You don’t need to be of any particular religious persuasion to to get the point of this religion-based question and answer.
In an interview before an audience (the point being that Trump knew he was in public), moderator Frank Luntz (a sharp Republican message consultant) asked Trump whether he has ever asked God for forgiveness for his actions.
Trump’s reply: “I am not sure I have. I just go on and try to do a better job from there. I don’t think so. I think if I do something wrong, I think, I just try and make it right. I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t.”
He did say that he has performed other religious rituals, such as Holy Communion: “When I drink my little wine – which is about the only wine I drink – and have my little cracker, I guess that is a form of asking for forgiveness, and I do that as often as possible because I feel cleansed. I think in terms of ‘let’s go on and let’s make it right.'”
No, that doesn’t fit at all, because it’s not related to any particular thing the participant did, just a more generic “have we got the books balanced? okay?” sort of thing.
There’s no surprise that these statements from a year ago got the attention of a significant number of Christians, for whom seeking forgiveness for the inevitable sin in life is central. But the import is much broader: This is a man for whom he has nothing to apologize to anyone, not to God and not to any person. The rare occasions when words like “I’m sorry” have crossed his lips have in no real sense been an apology; they have been no more or less than an attempt to get him past some controversy he’d rather see in the rear view mirror.
He does not see himself as flawed, or in any need of self-reflection.
That is the real point here, and for a prospective president, the scariest. – rs
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