOD BLESS AMERICA, GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS, AND HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!”<\/span><\/p>\n Then, hours after Pope Leo XIV gave an anti-war Easter message — <\/span>“Let those who have weapons lay them down! Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace,”<\/span> the pontiff said<\/span><\/a> — Trump posted his “crazy bastards” threat to Iran, followed by a video of performance artist Vanessa Horabuena painting a portrait of Jesus, with the song “So Be It,” from Elevation Church,<\/span> playing in<\/span><\/a> the background. <\/span><\/p>\n Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, who resigned from office in January after a public break with Trump,<\/span> criticized the president’s Truth Social posts on Easter<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n “On Easter morning, this is what President Trump posted,” she wrote on X, before accusing members of his administration of needing to “beg forgiveness from God” and calling Trump’s actions “madness.”<\/span><\/p>\n In the lengthy post, Greene said the U.S. and Israel had “started the unprovoked war against Iran,” criticized Trump’s threats to strike Iranian infrastructure and stated “our President is not a Christian and his words and actions should not be supported by Christians.”<\/span><\/p>\n Unlike the millions of Americans who flocked to church on Easter — one of the busiest days of the year for congregations — Trump did not go to church. <\/span>Instead, <\/span>The Daily Beast reported<\/span><\/a> that he traveled in a slow-moving motorcade through Washington, D.C., near a location where he has proposed constructing a monument in his honor. <\/span>The outing was followed by a visit to his golf club in Virginia.<\/span><\/p>\n On Monday morning, Trump hosted the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, where he delivered remarks about the war in Iran while standing alongside first lady Melania Trump and a person dressed as the Easter bunny. Speaking from a White House balcony, Trump addressed the ongoing conflict. PBS News coverage showed him making national security comments as the traditional holiday festivities unfolded below.<\/p>\n Of Iran, Trump said it is a tough enemy, but emphasized its forces have been weakened in the past month due to U.S. military intervention. “I can tell you right now they’re not too strong at all,” he said. <\/span><\/p>\n
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