Donald Trump held an Easter lunch at the White House attended by faith leaders and cabinet members which was barred to the media. Things went wrong, somebody forgot it was a closed-door session and the whole event was posted on the White House website, before being hurriedly removed.

But not before it had been captured by an enterprising journalist. What was the US administration afraid the public would see? The event presented the unfiltered gospel according to Trump.

His 40-minute speech was full of secular knockabout, including a jibe about President Emmanuel Macron still recovering from the “right to the jaw” delivered by wife Brigitte, but it was also religious in nature and specifically addressed Holy Week.

Trump was surrounded by Christian leaders with whom he feels totally comfortable, who adore him, pray for him and praise him to the skies. So what did he do? He went one step further than the usual shtick of comparing himself to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and referenced Jesus himself.

“On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem as crowds welcomed him with praise, honoring him as king. They call me king now, do you believe it?” Trump said, to laughter. More modestly, he added: “I’m such a king I can’t get a ballroom approved” (a judge had just stalled its construction). There were other, none-too-subtle references to Easter and his own political resurrection from the ashes of defeat.

Trump spoke about how Jesus was betrayed. “We know the feeling,” he said. “On Good Friday, the son of God was nailed to the cross, crucified, and he died for all of us. It was a day of darkness, but it wasn’t the end. By any means, it was not the end.”

In case Trump wasn’t explicit enough, the televangelist Paula White, his personally-appointed White House pastor, said: “You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused.” She mentioned the assassination attempts on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, adding: “Because of his resurrection, you rose up. Because he was victorious, you were victorious.”

At this point, British spiritual leaders would be spluttering into their tea. We are talking about a politician whose son Eric has just unveiled plans for a Presidential library in Miami, which includes a gargantuan golden statue of Trump with his hand outstretched in a greeting (or blessing).

Secular journalists pay too little attention to the Maga-fication of religion in America brought about by Trump. He sought out White in 2002, years before running for President, because he was impressed by her way of capturing an audience, and was later introduced by her to other spiritual leaders. Having admired the Reagan-era evangelist Billy Graham for years, Trump deliberately aped their style of delivery.

As the writer on Christianity, Matthew D Taylor, has observed: “With his oddly coiffed hair, his salesmanship, his bombastic oratory… Trump has parodied the televangelists. For what is Make America Great Again if not a gospel with fire and brimstone threats of ‘American carnage’?”

Trump has been hailed as a new “Cyrus the Great”, the Persian ruler who freed the Jews from captivity in ancient Babylon, who does not have to be a godly person to carry out God’s purpose. Graham’s son, Franklin, a well-known evangelist in his own right, was at the Easter lunch, where he gratified Trump by saying the Iranians were seeking to “kill every Jew and destroy them with an atomic fire”. But, he added that God had “raised up President Trump. You have raised him up for such a time as this.”

The gospel according to Trump is not one of forgiveness or turning the other cheek, but one of retribution. It embraces the muscular Christianity and “warrior ethos” of Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War, whose tattoos proclaim him to be an instrument of God’s will. Hegseth just fired General Randy George, the US Army’s Chief of Staff, probably for not sharing his enthusiasm for raining hellfire on enemies without regard for the consequences.

This same unforgiving gospel required Pam Bondi, the Attorney General, to be sacked for not prosecuting Trump’s political opponents vigorously enough and for not covering up the Jeffrey Epstein scandal astutely enough. To serve Trump means enacting the President’s will, faithfully and unwaveringly, as if he were God’s representative on earth.

According to Taylor, roughly 20 per cent of Americans – one in five – are evangelical Christians influenced by pastors such as White. These pastors have their own thriving media ecosphere on television, radio, YouTube and social media, which heap praise on Trump and he frequently addresses.

It is a public, yet curiously hidden, underreported sector which provides Trump with his most unshakeable support. Trump knows this and is grateful. As he said at the Easter lunch to the assembled faith leaders: “I appreciate you guys have been here from the beginning and we appreciate it very much.”

Sarah Baxter is director of the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting

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