‘The Trump Prophecy’ Is an Unsettling Window On American Evangelicalism
A new movie makes a retired firefighter out to be a prophet. In reality, he’s a radical conspiracy theorist who thinks Democrats control the weather.
On Tuesday morning, a post about a movie called The Trump Prophecy happened to cross my social media feed. The film, which was produced in cooperation with the film department at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University and made with the help of a small army of Christian film students, tells the “true story” of a retired firefighter from Florida named Mark Taylor who claims to have dreamed that Donald Trump would one day be the president of the United States back in 2011. There was a screening that night in Seattle, so I went and checked it out.
On the surface, there’s not much distinguishing The Trump Prophecy from other films in its schlocky genre. Early on, Taylor is established as a hero when he rescues a girl from a house fire started by a woman using heroin. The girl’s little brother is still inside, so Taylor dives back into the fire to save him, only to find him non-responsive. For some reason, no attempt is made to resuscitate the boy, and he is declared dead by the firefighters.
After this event, Taylor starts having PTSD-induced nightmares and decides to go see a therapist. He also decides to retire from the fire…
