Author guest post from Mike Wells.

Donald Trump has been heavily criticised and ridiculed for the post of a strange picture in which he seems to be a Jesus like figure healing the sick on the internet. It might seem that this confirms the worst fears of the critics of the Constitution in 1787 that creating a stronger government for the US would run the risk of a king. Indeed Trump has faced demonstrations from those who urge ‘No King’ even if they have not yet demonstrated against ‘No God’, not anticipating that the president might identify himself with a Divine figure in the manner of the madder Roman emperors or various oriental potentates. There is a tacit suggestion that it is profoundly anti-American to compare political leaders with Biblical figures, something that the rational and principled rebels against British rule would have been horrified by.

But actually, Washington was quite frequently compared with Moses and sometimes in quite a detailed way by the revolutionaries and his admirers in the early Republic. The historian Bruce Feller describes this strange phenomenon in ‘America’s Prophet: How the Story of Moses Shaped America’

Sometimes Washington was seen as greater than Moses who only led his people towards the Promised Land, whereas Washington gave them ‘full possession’. Moses gave the Israelites laws and Washington gave his chosen people the Constitution. Both Moses and Washington were associates with Mounts – Sinai and Vernon. Washington himself felt that like Moses he had the backing of Providence. After surviving he harsh winter in the poorly organised camp at Valley Forge (wasn’t this his responsibility?) he praised Providence for the army surviving.

Washington wasn’t the only Revolutionary leader to invoke religion. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams recommended the image of Moses parting the Red Sea for the Great Seal of the United States – with the motto ‘Rebellion to tyrants is Obedience to God’

All this is worthy of ‘Truth Social’. George III was hardly a tyrant. The case against him which Jefferson set out in his draft for the Declaration of Independence is as about as reliable as Trump’s accusations against his enemies. George III was accused of all sorts of things, including inflicting slavery on the colonists when they had been highly enthusiastic about importing slave and indentured labour. Religion was used to support the Declaration in quite a shameless way. ‘We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men were created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights’ seems all well and good until considered a little. The Creator did not endow British subjects living in America the right to armed rebellion because they disliked taxes and being stopped from robbing the Native Americans of their lands. The Creator was stronger on duties and responsibilities to praise his name than the ‘rights’ which were convenient to the rebels of 1776. Moses did not bring down the 10 Rights but the 10 Commandment

Trump is arguably in the American tradition by his post. As I point out in my book, rational critics of exaggerated hero worship did exist but were often ostracised and suppressed in the way that MAGA enthusiasts portray critics as mad leftists. A pastor from Lebanon Connecticut in 1784 spoke out against ridiculous religious comparisons and hero worship. ‘when the veneration is carried beyond this boundary it becomes criminal’ Indeed it does.

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