Just when you thought the GOP couldn’t be a more embarrassing cult, Speaker Mike Johnson presented Donald Trump with the “first-ever America First Award”:
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) March 26, 2026
“We have created a new award. We are going to do something we’ve never done before. We will honor him with a new award…… pic.twitter.com/CduOTi6k5X
As explained by USA Today
The Republican Party gave the first-ever "America First award" to President Donald Trump on March 25, an achievement that follows backlash from legislators over his receiving of these newly created honors.
The award was presented to Trump at the National Republican Congressional Committee annual fundraising dinner by House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said it was created with the president in mind.
"We’re going to do something we've never done before. We’re going to honor him with a new award that we'll present annually from this point forward, but he is the suitable and fitting recipient of the first-ever America First award," Johnson said. "We can think of no better title for what that is...that's this beautiful golden statue here, appropriate for the new golden era in America."
Not silver, not bronze, black or white, but gold, President Trump's favorite style of decoration. But now it has gone to a new level, one which has historical precedent. In Exodus 32
When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods[a] who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods,[b] Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
“I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
However, Moses persuaded God to back off- temporarily. When Moses actually
approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.
A day or two later
Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
So Moses went back to the Lord and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”
The Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”
And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.
A golden calf, then a few thousand years later, a golden statue, an idol Republicans will bow down to as a fancy representation of their earthly god. This has gone beyond fondness and even reverence and now constitutes worship- an award created out of whole cloth, specifically for one person. It is no longer an earthly god alongside a heavenly one; the former has replaced the latter.
When the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin. There are consequences, God reminded Moses. Punishment already has come upon the American people for the great sin of worshipping a mere mortal, Donald J. Trump. But the real punishment awaits.
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