This is a real thing:
When Donald Trump breaks his post-presidency silence with a speech on Sunday, he’ll do it in the presence of something he has almost certainly always dreamed of—an enormous golden statue of himself. Bloomberg News reporter William Turton shared footage of the golden Trump being wheeled into Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday. The statue appears to depict Trump wearing flip-flops and star-spangled boxer shorts and wielding a fairy godmother’s magic wand. In the video, Trump fans can be heard in the background incorrectly describing the eyesore as “awesome” and “so cool.”
The jokes naturally flew fast and furious on Twitter.
Thou shalt have no other gods before Me is of course one of the Ten Commandments, and there’s a famous story in the Book of Exodus about what happened to the Israelites when they constructed a golden calf while Moses was up on Mount Sinai. From Exodus Chapter 32:
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”
So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it.
And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.”
And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
The blasphemous, irreligious behavior of the Trump cult — which includes millions of people who consider themselves evangelical Christians — is just the latest evidence that it’s easier to preach the teachings of the Bible than it is to practice them.