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COMMENTARY

‘Fascism’? It’s Not Just AOC: $1 Billion ‘He Gets Us’ Campaign to Rebrand Jesus Gets Slammed and Its Funders Get Exposed

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Promoting Christianity at all costs – be it the Bible or Jesus himself – while attempting to impose their personal religious beliefs on American society, the Green family’s efforts are seen as unwelcome by some.

The religious-right billionaire family who founded Hobby Lobby and the Museum of the Bible is one of the main funders of a billion-dollar campaign to “redeem Jesus’ brand,” which crescendoed with multi-million dollar ads declaring “He gets us” during Sunday’s Super Bowl. But unlike other right-wing dark money efforts to change the culture, it appears many Americans are aware of the massive money behind the efforts to polish Christ’s image, tarnished, it appears, by some including those who are trying to clean it up.

“The advertisements seem to recast Jesus for a new era, but their real purpose is rehabilitating pro-Trump evangelicals,” writes MSNBC columnist Sarah Posner, who has written about right-wing religion for over a decade. “To explain why Jesus needed the Madison Avenue treatment, Green cited standard right-wing falsehoods about the government’s supposed persecution of Christians.”

The “He Gets Us” campaign reportedly spent $20 million to help “redeem” Christ’s image, but some, like Posner and others, are pointing to the people behind the campaign, while others are calling the ads fascist or christofascist.

READ MORE: ‘Compelling Public Interest’: Judge Orders Release of Portion of Georgia Probe Into Trump’s Efforts to Overturn Election

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) Sunday evening in a tweet seen nearly 10 million times declared, “Something tells me Jesus would *not* spend millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads to make fascism look benign.”

AOC wasn’t the only one to level accusations like fascism against the “He Gets Us” campaign, including exposing the types of groups and efforts they’re funding.

Popular Information’s Judd Legum notes, “Just FYI, the same group that is financing the ‘He Gets Us’ Jesus ads is also helping finance the lawsuit seeking to ban abortion medication nationwide.” That’s actually the topic of Monday’s Popular Information newsletter.

“Specifically, the group behind the ads, The Signatry, also donated $16.7 million to Alliance Defending Freedom,” Legum says on Twitter. “Alliance Defending Freedom is providing legal representation to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit seeking a nationwide ban on abortion medication.”

Alliance Defending Freedom also appears on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of anti-LGBTQ hate groups, and has argued and won several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including Burwell v. Hobby Lobby – the same Hobby Lobby founded by billionaire David Green who donated millions to the campaign to rebrand Jesus Christ. That case became a landmark decision finding that, for the first time in the history of American jurisprudence, private, for-profit corporations have a right to religious beliefs.

READ MORE: Jack Smith Has Now Signaled to Trump He Will Leave ‘No Stone Left Unturned’: Legal Analyst

“The historical-artifact-smuggling, anti-reproductive-rights family behind Hobby Lobby is also one of the largest donors to the ‘He Gets Us’ Jesus Ads in the Superbowl,” tweeted Missouri 2022 Democratic congressional candidate Randi McCallian Sunday night, tagging her post “#Fascists.”

The Green family including Hobby Lobby President Steve Green, funded and founded the Museum of the Bible in 2010. One year before it opened its doors in 2017 questions arose about the provenance of some of its items, while others blasted it for a lack of transparency.

“The Museum of the Bible in Washington, which has been working to regain credibility by giving back tainted objects in its collection,” The New York Times reported in August, “returned a handwritten gospel that is more than a thousand years old to the Greek Orthodox Church on Tuesday afternoon after determining that it had been looted from a Greek monastery during World War I.”

Two years earlier, in 2020, Christianity Today reported, “Steve Green announces 11,500 more items will be returned to the Middle East.” That same year National Geographic revealed: “‘Dead Sea Scrolls’ at the Museum of the Bible are all forgeries.”

The jaw-dropping hubris to try to rebrand Jesus has been met with not only anger, but information. Multiple news outlets, including NCRM, reported on the Green family’s ties to the campaign, which is much larger than David Green — although he appears to be the only one to admit funding the billion-dollar three-year efforts.

The Lever‘s Andrew Perez one week ago reported: “He Gets Us says: ‘We are also about sharing Jesus’ openness to people that others might have excluded.’ Its parent foundation donated $50 million to a right-wing group pushing to ban abortion and allow businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ+ customers.”

Indeed, Perez reports at The Lever, “The Alliance Defending Freedom says it helped draft the 2018 Mississippi abortion law at the heart of the Supreme Court decision last year allowing states to ban the procedure — and also helped argue that case before the high court. This term, the Alliance Defending Freedom is leading a new Supreme Court case arguing that businesses should be able to discriminate against LGBTQ+ customers.”

READ MORE: Legal Experts Say Pence Subpoena May Signal Special Counsel ‘About Ready to Make a Decision’ on Indicting Trump

“The decline in American Christianity is not because Americans don’t know who Jesus is or his values,” observes Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, author of a book on progressive Christianity, Just Faith. The decline is rooted in the most visible forms of American Christianity not looking anything like Jesus. #HeGetsUs reinforces the hypocrisy and will contribute to decline.”

American Atheists’ president Nick Fish on Sunday warned, “As you’re watching the #SuperBowl, just a reminder that the ‘He Gets Us’ campaign is bankrolled by the same people who have funded anti-LGBTQ, anti-choice, anti-immigrant, and anti-democracy extremism from the Christian Nationalist movement.”

CNN two weeks ago reported on the He Gets Us campaign “to market Jesus.”

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COMMENTARY

Trump Starts Weekend Early After Griping Workers Get Too Many Days Off

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4 weeks ago

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June 20, 2025

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After stalling on a decision in the escalating Middle East crisis and delaying action—some say potentially in defiance of federal law—on the congressionally mandated TikTok ban, President Donald Trump, facing sliding poll numbers, a widely criticized budget bill on the brink of collapse, a looming debt ceiling showdown, and apparent tensions with his Director of National Intelligence, is heading to his Bedminster golf resort for a MAGA dinner and an early weekend likely to include several rounds of golf.

The decision to leave the White House early on Friday comes after he left the G7 early this week, reportedly to make a decision on whether or how to help Israel attack Iran. His former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, jokingly said Trump exited the conference with top world leaders because he was “bored,” The Hill reported.

The President is slated to exit the White House at 2 PM Friday.

READ MORE: ‘People Will Die’: Shock Over Trump Shutting Down LGBTQ Youth Suicide Hotline Is Growing

“With the world on edge, the president’s early departure underscores a pattern critics say reflects misplaced priorities, favoring fundraising and familiar retreats over the day-to-day demands of governance,” MeidasTouch News reported.

The long weekend also comes just hours after President Trump denounced “too many days off” for federal and other workers, a remark he made on Juneteenth, a federal holiday signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021. Trump had campaigned on passing the legislation to honor and celebrate the day that symbolizes the end of slavery, but made no mention of it this year.

“Too many non-working holidays in America,” Trump decried Thursday evening.

“I know this is a federal holiday.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday. “I want to thank all of you for showing up to work. We are certainly here. We’re working 24/7 right now.”

This week, in addition to meeting with his national security team, and an “awkward” meeting with players of the Juventus soccer team, Trump presided over the installation of two 88-foot flag poles and the raising of massive American flags at the White House.

READ MORE: ‘Make Asbestos Great Again?’: Trump Slammed for Move to End Ban on Russia-Tied Carcinogen

Trump’s long weekend also comes just one week after millions protested his policies across all 50 states and internationally on Saturday, while he attended a military parade celebrating his and the U.S. Army’s birthdays, and after a tragic political assassination of a Democratic lawmaker and her spouse.

It also comes one week after Trump appeared to make a major about-face, saying farm, hotel, and restaurant workers are valuable and extremely difficult to replace. He suggested that ICE would pause targeting those workers, only to turn around just days later to announce “the largest mass deportation program in history.” The pause on deportations was canceled, leading one notable political commentator and legal analyst, Joyce Vance, to wonder if Trump is actually in charge.

“Who’s running the show?” she asked, suggesting someone may have “countermanded” him on the deportations. “Who’s in charge? Trump or someone else?”

READ MORE: Trump Appears to Confuse America’s Revolutionary War With the Civil War

 

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COMMENTARY

‘The Generals Stay Silent’: Experts Alarmed as Trump Politicizes Army at Fort Bragg Rally

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1 month ago

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June 11, 2025

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Military and political experts, veterans, and journalists are condemning President Donald Trump’s political rally at Fort Bragg on Tuesday, warning he crossed a critical line by delivering overtly political and authoritarian-themed remarks before U.S. Army troops. They also expressed alarm that uniformed soldiers appeared at ease booing his political opponents—another troubling breach of military norms. Some now say the time has come for generals to publicly speak out.

The commander in chief entered the event to “Hail to the Chief,” and as he took to the stage, his “MAGA anthem,” “Proud to Be an American,” played. For nearly one hour, in about 9,000 words, Trump delivered a political stump speech. He attacked his political opposition, Democrats, including President Joe Biden and his administration, California Governor Gavin Newsom (“Newscum”) and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. He attacked transgender Americans. He attacked the Democratic U.S. Senators who opposed the nomination of Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary, calling them “a very hostile group of people that I think really don’t want to see America be great again.”

He got the soldiers to boo “the fake news” media, and President Joe Biden. He told them the 2020 election was “rigged and stolen.”

READ MORE: ‘Show. Us. The. Plan.’: Pentagon Chief Ripped for Dodging Budget Details in Heated Hearing

He attacked the people in Los Angeles protesting his deportation policies, describing it as “anarchy,” while telling the soldiers that defending their  civil rights was not the reason Americans fought overseas:

“Generations of army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third world lawlessness here at home like is happening in California. As Commander in chief, I will not let that happen. It’s never going to happen. What you’re witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and on national sovereignty carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country.”

He thanked the generals, and mentioned some by name. He talked about “the real generals,” as opposed to the ones Americans see on television.

Critics are warning of grave consequences.

“This is the most unacceptable and egregious politicization of our troops we’ve ever seen,” wrote veterans’ activist Paul Rieckhoff, an Army combat veteran, responding to video of Trump getting the soldiers to boo the press, President Joe Biden, and the mayor of Los Angeles.

“And it’s not a one off. It’s a strategy,” added Rieckhoff, who is also the founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). “And one we’ll see in full and dangerous display this weekend at his military birthday parade for himself. Trump wants the world to think our great military is HIS military. And wants to coerce and manipulate troops into making them think it is too. And driving down their public trust and approval by the minute. Trump has created America’s greatest civil-military relations crisis since the Civil War. And it’s just getting started.”

Retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel Alexander Vindman, a former Director of European Affairs for the National Security Council (NSC), warned: “America’s Generals and Admirals are terrified. They are cowed. They seem unlikely to hold the line and live up to their oaths to serve the U.S. Constitution.”

Lamenting that “the Generals stay silent,” he added: “Our democracy is in great danger. This morning I wonder if we crossed a line and there’s no going back.”

Army combat veteran Fred Wellman, a graduate of West Point and the Harvard Kennedy School who is now the host of the podcast “On Democracy.” responded to Vindman by saying, “The silence is deafening.”

READ MORE: Trump Mixes Up World Wars, Days, Civil Rights in Latest Remarks

Retired U.S Army lieutenant general Russel L. Honoré, who served as the commander of Joint Task Force Katrina, blasted Trump’s speech: “Damn @POTUS Speech At #FortBragg  was inappropriate, criticizing previous administration, and Generals while speaking to troops , I never witnessed that S..t like this in 37 years in Uniform.”

Author and former Under Secretary of State Richard Stengel observed, “Unlike other militaries, American soldiers do not swear an oath to the state, or a person, or a monarch, but to the Constitution. Trump calls them ‘his’ military—but they are ours, and they swear to ‘support and defend the Constitution,’ not one man.”

Tom Nichols, a retired U.S. Naval War College professor and Russia expert, at The Atlantic targeted the generals for staying silent.

He wrote, “senior officers of the United States military have an obligation to speak up and be leaders. Where is the Army chief of staff, General Randy George? Will he speak truth to the commander in chief and put a stop to the assault on the integrity of his troops? Where is the commander of the airborne troops, Lieutenant General Gregory Anderson, or even Colonel Chad Mixon, the base commander?”

“Where is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Caine? He was personally selected by Trump to be America’s most senior military officer. Will he tell the man who promoted him that what he did today was obscene?”

Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey, often seen on cable news, called Trump’s speech “a disgraceful politicization of the active Armed Forces. He is the Commander in Chief. The only loyalty of the Armed Forces is to the Constitution. Their focus is on protecting America from foreign enemies. Grave danger.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

RELATED: ‘Doesn’t Even Know Who He’s Talking to’: Newsom Scorches Trump Over Military Deployment

 

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COMMENTARY

Trump Mixes Up World Wars, Days, Civil Rights in Latest Remarks

Published

1 month ago

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June 10, 2025

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President Donald Trump made a series of inaccurate claims in his remarks on Tuesday, conflating World War I and World War II, incorrectly suggesting he spoke with the governor of California on Monday when it was just after midnight Saturday morning, and asserting—contrary to the First Amendment—that protests, even peaceful ones, can be shut down with “heavy force.”

During remarks to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump was asked when he last spoke with California Governor Gavin Newsom. “A day ago,” he said Tuesday afternoon, which was three and a half days after the governor confirmed his phone call. Trump also confirmed the call by sending a screenshot to a Fox News reporter. The screenshot read June 7, 1:23 AM.

“Recently, other countries celebrated the victory of World War I, France was celebrating, really,” Trump told troops at Fort Bragg on Tuesday afternoon. “They were all celebrating. The only one that doesn’t celebrate is the USA and we’re the ones that won the war. Without us, you’d all be speaking German right now. Maybe a little Japanese thrown in. But we won the war.”

RELATED: ‘Doesn’t Even Know Who He’s Talking to’: Newsom Scorches Trump Over Military Deployment

The United States was part of a coalition during both WWI and WWII. Trump was speaking about WWI, but then claimed, “Without us, you’d all be speaking German right now. Maybe a little Japanese.”

That’s a reference to World War II—Japan was on the side of the Allies, with the U.S., in WWI.

Also on Tuesday, Trump declared that anyone caught protesting his controversial military parade on Saturday will be met with “very heavy force,” despite the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution clearly protecting political protests.

READ MORE: ‘Show. Us. The. Plan.’: Pentagon Chief Ripped for Dodging Budget Details in Heated Hearing

“We won the war, and we’re the only country that didn’t celebrate it, and we’re going to be celebrating big on Saturday,” Trump claimed. Veterans Day was initially created as Armistice Day to honor those who died in World War I.

“And if there’s any protestor that wants to come out, they will be met with very big force. By the way, for those people that want to protest, they’re gonna be met with very big force. And I haven’t even heard about a protest, but, you know, this is people that hate our country, but they will be met with very heavy force.”

The First Amendment protects both political speech and the right to “petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Trump did not state “violent protestors,” or “rioters.” He said “any protestor.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Subterfuge’: Noem Push a ‘Prelude’ to Invoking Insurrection Act, Experts Warn

 

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