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President Donald Trump is many things: U.S. president. Wealthy businessman. Father of Tiffany Trump. A Gemini. A biblical savior.
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Well, that last one is up for debate, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it’s at least a possibility, in an appearance Thursday night on the Christian Broadcasting Network.
“Could it be that President Trump right now has been sort of raised for such a time as this, just like Queen Esther, to help save the Jewish people from the Iranian menace?” host Chris Mitchell asked Pompeo.
“As a Christian, I certainly believe that’s possible,” Pompeo replied.
“I am confident that the Lord is at work here,” he added.
Pompeo’s interview coincided with Purim, a holiday that celebrates the salvation of the Jewish people from genocide under Haman, the main antagonist in the Book of Esther, who works as a minister in the Persian empire. In the Old Testament, Esther, the wife of Persian King Xerxes I, persuades her husband to rescue the Jews.
Pompeo also visited Israel on Thursday, where he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who’s running for re-election despite facing criminal charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust related to gifts he allegedly gave to foreign billionaires. Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted that the U.S. should “fully recognize” the Golan Heights as an Israeli territory, but Pompeo made no reference to the president’s words. The Golan Heights are a Syrian territory that Israel captured during the Six-Day War in 1967.
Netanyahu called Trump’s statement a “Purim miracle.”
Cover image: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference after a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam on February 28, 2019, as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listens. Both leaders have failed to reach an agreement on denuclearzation issue at their second summit. (The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images)
