Donald Trump: messiah or naughty boy?

By Dan Halpern

He’s the sword and shield of God, no doubt about it,” a delegate told me, straining to be heard over loud music, before the first session of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “I’ve been told I’m not supposed to offend our brothers and sisters who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their lord and saviour, so not to make a big deal of it. But we know God has chosen Donald J. Trump to protect us from those who would do us harm, smite those who despise us, and wash our sin away. And now we know we cannot lose, because God has told us we cannot.”