President Donald Trump concluded his Republican midterm convention on Thursday by leading the audience in a pledge … to himself.

Trump asked the crowd to raise their right hands and begin: “I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States.”

The crowd dutifully repeated the line, calling Trump “the greatest president in the history of the United States.”

Trump added: “that loves us so much he can’t even breathe.”

The crowd again repeated the line, but then it got a little harder to follow.

“That I will go out with my family, my friends, I’ll do it anyway, I don’t care if I’m registered or not. I’m going to try and cheat like hell like they do,” he said. “There’s never been bigger cheaters, they don’t care. I am going to go out and I am going to get my friends, my family, and we are going to vote on November 3rd or we are going to vote before that.”

Unable to repeat all of that, the crowd cheered.

Trump realized he lost them and reset.

“Are you ready?” he asked. “Here’s the way you ― “

But he wasn’t ready himself as he got sidetracked by people in the audience. He tried once more to finish, with the crowd repeating after him, but left them behind as he went off on another tangent.

“So help me God,” he concluded.

The crowd repeated that part heartily.

“You know what happens if you don’t vote?” Trump asked. “You go to hell!”

So much blasphemy that he’s telling his supporters they’re going to hell!

  • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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    7 days ago

    There are some hilarious tiktok videos of people calling their Conservative representatives and asking how exactly they are supposed to “cheat like hell”

  • josephmbasile@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    I’d like to make this very clear to all the religious folks out there. Hell does not exist because why would an almighty God allow such an abomination? They wouldn’t. There, relax already.

    • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
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      8 days ago

      There is no god and religion is a mental illness, and BY FAR the greatest threat facing humanity. We will never progress with this defect among us.

    • motoxjake@lemmy.zip
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      8 days ago

      You simply don’t understand. Without Fire Demon there can be no Skyman. There must exist an antagonist to every good epic tale of us vs them/good vs evil. Without looming fear you cannot control the masses. And the sheep will argue over this to the bitter end.

      Edit: but thanks for fighting the “good” fight.

    • aceshigh@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Also I’m pretty sure hell doesn’t exist in all religions, so just switch to one that doesn’t have it. People convert all the time.

    • Sunflier@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 days ago

      Maybe, but the religious right needs to burn and suffer in hell. It’s what they f*cking deserve, especially since they’re wearing the mark of the beast upon their brow in the shape of a red hat.

    • obvs@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Hell absolutely exists.

      It’s what Republicans put others through.

      And it’s what Republicans strive to put others through.

      Republicans will straight up tell you they’re trying to protect you and prevent you from going through hell, while the whole time they’re working hard to make sure you’re going through the hell they’ve created for you your whole life.

      And after torturing you, they claim “No, no, no, you don’t understand. You were torturing me!

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        At least in catholicism their god is believed to be omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent. Idk how someone can consider themselves a Christian if they don’t believe all three

    • fonix232@fedia.io
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      9 days ago

      Not authorised. INSTRUCTED.

      Let me repeat that: the current sitting president of the US gave an instruction to his followers to ignore the rule of the law and cheat at the election.

      Even more brazenly than on 6 Jan 2021, he’s literally instructing his followers to dismantle the entire legal basis of the federal state.

      Watch it, his next attempt will be to then discredit the midterms’ results and claim they don’t count so the already sitting representatives stay.

      They’re getting desperate to keep control, because they KNOW people are going to vote blue. Mamdani’s example of successful leadership contrasts the disaster of the cabinet too sharply. People are starting to see through the constant communist scaremongering.

      • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        Not authorised. INSTRUCTED.

        It’s far worse than that. He’s trying to get them to take a vow, to make a personal promise – literally “so help me god” – so that those who promise will then believe they will be held accountable before “god” to fulfill.

        He’s literally trying to make this promise have religious consequences for failing to live up to it in the minds of those who took it.

        People who think this is all imaginary have no idea how real it is for those heavily propagandized in this way, who have had their real faith hijacked by Christian nationalist propaganda. It’s no joke. It’s all VERY legal, tick the box, “You said this and now you’re bound by it” with actual threat of hellfire attached at the end. Just like Trump did here. Most of us would laugh; MAGAs do not.

        This exact dynamic is why Republicans are so terrified of James Talarico down in Texas: he’s offering the MAGAs who have equated Christianity with MAGA Christian nationalism a real off ramp from Trump that allows them to keep their church, faith, and local community.

        If you’re in a rural area where all you know are the 500 people that live in your mostly MAGA town, and you can’t afford to be ostracized or you’ll literally have no community left, it’s a big fucking deal.

        This faux “Christianization” of politics is very real, and that’s what he’s trying to capitalize on by making the rubes take a “repeat after me, so help me god” kind of vow.

        Fortunately, he fucked it up, so they all have plausible deniability if they want it. But that’s why he was struggling so hard to get them back on track and to repeat the whole thing: he knew exactly what he was doing, and to what end.

      • WizardOfFrobozz@lemmy.ca
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        9 days ago

        So what? The rest of the country doesn’t give a shit. You’re going to sit there on your asses and feign helplessness and allow it. Fucking WATCH.

  • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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    9 days ago

    I think that headline missed the plot.

    “That I will go out with my family, my friends, I’ll do it anyway, I don’t care if I’m registered or not. I’m going to try and cheat like hell like they do,

    • Dnb@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 days ago

      He also almost said exactly how to cheat and either realized he needed to shut up or the brain fog kicked in to save him

    • bcgm3@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Pretty sure this is not the first time he’s openly admitted to/advocated for cheating, while framing it as “because that’s what the left is already doing.”

    • artyom@piefed.social
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      8 days ago

      The man who complains endlessly about “cheating” just openly advocated for cheating.

  • taiyang@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    I’m grateful I accepted myself as a godless atheist long before this shit came up. If I was a Christian, a real Christian anyway, I’d be so fucking pissed off by this guy.

    I mean, I’m pissed off by this guy anyway, but not in a divine way at least.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      9 days ago

      I actually kind of envy those people because at least they believe that he will receive eternal punishment.

      Instead he’ll just rot in a fucking grave

    • SnoopSqueak@lemmy.today
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      9 days ago

      a real Christian

      I wish this myth would die. There are no real christians. There is no real christ. The concept of christ is, “an abusive god sacrificed himself to save us from the violence he’ll inflict on us if we don’t submit completely to his vague and contradictory commands, which include owning slaves and selling women to their rapists.”

      Accountability is impossible when we tolerate magical thinking. Innocent people are dying for it.

      • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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        9 days ago

        A Christian is, by definition, someone who believes in the divinity of Jesus Christ. He doesn’t have to exist for real Christians to exist. All that’s required is the belief.

      • taiyang@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        I suppose “true believer” might be a correct term? I simply meant someone who believes in something (even if it’s obviously not actually their book) rather than someone who is strictly using it to manipulate or fit in or what have you.

        • SnoopSqueak@lemmy.today
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          8 days ago

          Yeah. I think I meant that I hate how many christians will apply the “no true scotsman” fallacy, pretending other interpretations are wrong and theirs is the right one when there is no right way to believe in something that doesn’t exist. Everyone has their own headcanon out of necessity because there is no way to verify the contradictory claims made about christ.

    • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      I’m in the same boat, sort of. I was a true believer, but the words-in-red kind, not like this lot. Got all the way out just in time, and I could not be more relieved. I literally do not know how I’d still be functioning if I were still a believing Christian and this was somehow my own twisted circus-mirror faith being reflected back to me.

      Knowing it’s all a lie is a VAST relief.

  • GuyFawkesV@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    So now the question becomes if we KNOW by their own words they’re going to cheat, why allow them the chance? Why not just eliminate the possibility by eliminating their right to vote? If not, I guess we have to cheat then - we’ve seen what happens when we try to play fair and they don’t, and we can’t afford even a single step more in that direction as it would be the last.

    • bedwyr@piefed.ca
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      9 days ago

      Eliminate the right to vote? So you are saying beat them to the punch in establishing an autocracy? It may come to that, we are no where near that yet.

      I support restoring the republic and safeguarding fair elections.

      • MnemonicBump@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 days ago

        I agree with everything you said except:

        I support restoring the republic and safeguarding fair elections.

        Because I support the Balkanization of U.S. Nothing good comes from the continued existence of the this country. Trump’s rise to power isn’t a fluke, it is merely the natural consequence of courting authoritarianism for the better part of a century.

        • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works
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          9 days ago

          Because I support the Balkanization of U.S. Nothing good comes from the continued existence of the his country.

          I recomend you look up the setting for the Shadowrun TTRPG. The federal government fracturing would result in megacorps taking control of various regions of the country very similar to the game, minus all the magic stuff

          • MnemonicBump@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            9 days ago

            Well, what I really support is the Balkanization of the U.S. PLUS the complete and utter collapse of capitalism as a system. But that gets into a lot more of a nuanced discussion than I was prepared for.

            But that game sounds sick, though.

        • bedwyr@piefed.ca
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          9 days ago

          Such an outcome would lead to a strong man consolidating power, but first would lead to warlords, oligarchs with their own bastions of power, security services left derelict after the collapse of government would turn to highway robbery, aforementioned warlordism, and organized crime.

          Then you have what is left over of the military, and whomever consolidates that, is the new supreme leader.

          We could talk all day about how it would play out under different scenarios, but the collapse of governments in the US would be a very very bad thing if we weren’t organized to institute a better system. That system could even be broken up into several, countries.

          Otherwise the new boss is at best the same as the old, and in all probability much worse, with a lot of pain and suffering before that happens. And when that strongman takes power as an autocrat, future autocrats only get worse.

          Plato noticed every single republic follows the same formula from representative government through stages of oligarchic repression to “democracy,” as defined by the ancient greeks up until like the 19th century when it became a positive buzzword rather than a strong man rallying the population to seize absolute power. Then the autocracy degrades in time through successive leaders and is overthrown and a republic re-instituted.

          No republics have since broken with the formula even if they haven’t run through the stages yet.

          • MnemonicBump@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            9 days ago

            Yeah, an uncontrolled collapse could be catastrophic. That’s an argument for building decentralized institutions capable of surviving a federal crisis, not necessarily an argument for preserving the existing federal state indefinitely.

            • bedwyr@piefed.ca
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              9 days ago

              I am not speaking of preserving this federal state, but a new federal state, in line with the constitution and all of it’s amendments, which honestly is a decent framework and better than anything we could hope for if we started new at this point in time.

              The feds have ursurped power year over year, they aren’t supposed to be doing almost any of what they are doing according to the constitution, and all laws contrary to that are illegal and unefnforceable, according to that highest law.

              The feds are supposed to handle international relations, trade, and interstate commerce. But they are forbidden from enacting barriers to trade within the states or movements of people. That’s about it.

              The States obviously need their own restorations to their constitutions and that of the United States.

              Plus practically, you won’t get support for an overthrow and new system. You can get support for a restoration, which amounts to the same thing in most ways.

      • Natanael@infosec.pub
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        9 days ago

        There’s another option and enforce 14A3 disqualification for treason. They can vote, but can’t have traitors on the ballot

  • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    The 33% who are too stupid and too racist to care what he says. They just love pulling off his diaper and giving him a sloppy rim job.