‘What are you doing here, Donald?’
“What are you doing here, Elijah?”
– 1 Kings 19:13
The most iconic image from Saturday’s failed assassination attempt in Pennsylvania is that of our bloodied former president standing tall, his raised fist pumping in defiance of the act that came so close to killing him, the fierce warrior mouthing to the stunned crowd a single word, “Fight!” That word, while unamplified with no microphone near, Trump supporters heard loud and clear, his message reverberating throughout the nation and, indeed, the world.
As historic as that photo will certainly be, it was an entirely different photograph that spoke most powerfully to me, a scene captured only seconds earlier, before Trump was lifted back to his feet, an agent’s legs widened just enough to triangularly frame President Trump’s profile and his open right hand, thumb up, as in supplication.
A second agent’s right hand braces Trump’s left shoulder, clutching the red MAGA cap fallen from the president’s head, its flag inverted, as if following the lead of Trump himself, fallen to his knees as Secret Service wrap themselves around him in a living mantle of protection.
The president’s expression is frozen in a moment of soul-stillness, muting the furious winds of chaos swirling around him, calming the rumble of the quaking stage and bleachers midst the panic, and quieting the gunfire of the would-be assassin and of the sharp-shooting agents who took him out.
Staring at the photo, one hears … nothing. Sheer silence.
Three scarlet rivulets track toward Trump’s open lips in a moment of shock, inviting us to witness Trump’s profoundly spiritual, De Profundis experience. Unanswered questions likely are transformed into urgent prayer: “What just happened? Am I hit? Am I dying? Oh, God, help me!”
This photo’s eerie stillness, contrary to the chaotic scramble we witnessed on our screens, made me think of the prophet Elijah in the Hebrew Bible, when an unexpected moment of stillness broke through the crashing sounds of wind, quake and fire.
Once the sights and sounds were muted, Elijah, wrapping a mantle around his face, stepped to the opening of a cave and heard a “still, small voice,” asking, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
In this photo, I see our wounded former president in searching soul-silence, a mantle of agents encircling him, hearing the same question, “What are you doing here, Donald?”
Like Trump, Elijah was on a mission to call the people back to the core values of his nation. Elijah’s name is Hebrew for “My God is Yahweh,” his very name defining his mission, the people of Israel under the influence of the corrupt leadership of Ahab, having been drawn away by his queen, Jezebel, to worship and serve her Canaanite gods, chiefly Baal.
Like Trump, Elijah’s greatest victory preceded an unexpectedly stunning and questionable defeat, leading Bible readers to wonder, “What just happened?” Elijah’s victory on Mount Carmel was followed by unexplainable defeat and the relentless pursuit of political persecution by Jezebel and her enfeebled, compliant husband, Ahab.
Likewise, the victorious Trump of 2016 was followed by a questionable defeat in 2020, with Trump ever since on the run from a two-tiered, weaponized Department of Justice.
After a long journey of 40 days, Elijah came to the desert’s har ha-elohim (the Mountain of God), where Elijah heard the searching question, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
The dramatic story is told in 1 Kings 19:11-13 (offered here in the NRSV, spliced into its three parts like the three streams of blood on Trump’s face, with a bit of Hebrew tossed in to illustrate how patterned and rhythmic is the original text):
Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD,
but (lo be-ruach Adonai) the LORD was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake,
but (lo be-ra’ash Adonai) the LORD was not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire,
but (lo be-esh Adonai) the LORD was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.
When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Elijah’s reply (1 Kings 19:14) is not unlike what Trump has been saying for 10 years, that his passion is a zeal to return America to its roots and that, because he works to Make America Great Again, “now they are seeking my life, to take it away.”
“What are you doing here, Donald?”
That’s the question President Trump must answer, first in his own heart, and then to the American people. His speech at the RNC Thursday night will, essentially, be his answer to that question.
“What am I doing here? Why am I not retired and playing golf, instead of risking my fortune and my freedom as a corrupt justice system bears down on me? Risking my own life at the hands of would-be assassin, likely inspired by years of the Democrats and media telling you that I am Hitler? Why? Well, let me tell you what I am doing here.”
I can hear the thunderous applause already, and see tears of gratitude and joy among the delegates as they see their bandaged warrior and hear our former and, hopefully, future President Donald J. Trump answer that question.
I suspect that, after death brushed so close Saturday, his answer might be substantially different than it would have been last week.
We shall see. This much is certain. His answer will be worth hearing, and hanging on every word.
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