JASON COHEN
Former MSNBC host Chris Matthews on Monday suggested that impoverished Americans believe former President Donald Trump is Jesus.
Trump in late March posted a message he said he received from a supporter who compared his legal struggles to the persecution of Jesus. Matthews on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” said the former president’s supporters, who are often “poor people,” view him as a God because he calls himself one.
WATCH:
“I saw a lot of really poor people waiting in line for two hours to see Donald Trump,” Matthews said. “Really poor people, white people in most cases. And I said, what’s going on here? I don’t know if the crosstabs relate or why it relates, but they really want this guy to be their president again. Then I saw the Florida Atlantic university poll that came out in March. And it pointed out that the only economic group in the country that likes Trump is under $50,000 a year … Only people below $50,000.
“I can’t put it all together,” he added. “Maybe people are hard up, people have a grievance against society, because society has been tough on them. White, Hispanic, black, all kinds of people below $50,000 a year are for Trump. Somebody has got to get that into their heads that’s what’s going on here.”
Matthews then contrasted Trump’s message to these Americans to President Joe Biden’s.
“Biden has got to start talking to them,” Matthews said. “And it’s not happening yet. Trump’s talking to them. Somebody once said of FDR, ‘I didn’t know him, but he knew me.’ Trump knows those people. When he was up there in New Hampshire, I heard him say something: ‘My people have figured out I should come to this area, Laconia, because there’s a lot of poor people.’”
“I don’t know if the Democrats have really thought through this campaign and what they’re up against,” he added. “This guy is calling himself God … If he can get away with that, then he is truly a cult … Somebody has got to start talking to people and saying this guy is not for real as a secular leader. He is not Jesus.”
Matthews said on “Morning Joe” in December that dealing with angry rural Americans is akin to combating terrorism.
“This is rural rage. They are so angry at the liberal establishment, the coastal elite, they look at people on television … ‘They don’t have to worry about us,’” he said. “And the regular guy in the country goes, ‘there they are snarling and making fun of us again’ and every time we make fun of Trump, we’re making fun of them … It’s a weird thing, but in a way it’s like fighting terrorism.”
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