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While the pandemic has killed over 170,000 Americans, President Donald Trump said in a recent speech that the virus is actually God's way of "testing [him.]"
During his remarks in Mankato, Minnesota, Trump made false claims about the pre-pandemic economy and said God was now telling him to do it again.
"We built the greatest economy in the history of the world, and now I have to do it again."
"You know what that is? That's God testing me. He said, 'You know, you did it once.' And I said, 'Did I do a great job, God? I'm the only one that could do it.'''
According to Trump, the pandemic is God's punishment for his arrogance.
As the audience laughed, Trump said:
"[God] said, 'That, you shouldn't say. Now we're going to have you do it again.'"
"I said, 'OK, I agree. You got me.' But I did it once. And now I'm doing it again."
But Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, said that Trump's religious analysis "lacked spiritual maturity."
Campbell compared Trump's trials to Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, saying:
"It's not that God does this unto me, but rather we see that time in Gethsemane as the story of Jesus accepting the consequences of his being a prophetic leader and his willingness to be faithful to the call of being a prophetic leader."
"...It's not like God is doing it to him, it's the consequences of his choices. He evidences no concern for the suffering of people. That makes it a very un-Christian statement, in my view."
Twitter was also pretty unimpressed by Trump's invocation of God's will.
Many online guessed what God actually testing Trump would look like.
The true test of Trump's response to the virus happened back in the early spring, when he was given the opportunity to take decisive action and instead downplayed the danger of the pandemic.