The Daily Blast: Angry Trump Erupts over War Failures as Pope’s Harsh Rebuke Hits Hard

I'm your host, Greg Sargent.

“There have been two big developments in Donald Trump's war on Iran.”

First, he's now threatening more war crimes, and second, we just learned that American

forces may have bombed a second school in Iran killing nearly 2,000 people. Interestingly, all this arises as defense secretary Pete Higgseth is coming under fire for delivering a prayer, suggesting that God's sanctions overwhelming violence against the enemy. Also interestingly, this Higgseth moment was dramatically undercocked by the Pope, who

declared that God does not heed such prayers. Saraposner, a scholar on host of the excellent reign of error podcast, has been making the point that Higgseth's extreme theology explains much of what we're seeing here. So we're talking about all this today with her. Sarah, nice to have you on.

Thanks for having me, Greg. So let's start here, Pete Higgseth has been doing monthly prayer services at the Pentagon, which itself could be a violation of Church and State separation. He recently said a prayer that was expressly directed to American troops in Iran. I just want to highlight two parts.

First, here's Higgseth quoting King David.

You made my enemies turn their backs to me, and those who hated me, I destroyed. They cried for help, but there was none to save. They cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them. And here's Higgseth calling for God's assistance against the enemy. And every round, find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation.

Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy. Sarah, two things here.

First, note how Higgseth says God didn't answer the enemy, whereas he apparently does answer

Higgseth. Second, note the express claim that God sanctions overwhelming violence. Both thoughts on all that. Higgseth is expressing an extreme version of Christian supremacy, where America, a Christian nation, is entitled, in fact, probably in his mind, required by God to smite America's

enemies, or to smite the enemies of Christianity, even. I mean, when we talk about Christian nationalism, this is exactly what we're talking about,

“but I think the important thing to remember with Higgseth in contrast to other versions”

of Christian nationalism that we see more commonly in the Republican Party is that his is a very extreme version of Christian supremacy, where we Christians are entitled to go out and take dominion over the world to vanquish enemies and to do so violently, and even when they do so violently with the express mandate from God. Right, and he is an adherent of a theology called Christian reconstructionism.

He seems to see biblical laws supreme over the authority of the state. Can you explain what that belief system really is? Christian reconstructionism holds that biblical law is superior to civil law, and that the Bible should govern, biblical law should govern every aspect of life. Your personal life, for sure, but also political life, military life.

So to Higgseth, this biblical law, which, of course, the interpretation of which would

“be contested by different scholars or adherents to the Bible, right?”

But his version of biblical law is superior to the Pentagon's own internal military law, American civil law, and also, importantly, here, when we're talking about Higgseth and the prosecution of this unjust illegal war, is superior to international law and the rules of engagement in war and military conflicts. Well, I want to try to connect Higgseth's conduct of the war to all this right now.

Higgseth has been positively oozing with bloodlust and sadism in his public discussions of the war. He openly emfuses about raining, quote, unquote, death and destruction from the sky, about liberating the military from stupid rules of engagement, about unleashing maximum

as with no moral qualms whatsoever.

“So Sarah, linking all these things up, it seems like Higgseth sees his war as being in accordance”

with biblical law, so even US law might not be binding on him and, of course, international even rights law, which would be way at the very bottom of the totem pole, so to speak for him would certainly not be binding on him. Is that moral as the situation? That is more or less the situation.

He sees in the biblical mandates that he reads in his Bible that violence against one's

enemies is not just necessary in the field of battle, but actually desired before he became

defense secretary, he wrote in a book that he thought the Geneva conventions were, you know, woke bullshit, that was not exact phrase he used, but that was the intent. So to him, biblical law, where he sees himself and the other adherence to this theology, sees himself as superior to other religions, to other forms of Christianity, and that God is commanding them to take dominion, not just over America, but over the world, this very

much drives his imperialist ideology. And I just want to really bear down on this idea that the enemy does not hear back from God. This is something that Hegseth quoted from King David in his sermon, in his prayer at the Pentagon, and I just find that really striking because he really does think God is answering him and doesn't, and things God does not answer the enemy, and that functionally not just

“justifies, but requires overwhelming force against that enemy, more or less, right?”

Well, this is what I'm talking about when I say, this is a Christian supremacist ideology, right? And it's not just Christianity writ large, it's their version of Christianity, right? And so if there's a Christian who doesn't agree with this theology, they wouldn't even really consider them to be a real Christian.

And so the idea that God's mercy and grace does not extend to your enemies is an idea that I think, I mean, I know that he took that from the Hebrew Bible, but I think it's an idea that is completely not familiar to most Jews and most Christians, right? The idea that God would not extend grace to your perceived enemy. And so this warrior ethos that he emphasizes, he has used that kind of terminology.

He's taking the Bible to justify basically war crimes against infrastructure, but also against

civilians. He has said nothing about the, what is it, 165 school girls who were killed in that bombing in Southern Iran. And to him, it's almost like, it seems almost like it's not even collateral damage, right? Because it was collateral damage, he would be sort of sorry about it, but it seems

almost worse that he feels like, well, the enemy deserves no mercy from God or from us.

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That's code DSR26 at the DSR network.com/buy. Thank you and enjoy the show. But what I want to do is not to study the whole world. The master-writer laptop is called SoftBandy Internet, so it's a master-writer. I'm saying, you can't say that.

You're a master-writer, right? But you don't understand. Exactly, it's just a challenge. Make the whole thing like this. And if you then work, you'll have to pay.

Hold your money.

Now, cost a lot of money.

“With Amazon, more than 50% of the population with less population,”

in the same way, in the same way, or even in the same way. If you're still in the same way, you can play. You can play with your new copy for a meeting and meeting in the population of the share-stallas, based on Amazon population data from the year 2025 in Rosbottanian and EU. He has said the enemy will get no quarter, which is an explicit threat of a war crime,

meaning that the US military should or will kill people who have surrendered.

And he clearly thinks that's biblically sanctioned. Now, Potlio said on Sunday that God doesn't accept the prayers of leaders who wage wars. He said, quote, "This is our God. Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, who no one can use to justify war." Close quote.

Potlio continued that Jesus, quote, does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war,

but rejects them saying, "Even though you make many prayers,

I will not listen, your hands are full of blood," close quote.

“Sarah, what do you make of that? Does that give headset a moment's pause?”

I don't think I would. Should it give a pause? Well, headset is not a Catholic, and obviously many people who aren't Catholic find things to admire in many of the statements that Potlio makes on many topics. But certainly, headset isn't bound in any way to follow the Pope's teachings. Undoubtedly, there are many people in the military and many probably civilians who work at the

Pentagon who are Catholic, not all Catholics admire Pope Leo, but many do, and probably most do. And so to hear for them, to hear the Pope contesting the leader of the defense department in this way, but then also feeling like, well, headset has these monthly prayer meetings, which aren't

“explicitly mandatory, but it feels a little bit mandatory in a way, even if I don't show up”

at the Pentagon auditorium for them. And we really have to start thinking about this as not just a violation of separation of church and state, which it is, would it be recognized by the Supreme Court? This Supreme Court, I don't know, but also something that the Supreme Court has upheld repeatedly is religious freedom for Christians from, you know, for the wedding photographer, who doesn't want to photograph those same-sex wedding, right? Well, what about, you know, the other

Christians at the Pentagon who disagree with headsets interpretation of the Bible, what about the non-Christians in the military, atheists, Muslims, Jews, you know, you name it, other minority religions, who know, even if they're not attending these prayer sessions, exactly what headset is saying, and the implication is, this is, this is the official religion of the defense department of the U.S. military, and that is pretty scary. Absolutely. In fact, Pete Heggseth openly, from the Pentagon,

podium essentially said straight out, meal and pray to Jesus Christ for the troops. He said that that's his God. That's not everybody's God. That's not every religious person's God who works for the defense department. That's right. And it's really the most extreme expression of this kind of Christian supremacy that we've seen in either Trump, term, or in, I'm trying to think in a example from George W. Bush's term. I mean, his administration was filled with evangelicals and,

you know, people who adhered to far-right Christian theologies and ideologies, but I really can't think of another one who was so explicit and so exclusionary and so supremacist as Heggseth is here. It's really off the rails and shocking. And it takes a lot to shock me when it comes to Republican efforts to dismantle church state separation and deprive people who don't adhere

He sure is. Well, let's talk about where we are on the war because this too is linked to all that.

The New York Times reports that a weapon that really looks like a U.S. made missile demolished a sports hall on an elementary school in Iran, and it appears that this and other strikes may have killed up to 21 people. That's on top of the bombing of a school that killed well over a hundred people, mostly children and southern Iran, as you mentioned earlier. Now, it's hard to know what one into something like this, but it really looks like the U.S. is being

“very lacks about the war in ways that are killing a lot of Iranians civilians. I think clearly,”

this is the Heggseth ethic at work. Don't you? Well, I think it's Heggseth and Trump. I mean,

Trump isn't coming from the same religious place as Heggseth, but he certainly has expressed that same similar bloodlust and lack of concern for human rights and the rights of civilians and in wartime. And so when you layer on that this is an illegal war and they're killing civilians in an illegal war, I mean, it's just nauseating. I don't even have the words for it. And, you know, I think the reason why even though you hear a lot of stories about parts of the

maga base being upset about the war and wanting Trump to pull back from it, I think very much

of the maga base has been steeped in a lot of this anti-Aran propaganda for, you know, 40 something years, including Christian Zionist propaganda. But I also think that they're very steeped in this very ugly rank Islamophobia at home and that they see these civilians as being less

“than human and they just don't care. I think very plainly that's right. And to close out,”

Trump erupted on truth social with some more unhinged threats. He said that talks are going well with an allegedly new regime in Iran. I guess he does want regime change. But then, Trump also said this quote, "If the Hormuz Strait is not immediately open for business, we will conclude our lovely stay in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their electric generating plants, oil wells and carguided island and possibly all desalination plants,

which we have purposefully not yet touched." Close quote. Sarah, that's just sociopathic stuff. He's statistically calls it our lovely stay in Iran, then threatens what would be serious war crimes to your earlier point. I don't think Trump is thinking too hard about biblical doctrine when saying this, but he and Hexeth clearly converge on bloodlust and sadism each for their own reasons and having a defense secretary who isn't speaking truth to the president and is encouraging

this sort of unchecked bloodlust seems like a really fucking terrible situation to be in. It really is because Hexeth is giving an additional layer of permission to Trump. Although Trump himself does not very frequently use biblical language, he's very tuned in to the way that his base uses biblical language and to the way his base places importance on providing biblical justifications for things. Having Hexeth justify the war in these ways is probably very satisfying

to Trump because it's not just based on his imperialistic instincts or his desire for domination or his desire potentially to control Iran's oil or whatever his entire host of motivations are

“here. And I think that that's a super dangerous and frightening combination.”

It really is. We are in such a goddamn fix. My God, it's really bad. Folks, make sure to check out Sarah Posner's podcast, Rain of Error. It's highly illuminating on these types of questions. Sarah, thank you so much for coming on and talking to us. Thanks for having me, Greg.