'Trump is wallowing in his Messiah complex': columnist shreds Holy Week 'scam'

Former President Donald Trump's Holy Week decision to hawk $59.99 Bibles proves he's just another snake oil salesman akin to Elmer Gantry and the American people know it, a New York Times columnist argued Saturday.

Maureen Dowd focused her Saturday morning column on what she described as unconvincing religious posturing on the part of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

"More and more, Trump is wallowing in his Messiah complex," wrote Dowd. "He may not realize that, rather than a sacrificial lamb, he is the Golden Calf, the false god worshiped by Israelites when Moses went up to Mount Sinai to get the Ten Commandments."

Gold makes a repeated guest appearance in Dowd's column in the form of $399 golden "Never Surrender" high-top sneakers and $99 “Victory” cologne for “movers, shakers and history makers,” topped with a gold bust of Trump, Dowd notes.

Price tags also come in abundance, which Dowd links to Trump's dwindling campaign coffers and mounting legal fees.

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"Just what the world needs," Dowd quips of Trump's holy merch, "a soul cleanse with a grifter Bible, where the profits could well be going to pay legal costs in trials about breaking commandments — bearing false witness to try to steal democracy, coveting a porn star, then paying the star hush money to keep quiet about the sex."

Dowd believes that the religious Americans whose votes Trump hopes to secure will look at the former president — whom she describes as "a miserable human who cheated on his wives, cheats at golf, cheats at politics, incites violence, targets judges and their families and looked on, pleased, as thugs threatened to hang his actually pious vice president" — and see a con man.

"Religious snake-oil salesmen have a storied history in American literature and films, from Flannery O’Connor’s 'Wise Blood' to Peter Bogdanovich’s beloved movie 'Paper Moon,' about a conniving Bible salesman and his small helper," Dowd notes.

But the New York columnist warns that should he be reelected, Americans should expect "Instead of Christ-like redemption, he promises Lucifer-like retribution if resurrected," Dowd says.

"Declining faith in religion and rising faith in conspiracies create fertile ground for a faker like Trump," wrote Dowd. "If the profane pol is re-elected, we’ll all reap the whirlwind."