Is There Any Biblical Justification for Calling Donald Trump A Fool?
Real Christians are hesitant to call anyone a fool because of Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5, and most Christians have assumed that Psalm 14 and 53, "The fool has said in his hear there is no God" refers to atheists. A review of the Proverbs reveals wisdom sayings about the fool, many of which center in unwise conduct and imprudence. What the Bible says is not always what the Bible means; in other words, texts are all subject to interpretation, and that may involve a number of processes. What does the Bible really mean, and should we therefore not refer to Donald Trump as a fool? This post explores the meaning and application of key texts, and informs best Christian practices.
RELIGION, POLITICS, AND CULTURE
Jerome C. Crichton, DMin, PhD.
5/27/20265 min read
Name-calling is something that Donald Trump—love him or hate him—is quite good at; I mean, Marco Rubio has proven that he is still “Little Marco” and Ted Cruz has never deviated from being “Lyin’ Ted.” In the hypocrisy of it all, Trump infamously dubbed Joe Biden as “Sleepy Joe,” while slipping in a siesta at a nationally broadcast public event on camera at the White House. But amongst my favorites are “Rocket Man” for Kim Jong-un, the pudgy North Korean dictator, “Crooked Hillary” for the former Secretary of State, and “Pocahontas,” the Senator from Massachusetts.
Love him or hate him, his sophomoric sensibilities may in fact be his greatest virtue. For someone with an unusually low IQ, this places him in the category of ‘exceptional.’ In the interest of full disclosure, I do from time-to-time retreat into the circus world of the Three Stooges, but unlike the three-ring escapades at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, my retreats are few and far between.
But let’s keep it real: name-calling is essentially juvenile. Not only is it juvenile but as in the case of Trump, it is often the projection of one who sees himself as inferior onto others he perceives as superior; he’s little, he lies, he’s sleepy, has military ambitions, and has expertly put a new and radical kink in what it means to be crooked. Just in case you thought I missed it, implied in the branding of Elizabeth Warren as Pocahontas is the idea that she claims to be something that she isn’t, or at least isn’t sufficiently.
Warren allegedly represented herself as being of Native American ancestry when teaching at Harvard and Yale’s schools of Law. She was then listed on the faculty as a Native American. She allegedly took a DNA test that showed a trace of Native American ancestry going back six to ten generations but also revealed that her ancestry is predominantly White.
To her credit, Lizzy’s modicum of Native American ancestry—no matter how slight— exceeds Trump’s well-documented “integrity,” as he gambled on her claim, lost, and refused to pay $1M to the charity of her choice. Does this qualify him as a fool? Socially and politically, it would be difficult to defend against his being a fool; in fact, the evidence is overwhelming—think injecting chlorine to combat COVID-19. But is there any biblical justification for calling Donald Trump a fool?
The act of calling someone a fool has been taboo in Christian circles, primarily because of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:22c, “whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.” That notwithstanding, it’s hard not to imagine Jesus calling the reprobate-in-chief, who auctioned off Bibles with his own signature and depicted himself as the Christ, a fool! Just maybe, our assumptions about what it means to be a fool or to be worthy of the title are incongruent with the Bible.
The go-to for many believers is Psalms 14:1 and 53:1 that begin, “The fool has said in his heart there is no God.” Few, if any, believe that Trump is a Christian, i.e., that there was ever a time when he came under the conviction of the Spirit of God, repented of his sins, and confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior. He is about as Christian as he is smart—and some would argue “as dumb as a box of rocks”— my apologies to the boulders, pebbles, and everything in-between. Surely, in the light of multiple public displays, Trump’s legacy as Fool-in-Chief is cemented; but not so fast!
In contemporary parlance, a fool is someone who is stupid, a word that within the past ten years has made its way onto the politically incorrect list along with such words as “retard,”
“crazy,” and “handicapped.” Words such as “moron,” which literally means “moonstruck” predate the list but are no less appropriate and referential when describing someone who lacks intelligence, common sense, and good judgment. However, the biblical conception of a fool has a significantly higher threshold.
In the psalms (14 & 53), the fool is a member of the covenant community, who is born and bred into the believing community. The fool is one whose existence depends on covenantal relationships with YHWH and the community. When an individual who is immersed in this way of life denies the existence of God, they break the covenant relationships, disavow the community, and voluntarily separate themselves from the very thing on which their life depends.
Notice Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:22, “But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council.” The council refers to the Sanhedrin, the earthly governance; but notice the last clause, “whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire”—a reference to the judgment of God.
The warning against saying Raca more closely approximates our common meaning of stupid, and is remanded to the custody of the council, but calling someone a fool results in an existential danger for the perpetrator. Why? Because its usage in this context involves a judgment about that individual’s worth: their salvation, their proximity to God, the covenant, and the community. It is to supplant the prerogative of God and render judgment concerning their very existence.
The parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:13-21) is a classic example, no, not of Trump but of Israel—embodied in the rich fool. Jesus condemns them for selfishness and violation of the covenant. Another example comes from Luke 11:37-54, where Jesus lovingly addresses the Pharisees and Scribes, “You fools!” (v. 40). Was Jesus violating His own admonition? Or was He rendering judgment because they had eviscerated the covenant?
In this passage, Jesus exposes the Pharisees’ actions and behaviors as consistently violating both the letter and spirit of the covenant by prioritizing external ritual purity over internal righteousness. They meticulously perform ceremonial washings and tithe even tiny herbs, yet their hearts are filled with “greed and wickedness,” ignoring “justice and the love of God” (v. 39–42). They seek public honor and status (v. 43) while spiritually corrupting others like “unseen tombs” (v. 44). The lawyers (experts in the law) similarly burden people with oppressive interpretations but refuse to help them (v. 46), reject the “key of knowledge” by obstructing entry into God’s kingdom (v. 52), and even continue the violent pattern of their forefathers by opposing and plotting against God’s messengers, including Jesus Himself (v. 47–51, 53–54). In so doing, the Pharisees and lawyers are guilty of violating the covenant, not merely by breaking explicit rules, but by perverting its intent—outward conformity without inward transformation, legalistic burden without mercy, and resistance to God’s redemptive purposes.
The six woes that follow Jesus calling the Pharisees and Scribes out as fools are in fact Jesus’ prosecution of the covenant curses of Deuteronomy 28, the consequences of their covenantal breach, having broken their relationship with God, violated the terms of the covenant, and turned their backs on their community. They were fools of biblical proportions! Like Nabal, the quintessential fool (1 Sam 25).
This means that being an atheist does not automatically qualify an individual as a fool. The fool is the pig that has returned to the mire or the dog that has returned to his vomit (2 Pet 2:22); the fool is one who has turned their back on God, broken their covenant relationship, and trampled on the people of God. This is the fool of Psalms 14 and 53, who, having self-removed from every blessing, says in their heart, “there is no God!”
So, on the basis of the biblical evidence, Donald Trump may in fact be a fool and by extension, stupid and moonstruck, just not a biblical fool; there is a higher threshold. In the absence of a covenant relationship with God and no covenant to break, despite trampling the covenant community, Donald Trump simply does not qualify as a fool in the biblical sense. So, feel free to escape hell fire by shouting “Raca!”—“Stupid!”—and resolve to be accountable to the council or our modern equivalent—actually, there is none—rather than running the risk of being accountable to “the danger of hell fire,” a risk that under the circumstances, some might be tempted to take.
