PRESIDENT Donald Trump saw another opportunity for his failing re-election bid, namely using religion, when demonstrators protesting the murder of George Floyd lit a small fire in the basement of St John’s Episcopal Church, a walking distance from the White House. He mixed religion with the race card that he already played as soon as he saw looting in the streets following George Floyd’s brutal murder at the hands of four white policemen, on May 25 with his blatantly racist tweet ‘looting starts shooting starts.’ He has now played the religion card to encourage the 25.4 per cent Evangelical voters (according to a 2014 PEW Research Centre survey), 80 per cent of whom had voted for him in 2016 and the 39 per cent Churchgoers (according to Gallup survey of 2013) of the country.

The idea of a photo opportunity in front of the church was Ivanka Trump’s who wanted her father to emulate Winston Churchill’s role of standing with the citizens of London after the city was bombed by the German fighter planes during World War II. Trump readily agreed with her because he felt a mix of religion with race would energise his base and many others outside his base to help him win the election. He also felt that the walk to the church with the demonstrators watching would answer his critics who called him a coward for retreating to the White House bunker.

The strategy of mixing religion with race has been Machiavellian to the core as it has been unconstitutional. His path to the church was cleared by the National Guards. The smoke from tear gas shells that were thrown at the protesters created a surreal scene as the president with a few of his cabinet colleagues including the defence secretary Mark Esper and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff General Mark Milley walked to the Church like they were in a war zone although the demonstrators were peaceful. The president first postured alone with the Bible raised to his chest, inadvertently held upside down. He then called his cabinet for the photo opportunity. Some, including the defence secretary, appeared hesitant.

Trump’s race card appeared to have potentials for his political ends at the beginning while looting was going on in some major cities, including New York. The protests spread to all parts of the country faster than the pandemic and more and more Americans joined the protests on the theme ‘Blacks Lives Matter’. As the protests spread, more whites joined the protests than blacks and they were peaceful. For the first time, it appeared like the message of brutality against the blacks was finally getting across to the majority of Americans.

Trump’s base rejoiced when he raised the Bible. But Americans know their president’s character too well to believe in his faith in the Bible and God. Pat Robertson, a leading Evangelical leader, exposed the president’s hypocrisy. He blasted his claim as the ‘law and order president’ and his threat to use active troops against the protests. He questioned his legal authority to do so saying that one would have to look back to the pre-civil war days to find an answer. The Pope upon whom 20.8 per cent of the country’s Roman Catholics look up to without question was equally critical. He called the Bishop of El Paso and congratulated him for the prayer he led in a park in Floyd George’s memory and police brutality against the blacks.

The president’s threat to use active troops under the 1807 Insurrection Act turned his concoction of race and religion, toxic. The defence secretary distanced himself from the threat that made the United States look like a third-world dictatorship from the past. Top brass in the military, both serving and retired, condemned the threat, some extremely forcefully. General Mark Miley wrote a memo to the soldiers asking them to ignore the commander-in-chief/president’s threat that never happened in US history. The general wrote: ‘We all committed our lives to the idea that is America — we will stay true to that oath and the American people.’ Reading between the lines, the general very much asked the troops to disobey the commander-in-chief. He later apologised to the nation for walking to the church with the president, undermining his authority and highlighting its unconstitutionality.

Former defence secretary General Mattis raised the strongest voice against the use of the military. In a newspaper op-ed, he wrote: ‘We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.’ General John Allen, a retired marine corps general, writing in Foreign Policy poignantly stated that the Nazi slogan before the Normandy Invasion was ‘Divide and Conquer’. He reminded US soldiers that ‘In Union there is Strength… We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.’ General Colin Powel called Trump a ‘liar’ and said he would vote for Joe Biden.

The Republicans in Congress have backed the president thus far but without enthusiasm. Mitt Romney though paraded with the protesters. Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project, a Republican political action group opposed to the president’s re-election, feels many Republicans in Congress agree with Mitt Romney, General Mattis and Colin Powell in private. President GW Bush has stated that he would not vote for Trump. Nevertheless, the president is not yet in any imminent threat of revolt from his party although for his comfort, he would have wanted them to back him forcefully when his re-election prospects are on a slippery slope.

Black Americans have died at the hands of the predominantly white police force in the United States like it is their fate and the law. White policemen have been brought under the purview of the law but in the end, the blacks have seldom if ever seen justice. They have reasons to believe that because of their colour, they are guilty whenever they face the police or the judicial system. Since Trump assumed office, the doors to the judicial system and with it justice have closed further for the blacks because the president has backed the racist police and the anti-black bias in the judicial system.

The George Floyd case, the way it is developing, may have pushed the needle a little if not decisively for the blacks. Trump’s total lack of compassion for George Floyd’s murder and his eagerness to use race and religion for his re-election has pushed the needle. The 8.45 minutes that George Floyd was kept in the knee to neck manoeuvre by one white policeman, crying out ‘I can’t breathe’ and calling for his mother while the other three white policemen watched was cruel and inhuman enough to bring compassion to the hearts of even the most heartless of human beings. This time it appears to have in a majority of white hearts of America who are joining in unexpectedly large numbers in the ongoing protests under the theme ‘Black Lives Matter.’

Trump’s hopes that the mix of racism and religion with the threat to use the military would unite the majority whites appears to have misfired. Polls after the murder of George Floyd are showing him falling behind Joe Biden even more. According to insiders in White House’s west wing, the president became ‘malignantly crazy’ after the CNN that showed him trailing Joe Biden by 14 per cent. Meanwhile, a two-mile, 12-foot high steel fence has been raised around the White House distancing the president from the people showing that he wants to be the president of the United States like Vladimir Putin is in Russia or the past dictators like Robert Mugabe, Muammar Gadhafi were in their respective countries.

Americans are at a historic crossroads with the ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests; the president opposing it without caring for the constitution and the pandemic that is far from subsiding as they move closer to the presidential election in November. They would be called to vote on whether they would allow the incumbent another term and push the country towards an unbridled dictatorship or save it. The founding fathers would be watching from heaven.

M Serajul Islam is a former career ambassador.