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Did Evangelical Leaders Pray Over the Golden Trump Statue at CPAC?
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The Dispatch Fact Check

Did Evangelical Leaders Pray Over the Golden Trump Statue at CPAC?

No.

Alec Dent
Mar 2, 2021
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An image purportedly showing evangelical leaders at CPAC praying over a golden statue of Donald Trump went viral on social media over the weekend.

Twitter avatar for @Mocraig13Mo Bella🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊NEVER FORGET JANUARY 6, 2021 @Mocraig13
Caption this photo taken today of CPAC’s evangelical leaders. Yes, they are praying to a golden statue of their holy insurrectionist.
Image

February 28th 2021

1,266 Retweets2,856 Likes

The statue is real: It was created by artist and Trump supporter Tommy Zegan, who named the piece Trump and His Magic Wand,” a reference to Barack Obama asking in response to Trump’s promise to bring back American manufacturing jobs “What magic wand do you have?” Zegan displayed the statue at the Conservative Political Action Conference hoping to sell it for $100,000, and while Trump and his Magic Wand was a popular backdrop for photos at the conference, the viral image above is the product of Photoshop.

The original photo—which can be seen in this article from the Associated Press—shows faith leaders praying with Trump at the Miami-based King Jesus International Ministry during a January 3, 2020 rally for Trump held at the megachurch. 

At least one social media user who shared the image thought the joke was obvious.* University of Washington professor Carl T. Bergstrom said in a tweet that he’d “thought the reference was clear, but it's causing confusion” so he deleted the tweet. 

Twitter avatar for @CT_BergstromCarl T. Bergstrom @CT_Bergstrom
I posted a photoshop of the golden Trump statue (left) into the famous photo of evangelicals praying over Trump (right). I thought the reference was clear, but it's causing confusion. I've deleted. AFAIK, no one prayed over a golden Trump statue. In public, anyway.
Image
Image

March 1st 2021

47 Retweets339 Likes


Correction, March 3: An earlier version of this fact check stated that University of Washington professor Carl T. Bergstrom took credit for the image. While Bergstrom shared the altered picture on his Twitter and apologized for doing so, he did not alter it himself.

If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.

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Pat Riot
Mar 2, 2021

The real photo is even more ridiculous: evangelical leaders praying over a man who they know had sex with two porn stars while married to his wife, bragged about spying on naked girls on the radio and avowed that he could grab any woman by the genitals because he was rich.

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Luke Thompson (not that one)
Mar 2, 2021

While fairly stupid, given the subject, praying over a statue really wouldn't be a big issue. It's common at Christian conferences and camps for the staff to pray over the stage or campers' beds and things like that. Praying TO the statue is obviously a problem.

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