THE OTHER SIDE: Orange Jesus took the Fifth

Orange Julius, I know from. There used to be stores in New York City serving its unique combination of what some say contained orange juice, sugar, milk, powdered egg whites and vanilla. But it took Republican Liz Cheney, she of the successful January 6 Committee, to blow the whistle on Orange Jesus.

According to the UK Independent, on January 6, as the 2020 election results were to be certified, Liz Cheney went into the Republican cloakroom. There she saw a bunch of Republican lawmakers making sure they signed a bunch of papers certifying that they were objecting to the results.

“‘It’s only actually required that one House member object but there were so many who wanted to show they were objecting,’ she said. ‘As I was sitting there, a member came in and he signed his name on each one of the sheets,’ she said. ‘And he said under his breath, “the things we do for the Orange Jesus.’

It seems this is now a new name of Donald John Trump, the once and, many Americans still pray, future President of the United States of America. I think the term has something to do with Q. And because he so successfully mobilized a veritable army of followers, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. And because so many are impressed he steadfastly refused to acknowledge defeat at the hands of the Democratic Devil.

Politifact points out  that: “Roughly 70 percent of Republicans don’t see Biden as the legitimate winner. Surveys by different pollsters show virtually the same results, with the exception of a Washington Post/University of Maryland poll that dropped it to 61 percent.” Now add the reality that 40 percent of Independents share the belief that Biden lost.

I must admit I am definitely late to understanding Q and the power Q’s beliefs have over so many. And while I remember hearing a bit about Pizzagate, I never quite got it.

Wikipedia  explains: “Pizzagate resurged in 2020, mainly due to QAnon … In March 2016, the personal email account of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair, was hacked in a spear-phishing attack. WikiLeaks published his emails in November 2016. Proponents of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory falsely claimed the emails contained coded messages that connected several high-ranking Democratic Party officials and U.S. restaurants with an alleged human trafficking and child sex ring. One of the establishments allegedly involved was the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, D.C.”

In a 1950s Dwight Eisenhower America, where while Democrats and Republicans might often have disagreed, they both believed in common democratic ground rules, and I suspect many people would have quickly dismissed the claims of Pizzagate. But in Q’s America, millions linger on social media networks like Reddit and 4chan and 8chan and misinformation rumors spread like the flu. “On December 4, 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch, a 28-year-old man from Salisbury, North Carolina, arrived at Comet Ping Pong and fired three shots … that struck the restaurant’s walls, a desk, and a door. Welch later told police that he had planned to ‘self-investigate’ the conspiracy theory. Welch saw himself as the potential hero of the story — a rescuer of children.”

The Polarization and Extremism Research Innovation Lab at Rutgers University issued a comprehensive analysis  of the QAnon movement: “It dates back to October 2017, when an anonymous author named ‘Q Clearance Patriot’ began posting cryptic messages on the 4chan message board … Q Clearance Patriot’s (or simply ‘Q’s’) riddles are colloquially referred to as ‘Q drops’ or ‘bread crumbs,’ and QAnon followers (or ‘QAnons’) who seek to make meaning from them are sometimes called ‘bakers.’ A core theme soon emerged, which remains central to all QAnon mythology: that the world is secretly controlled by a Satan-worshipping cabal of pedophile elites who practice human child sacrifice …

“For many QAnons in the U.S., this cabal is led by well-known politicians, business leaders and entertainment figures. It is opposed by a ‘white hat’ movement of heroes, ordained by God and including Q himself, who work within elite institutions to battle the cabal (Q is generally assumed by believers to be a U.S. intelligence agent). Someday soon, Q predicts, ‘The Storm’ will arrive. This term refers to the day when this cabal is publicly outed, arrested, and executed. This belief in the satanic cryptocracy and its preordained exposure and destruction is the defining trait of the QAnon- conspiracy culture …” (Emphasis added.)

Now, I must admit my desire to learn more about QAnon has been spurred on by recent developments in Trumpovia, especially what I heard about that strange back and forth feedback loop between the Former President and the fervent crowd at the J. D. Vance rally in Youngstown, Ohio.

While I missed that rally, I read John Cassidy’s description in the New Yorker Magazine: “Trump played background music that the Times described as ‘all but identical’ to a song associated with the QAnon right-wing conspiracy movement. Many people in the crowd responded with a one-armed salute, with their index finger raised, that reminded some observers of Nazi rallies … And it came days after Trump had reposted on his social-media platform, Truth Social, a doctored image of himself wearing a Q lapel pin overlaid with the words ‘THE STORM is COMING’ — a QAnon meme that refers to a moment when Trump supposedly returns to power and punishes his enemies. This reposting wasn’t a one-off. According to an analysis conducted by the Associated Press and published last week, ‘Of nearly 75 accounts Trump has reposted on his Truth Social profile in the past month, more than a third of them have promoted QAnon by sharing the movement’s slogans, videos or imagery.’”

So I went back and read the transcript of what ex-President Trump said: “Our country is being invaded. It’s an invasion by millions of illegal aliens from all over the planet and left wing sickos pumping toxic anti-American propaganda into the minds of our beautiful youth. They’re destroying our youth. The choice this November is simple. If you want to continue this national catastrophe, vote for the radical left Democrat. Let’s do it, go ahead. You won’t have a country left …

“For many years a vile group of corrupt power hungry globalists, socialists and liberal extremists in Washington has been waging war on the hardworking people of Ohio. They sold off your factories, shut down your coal mines, closed up your steel mill, shipped away your jobs, sacrificed your energy industry through open borders and trampled on your values.”

In her essay “Nothing Can Stop What Is Coming” in the June 2020 issue of The Atlantic, Adrienne LaFrance conjured up what a believer might imagine as Orange Jesus’s critical role in what’s to come: “You know that a small group of manipulators, operating in the shadows, pull the planet’s strings. You know that they are powerful enough to abuse children without fear of retribution. You know that the mainstream media are their handmaidens, in partnership with Hillary Clinton and the secretive denizens of the deep state. You know that only Donald Trump stands between you and a damned and ravaged world. You see plague and pestilence sweeping the planet, and understand that they are part of the plan. You know that a clash between good and evil cannot be avoided, and you yearn for the Great Awakening that is coming. And so you must be on guard at all times. You must shield your ears from the scorn of the ignorant. You must find those who are like you. And you must be prepared to fight. You know all this because you believe in Q.” (Emphasis added.)

LaFrance offers a chilling connection between Q’s central message and Donald Trump: “One phrase that serves as a special touchstone among QAnon adherents is ‘the calm before the storm.’ Q first used it a few days after his initial post, and it arrived with a specific history. On the evening of October 5, 2017—not long before Q first made himself known on 4chan —President Trump stood beside the first lady in a loose semicircle with 20 or so senior military leaders and their spouses for a photo in the State Dining Room at the White House. Reporters had been invited to watch as Trump’s guests posed and smiled. Trump couldn’t seem to stop talking. ‘You guys know what this represents?’ he asked at one point, tracing an incomplete circle in the air with his right index finger. ‘Tell us, sir,’ one onlooker replied. The president’s response was self-satisfied, bordering on a drawl: ‘Maybe it’s the calm before the storm.’

“‘What’s the storm?’ one of the journalists asked. ‘Could be the calm—the calm before the storm,’ Trump said again. His repetition seemed to be for dramatic effect. The whir of camera shutters grew louder. The reporters became insistent: ‘What storm, Mr. President?’

A curt response from Trump: ‘You’ll find out.’”

I can’t think of a more compelling juxtaposition than Donald Trump’s railing against corrupt power and the revelations offered by New York State Attorney General Leitita James. The press release  explains her complaint against Donald Trump and his children:

“New York Attorney General Letitia James today filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, senior management, and involved entities for engaging in years of financial fraud to obtain a host of economic benefits. The lawsuit alleges that Donald Trump, with the help of his children Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump, and senior executives at the Trump Organization, falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to induce banks to lend money to the Trump Organization on more favorable terms than would otherwise have been available to the company, to satisfy continuing loan covenants, to induce insurers to provide insurance coverage for higher limits and at lower premiums, and to gain tax benefits, among other things. From 2011-2021, Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization knowingly and intentionally created more than 200 false and misleading valuations of assets on his annual Statements of Financial Condition to defraud financial institutions.” (Emphasis added.)

And here’s Orange Jesus praising himself in Ohio: “Everything changed six years ago when you finally got a president who put Ohio first and put America first. We put America first. From the moment I left my very luxurious and enjoyable life … I had such a nice life. Now they want to say, ‘Let’s go get this guy.’ They’ve been trying for six years. They haven’t made it. We’re not going to let it happen. We’re not going to let it happen … I will never be loyal to them because I will only be loyal to you and to our country.”

Back to the Attorney-General: “For too long, powerful, wealthy people in this country have operated as if the rules do not apply to them. Donald Trump stands out as among the most egregious examples of this misconduct. With the help of his children and senior executives at the Trump Organization, Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and cheat the system. In fact, the very foundation of his purported net worth is rooted in incredible fraud and illegality. Mr. Trump thought he could get away with the art of the steal, but today, that conduct ends. There are not two sets of laws for people in this country; we must hold former presidents to the same standards as everyday Americans. I will continue to ensure that no one is able to evade the law, because no one is above it.”

Donald Trump: “The unhinged persecution of me and my staff and they go into people that know me and they threaten them with jail time … These people are sick … But no matter what, our sick and deranged political establishment throws at me, no matter what they do to me, I will endure their torment and oppression and I will do it very willingly. They will never get me to stop fighting for you, the American people.”

This claim is eerily reminiscent of a Q post:

In their complaint, the Attorney-General claims: “To the extent Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization received any advice from outside professionals that had any bearing on how to approach valuing the assets, they routinely ignored or contradicted such advice. For example, they received a series of bank-ordered appraisals for the commercial property at 40 Wall Street that calculated a value for the property at $200 million as of August 1, 2010 and $220 million as of November 1, 2012. Yet in the 2011 Statement, they listed 40 Wall Street with a value $524 million and increased the valuation to $527 million in the 2012 Statement, and to $530 million in 2013 — more than twice the value calculated by the ‘professionals’…”

It turns out Orange Jesus routinely claimed his 10,996 square feet triplex apartment at Trump Tower was 30,000 square feet.  “Then that wildly overstated size was multiplied by an unreasonable price per square foot … Tripling the size of the apartment for purposes of the valuation was intentional and deliberate fraud, not an honest mistake … The Mar-a-Lago club was valued as high as $739 million based on the false premise that it was unrestricted property and could be developed and sold for residential use, even though Mr. Trump himself signed deeds donating his residential development rights and sharply restricting changes to the property – in reality, the club generated annual revenues of less than $25 million and should have been valued at closer to $75 million … (Emphasis added.)

Back in Ohio, Donald Trump was implying that if the Department of Justice and the FBI can enter Mar-a-Lago and Letitia James can come after the Trump Organization, they can easily come after you:

“But you know what? We’re strong and we’re smart. We’re smarter than them. We’re stronger than them. They’re a lot more of us. Our cruel and vindictive political class is not just coming after me. They’re coming after you through me. That’s what they’re doing. And they’ve already taken away your vote. They’ve taken away your voice and now they want to take away your freedom …”

James also demonstrated that Trump claimed money as his own but really belonged to partnerships in which he had a minority stake, with no ability to make disbursements. “For example, one-third of the amount under ‘cash and cash equivalents’ listed in the 2018 Statement belonged to Vornado Partnerships, not Mr. Trump.”

As for Ivanka, who so many imagine has been falsely accused: “Defendant Ivanka Trump was an Executive Vice President for Development and Acquisitions of the Trump Organization through early January 2017. Among other responsibilities, Ms. Trump negotiated and secured financing for Trump Organization properties. While at the Trump Organization she directed all areas of the company’s real estate and hotel management platforms. This included active participation in all aspects of projects, including deal evaluation, pre-development planning, financing, design, construction, sales and marketing, as well as involvement in all decisions relating to those activities … she negotiated the lease with the government and a loan related to the Old Post Office property. Ms. Trump also negotiated loans on Trump Organization properties at Doral and Chicago. On each of those transactions with Deutsche Bank, Ms. Trump was aware that the transactions included a personal guaranty from Mr. Trump that required him to provide annual Statements of Financial Condition and certifications.

“After leaving the Trump Organization, Ms. Trump retained a financial interest in the operations of the Trump Organization through a number of vehicles, including an interest in the Old Post Office property through Ivanka OPO LLC. In a 2021 federal filing, Ms. Trump reported total income from Trump Organization entities of $2,588,449, including income from Ivanka OPO LLC, TTT Consulting, LLC, TTTT Venture LLC and Trump International Realty.” (Emphasis added.)

The way the Trumps worked was pretty much a classic “two sets of books” situation: while one internal set of records reached one conclusion regarding market value, the figure presented on Mr. Trump’s Statement was considerably higher:

The sworn testimony of Alan Weisselberg, their Chief Financial Officer doesn’t help: “Before invoking his Fifth Amendment privilege, Mr. Weisselberg conceded that using the false square footage had the effect of improperly inflating the value of the apartment almost threefold … ‘Q: In fact, [the value was] overstated by a factor of 3, is that correct? A: I didn’t do the math, but it should be one third, yes, I would agree with that. Q: So, it’s on the order of a $200 million overstatement, give or take? A: Give or take.’”

As for Eric Trump and his work on Trump Vegas: “By using the fraudulent valuation methods and assumptions described above, the Trump Organization was able to inflate the value of Trump Vegas in each of the years from 2013 to 2016. Eric Trump, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, refused to answer questions related to his participation in the drafting of each of the 2013 through 2016 Statements.”

James explains what they gained: “Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization utilized the false and misleading Statements of Financial Condition in an array of financial transactions, most prominently in obtaining real estate loans and insurance coverage. Between 2011 and the present, the Trump Organization has obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate loans in reliance on, among other things, Mr. Trump’s net worth. as reported in his Statements of Financial Condition … [They] also helped the Trump Organization and Mr. Trump avoid having the loans placed into default, because annual certifications of the accuracy of Mr. Trump’s Statements were required. All told, the interest rate savings from the issuance of the false and misleading Statements of Financial Condition totaled between $85 million and $150 million.”

The complaint alleges an ongoing conspiracy: “The foregoing allegations constitute a continuous, integrated scheme to inflate Mr. Trump’s net worth in order to obtain financial benefits. Specifically, Defendants each agreed to participate in a scheme to use false and misleading information to increase Mr. Trump’s stated net worth on the Statement of Financial Condition for each year from 2011 through the present.” (Emphasis added.)

It seems Orange Jesus was always obsessed with showing he was making more and more money. “In a 2015 article, Forbes wrote that of all the individuals who have appeared on its list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, ‘not one has been more fixated with his or her net worth estimate on a year-in, year-out basis than Donald J. Trump.’ The article described Mr. Trump’s net worth as a ‘subject that he cares about to the depths of his soul.’”

How about we compare Orange Jesus to the Jesus who preceded him? Who, as Matthew 19:30 reveals, has a vastly different idea of what’s important in life: “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”

The AG’s complaint continues: “When asked if he had an ongoing agreement from at least 2005 through the present with Mr. Weisselberg, Mr. McConney, and others to prepare the Statement of Financial Condition in a manner that included intentional overvaluations, Mr. Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and refused to answer.” (Emphasis added.)

It’s a simple question: In preparing your financial statements, did you or did you not tell the truth about your finances? Orange Jesus decided not to answer because if he did he might be charged with committing a crime. According to John 14:6, Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life.” He didn’t say “I am the way and I take the Fifth.”

Asked about agreeing with Weisselberg, McConney and others to include “false and misleading valuation statements, Mr. Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and refused to answer …”

Orange Jesus and the others “went to great lengths to conceal their fraud … Defendants would exclude key information, like lender-ordered appraisals on a given property or limitations on development like the easements on Mar-a-Lago … When properties dropped in value, the change was covered up by increasing the valuation of other properties in the same category …”

But Jesus tells us there is a way other than fraud and theft. John 10:10-11: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

On September 26, 2022, in North Carolina, Donald “Orange Jesus” Trump revealed how little he appreciates the teachings of the real Jesus:

“Among our highest priorities must be to end the nightmare Joe Biden and congressional Democrats have deliberately created at our southern border. We’re going to end that. We cannot continue to allow millions and millions and I believe, Ted, it’s 10 million people and probably more. They say, ‘Three million, two and a half million.’ It’s not, I believe it’s many times that number. It’s numbers like nobody’s ever seen before. There’s never been a country ever abused like this. It’s an invasion. This week it was reported that border patrol agents have received an intelligence bulletin stating that Venezuelan Dictator Maduro is opening up all of his prisons and sending vicious convicts, and these are tough ones, charged with murder, rape and other heinous crimes straight across the border and into our wide open USA.”

Orange Jesus must have missed Matthew 25:53: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

Missed Leviticus 19: 33-34: “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”

Donald Trump: “As long as we are confident and united, the tyrants we are fighting do not stand a chance because we are Americans and Americans kneel to God and God alone. My fellow citizens, this incredible journey we are on together has only just begun … So with the help of everyone here today and citizens all across our land, we will make America powerful again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again. Thank you. God bless you …”

As Orange Jesus sports a Q pin and plays a Q-like anthem, it’s important to appreciate the dangers Q-Anon presents. The Detroit News  tells the story of Rebecca Lanis, a 21-year-old from Michigan whose 53-year father went on a Q-conspiracy inspired rampage. “A Walled Lake man whose daughter said he had been struggling with mental issues after embracing conspiracy theories was fatally shot by police Sunday after he allegedly shot and killed his wife and injured another daughter.

“Rebecca Lanis said after President Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, her father started falling deeper into ‘crazy ideas’ online, including QAnon conspiracy theories about Trump and vaccines. ‘Nobody could talk him out of them,’ she said. She missed the shooting by ‘dumb luck’ because she was at a friend’s house for a birthday.”

“‘It’s really so shocking but it really can happen to anybody,’ Lanis told The News on Sunday night. ‘Right-wing extremism is not funny, and people need to watch their relatives and if they have guns, they need to hide them or report them or something because this is out of control.’”

Orange Jesus is so concerned with himself he could care less about what he might be unleashing. I’ll leave you with the affidavit in support of a criminal complaint against Matthew Taylor Coleman: “On August 7, 2021, M. COLEMAN took his two children, R.C. (10 months old) and K.C. (two years old), from the home he shared with his wife and mother of his children, A.C., in Santa Barbara, California to Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico. While in Rosarito, M. COLEMAN murdered his children by shooting a spear fishing gun into their chests. On August 9, 2021, during a Mirandized interview, M. COLEMAN confessed to the murders.”

“M. COLEMAN stated that he believed his children were going to grow into monsters so he had to kill them … M. COLEMAN explained that he was enlightened by QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories and was receiving visions and signs revealing that his wife, A.C., possessed serpent DNA and had passed it onto his children. M. COLEMAN said that he was saving the world from monsters … M. COLEMAN was asked whether he knew what he did was wrong. M. COLEMAN stated that he knew it was wrong, but it was the only course of action that would save the world.” (Emphasis added.)

The UK Independent  reported: “Using his own Truth Social platform (he remains banned from Twitter and Facebook), Mr Trump “re-truthed” a post by another Truth Social user which read: “Jesus is the Greatest. President @realDonaldTrump is the second greatest”

Second only to Jesus, Orange Jesus took the Fifth. And while his supporters imagine he will save the world, he’s helping to destroy it.