Trump fundraising and sales razzmatazz

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Fundraising by Donald Trump is not only for his US presidential campaign, but also to help pay for burgeoning legal bills and huge court fines already imposed on him. Recently, he was offering gold-coloured basketball boots with his logo ‘T’ for the ‘bargain’ price of US$399, and that’s been followed by his own version of a Holy Bible for ‘only’ US$59.99.

Watching his salesman schtick on television encapsulates the highly partisan, shambolic and sleazy tactics that many politicians are engaged in around the world these days. It’s most prevalent in America, where political campaigns seem to be never-ending from one election to the next, and costing vast amounts of dollars; with so much that is humorous and haphazard, it’s entertainment that is really difficult to ignore. When seeing the Trump Bible advert, it immediately brought to mind one of my all-time favourite films – Elmer Gantry, for which Burt Lancaster won the 1961 Oscar in the title role.

The film was based on a satirical novel by Sinclair Lewis about a salesman with a charismatic personality, a decidedly shady history, and many very obvious character flaws, who took control of a religious revivalist roadshow to make money from the congregation. The book was denounced with self-righteous indignation in churches across the US, and banned outright in many cities. Sinclair Lewis received many threats, but his book still managed to top the list as the best-selling work of fiction in 1927.

He had raised the ire of so many in the religious community by depicting evangelicals and fundamentalists as so gullible to eagerly hand over their money to this charlatan, suggesting that they were easy prey because most of them believed the scriptures word-for-word as the gospel truth. Many things have changed since 1927, with revival tents being replaced by megachurches, and televangelists broadcasting sermons far and wide, with a fervour that sometimes surpasses the razzmatazz of the WWE. Those running Trump’s campaign likely share Sinclair Lewis’s opinion of evangelicals and fundamentalists as an easy source of money.

As for non-partisan, light-hearted news-consumers like me seeking entertainment, the Trump Bible represents the 2024 version of Elmer Gantry revisited.

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada