On Thursday, MyPillo CEO Mike Lindell compared President Barack Obama’s tenure to the End Times prophesied in the Bible and called President Donald Trump’s election a miracle from God. Lindell described his entry into politics as an awakening from years of apathy.
“I woke up from years of addiction, and I was oblivious as to what was going on in our country,” he began.
Lindell described a tragic setting: “What I saw before me were friends unemployed, terrible political correctness, people saying ‘Happy Holidays’ instead of ‘Merry Christmas,’ and people trying to take God out of everything, and not even acknowledging Jesus Christ.”
He remembered a more patriotic and Christian time. “I saw myself thinking back in time to my childhood when seeds of patriotism were planted in our schools like when we pledged allegiance to the flag and recited we were ‘one nation under God,'” Lindell recalled.
“I now saw high prices, a poor economy, high crime, police getting attacked for doing their job. The family values and morality were missing. A president was apologizing to the world for us being the USA, and giving billions of dollars to evil empires,” the MyPillow CEO added, referencing the Iran deal. “A new evil was taking over called ISIS.”
“Quite frankly it looked like the end times prophesied in the Bible,” Lindell declared. “I saw family and friends living in fear of what had happened to our country.”
Then he turned to discuss Donald Trump. “I now bring you back in time to the summer of 2015. I see Donald Trump coming down an the escalator and announcing he is running for president,” he said, as the crowd broke into loud applause.
“For me it was a divine and miraculous moment — I felt something miraculous was about to unfold,” Lindell recalled. “Then I found myself wanting to learn something I knew nothing about, which was politics. I didn’t know a liberal from a conservative.” As he researched politics, he found no “crossover” between himself and the Left.
In 2016, Lindell recalled seeing “myself in divine appointments and one was especially important. Donald Trump invited me to meet him at Trump Tower in New York City. I walked into his office with high hopes on August 15th, 2016. I walked out of that office after meeting with him and I knew God had chosen him for such a time as this.”
The MyPillow CEO described Trump’s victory in November 2016 as a miracle, a gift from God. “God answered our prayers, our millions of prayers … and a miracle happened on November 8th, 2016. We were given a second chance and time granted to get our country back on track with our conservative values and getting people saved in Jesus’ name,” he said, as the crowd again broke into applause.
Lindell called Trump “the greatest president in history,” adding that “of course he is. He was chosen by God.”
After Trump’s election, everything turned around, the MyPillow CEO said.
“I see record low unemployment, from African-Americans to Hispanics, at an all-time low. I see 5 million new jobs created since Donald Trump took office. I see wages going up, entrepreneurs are taking risks again with consumer confidence at an all-time high. I see GDP growth approaching 4 percent. I see ISIS demolished and trade deals getting made and getting done. I see promises made and promises kept,” Lindell declared.
Indeed, America’s economy is extremely strong, and Trump arguably deserves some credit for it, from the 2017 tax cuts to the decline in federal regulations. However, Lindell’s claims that Trump is the “greatest president in history” and that Obama’s tenure felt like the “end times” clearly involved hyperbole.
Make no mistake: Obama’s presidency did involve many terrifying cultural, economic, and global trends. Lindell was right to attack the Iran deal and to mention ISIS. He was right to praise the economic turnaround under Trump.
But Americans should not overstate the facts. Obama’s presidency was bad, not apocalyptic. Trump’s presidency is good, but that does not make him better than George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, or Calvin Coolidge. The American people chose Trump, and God is behind everything, so perhaps God chose Trump. But God also chose Obama in that case. Trump is not a messiah.
There was some truth in Lindell’s rhetoric, and Americans should cheer the economic growth and return to religious freedom under Trump. But Obama did not bring the end times, and Trump is not the greatest president ever — at the very least, not yet.
Follow Tyler O’Neil, the author of this article, on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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