The man you vote for, measured by the book you swear by.
State Senator Rusty Crowe posted this week that the Ten Commandments are the foundation of this nation’s Christian values and the best example we can lift up for our children. He’s right. They are. So let’s apply them—one by one—to the man Senator Crowe votes for.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Donald Trump has worshipped one god his entire adult life: himself. He named buildings after himself. He named steaks after himself. He named a university after himself. He named a Bible after himself and sold it for $60. He stood in front of St. John’s Church during a national crisis and held up that Bible like a prop, having tear-gassed peaceful protesters to get there. His former chief of staff John Kelly said Trump admired Hitler. His own niece, clinical psychologist Mary Trump, wrote in her book Too Much and Never Enough that Trump “does not understand that he or anybody else has intrinsic self-worth”—because the only worth he recognizes is his own. One god. Always has been. Always will be.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
Trump sells a gold-painted version of himself. Literally. A six-foot golden Trump statue appeared at CPAC in 2021, wheeled out to thunderous applause. He sells Trump-branded Bibles, Trump-branded gold sneakers, Trump-branded trading cards showing himself as a superhero, astronaut, and cowboy. His campaign sold $399 leather Bibles stamped with the American flag. He sold MAGA hats manufactured in China and Vietnam. He turned the presidency into a merchandise operation, and he turned himself into the merchandise. The commandment said don’t do that. He built a franchise around it.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Trump swears on camera. He calls opponents “sons of bitches” at campaign rallies. He told reporters to “go to hell.” He dropped the word “bullshit” at the Republican National Convention. He mocked a disabled reporter, called veterans who died in combat “suckers and losers,” and said John McCain wasn’t a hero because he got captured. He has described himself, repeatedly, as chosen by God—a man who, by every documented account, has never once read the Bible he keeps selling. The name of the Lord is on his merch. It is not in his mouth with any reverence.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Trump has visited his golf courses more than 400 times since taking office across his two terms. He plays golf on Sundays. He plays golf on Christmas. He played golf on the day American soldiers were reported killed overseas. He plays golf while posting war ultimatums on social media. He has never been photographed attending a regular Sunday church service as a private citizen or as president. He carried a Bible to a photo op. He has never, by any credible account, carried one into a church service.
Honor thy father and thy mother.
Trump’s mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, nearly died from postpartum complications when Trump was two and a half years old. She was found unconscious on the bathroom floor and hospitalized repeatedly over the following year. His niece Mary Trump, writing from a clinical psychology background, documented what followed: effectively abandoned by his only real source of love and care at the most critical stage of his development, Trump turned to a father who was a high-functioning sociopath with no capacity for warmth. Neither parent gave him what he needed. Trump never processed it. He spent the next seven decades making everyone around him absorb the damage those two people left behind. His mother reportedly asked, near the end of her life, looking at the wreckage of his marriages and his public cruelty: “What kind of son have I created?” He honored neither of them by becoming a better man. He honored them by becoming a richer, meaner version of the worst parts of both.
Thou shalt not kill.
American bombs have struck Iranian territory, including sites where civilian casualties were reported. Independent journalists and human rights monitors documented deaths of non-combatants, including children, in the strikes. Trump launched this military campaign without a formal declaration of war, without allied support, and without a plan. He then threatened, from a golf resort, to bomb Iran’s civilian power plants—a potential war crime under the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit attacks on objects indispensable to civilian survival. 8,000 American troops are now staging near terrain the IRGC has spent 47 years preparing for exactly this scenario. Military planners are privately calling it a suicide mission. The commandment does not have a footnote for oil prices or geopolitical strategy. It says what it says.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
In 2006, two months after Melania gave birth to their son Barron, Trump had a sexual encounter with adult film actress Stormy Daniels. That same year, he began a ten-month affair with Playboy model Karen McDougal. He paid Daniels $130,000 in hush money through his attorney Michael Cohen—money he later falsified business records to conceal, producing 34 felony convictions. The National Enquirer paid McDougal $150,000 for her story and then buried it as a favor to Trump. He cheated on his first wife Ivana with Marla Maples, then married Maples, then cheated on Maples. A civil jury found him liable for sexual abuse against writer E. Jean Carroll. He called Carroll a liar and a “wack job.” The jury disagreed.
Thou shalt not steal.
Trump University defrauded students out of tens of thousands of dollars with promises of real estate secrets from Trump’s hand-picked instructors—instructors who had no special relationship with Trump and no unique expertise. He settled the class-action lawsuit for $25 million. The New York Attorney General shut down the Donald J. Trump Foundation for what the AG’s office called “a shocking pattern of illegality”—using charitable funds as a personal checkbook to settle business debts, purchase a portrait of himself, and support his political campaign. Trump admitted in court to personally misusing foundation funds and was ordered to pay $2 million in damages. He was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He took classified national security documents to Mar-a-Lago in boxes and stored them next to a ballroom. His own attorney general called the evidence “very damning.”
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating cats. Eating dogs. That was the claim Trump repeated at a presidential debate, on Truth Social, and at campaign rallies—a claim the Springfield city government flatly denied, that no law enforcement agency confirmed, and that resulted in bomb threats forcing schools and a hospital to evacuate. He told Americans that immigrants were responsible for a surge in violent crime—FBI data showed the opposite. He told Americans the 2020 election was stolen—60 courts, his own attorney general, and his own Justice Department found no evidence. He said Mexico would pay for the wall. He said the coronavirus would disappear like a miracle. He said injecting bleach might work. He said he never knew Jeffrey Epstein well, despite years of photographs, videos, and his own 2002 quote calling Epstein “a terrific guy” who liked women “on the younger side.” The commandment says bear no false witness. He made it a governing philosophy.
Thou shalt not covet.
He coveted Greenland. He sent envoys to Denmark and threatened economic consequences if they didn’t hand it over. He coveted the Panama Canal and demanded it back. He coveted Canada and called it “the 51st state,” suggesting annexation. He coveted his own daughter. On national television in 2006, he told the hosts of The View—with Ivanka sitting beside him—”If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.” In 2013, when asked what he and Ivanka had most in common, he said “sex” before catching himself. His former chief of staff John Kelly was so disturbed by Trump’s comments about Ivanka’s body in front of White House staff that he had to remind the president that Ivanka was his daughter. The commandment says do not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor. He has coveted everything he has ever seen, including people who were supposed to be off-limits by blood.
Zero for ten, Senator Crowe.
But yes. Put it on the classroom wall. Let’s absolutely talk about the Ten Commandments.
Sources
Mary L. Trump, Too Much and Never Enough (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020).
PBS Frontline, interview with Mary Trump, 2020.
New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood, civil suit against the Donald J. Trump Foundation, June 14, 2018.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, court order and settlement, People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump et al., November 7, 2019.
People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump, 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, verdict May 30, 2024.
E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump, civil verdict finding Trump liable for sexual abuse, May 9, 2023.
CBS News, hush-money payment timeline, April 2024.
CNN KFile, Howard Stern audio archive review, October 2016.
Snopes, fact check: Trump comment about Ivanka on The View, August 7, 2024.
Dean Blundell, Substack, March 19–22, 2026.
International Energy Agency, public statement on global energy disruption, March 2026.
Gene Scott
Gene Scott grew up on an Illinois tenant farm where kitchen-table tales mixed magic with hog farms and strip mines. After 40 years in East Tennessee, he’s witnessed nature’s raw power—and its quiet grace to heal what’s broken.
