HOT TAKES! - A 22-Foot Golden Donald Trump Statue… Seriously?!
Don Lemon
0:00 This is a must watch.
0:01 If you haven't seen it, you have to watch this.
0:03 It has to do with Donald Trump and him being elevated as a god.
0:09 You have an evangelical pastor out here touting a golden statue.
0:14 If you know anything about the golden calf in the Bible,
0:17 then this would should set you on edge.
0:19 But also not seeming to understand this evangelical
0:22 pastor the first commandment of the Constitution,
0:24 which is I'm the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other god before me.
0:28 He seems to have forgotten that and is making excuses
0:31 in his head about unveiling this golden statue of Donald Trump,
0:38 which they call Don Colossus.
0:40 It should be Don Colossus eff up or Don Colosso eff up.
0:44 Anyway, here's the pastor.
0:46 What is your response to that?
0:47 Did they say somehow a false idol?
0:49 You know, because people talk about the golden calf.
0:51 Well, is this the golden Trump?
0:53 Yeah, well, of course, it's preposterous.
0:55 It is blasphemy to even think that.
0:57 I mean, if you knew me, and of course,
0:59 I don't know anybody who worships Donald Trump as a god.
1:02 But I do know you can you can worship anything as a god,
1:05 whether be your job, whether be your money,
1:08 whether be your relationships, whether be your career,
1:11 whatever it is, you can put it before the living god.
1:15 And God is a jealous god.
1:17 So, nothing should ever be put before the living god.
1:22 Uh, well, let's bring in someone who can talk
1:24 about that because he reported on it last week,
1:27 Aaron, and talk about other things as well.
1:29 Thank you for joining us this morning.
1:30 Aaron, what is Tell us about this golden statue.
1:34 And remember, look, I am I did a book on religion just a couple of years ago,
1:39 and there's first of all, there's not supposed to be any god before them.
1:43 And then, you know, Exodus has this whole passage about golden calf,
1:46 but this is the most bizarre thing.
1:48 It is so bizarre, Don, and it's great to be here with you.
1:51 So, it's that statue is called Don the Colossus.
1:54 It's 22 ft tall.
1:56 It's made of gold, and it was created
1:58 by a sculptor in I believe somewhere in the Midwest.
2:01 And it was made in order to promote a crypto coin, the Patriot meme coin.
2:07 A MAGA group started it and was like,
2:09 let's create a tall statue of Donald Trump.
2:11 They then installed the statue at his country club in South Florida.
2:16 And what you're watching there is a group
2:18 of evangelical leaders essentially blessing and ordaining this statue.
2:22 Donald Trump called in.
2:24 He thanked them.
2:26 I mean, it was just truly one of the oddest moments I think you'll really see.
2:30 Let's Aaron, let's listen to a little bit of that of of him calling in.
2:38 I want to make sure everyone can hear.
2:40 Okay, sir.
2:43 Hello everybody.
2:44 I want to thank you so much for being
2:46 there today and more importantly for what you did.
2:49 The the statue is beautiful.
2:52 You know, I saw it during the weekend.
2:54 We had a big PGA tournament
2:56 with the great champion and all great champions actually,
2:59 but it was a great tournament and I got to look at it
3:03 very closely and it's incredible and I just want to thank you.
3:06 I know it was done from love and I want to thank Mark Burns a pastor.
3:11 He's a good pastor.
3:12 He's a good pastor.
3:13 Burns is a Trumper.
3:14 He goes way back, but I mean it it seems like a skit from SNL, Aaron.
3:19 Oh, I thought it was AI.
3:20 When I started hearing his voice, I thought it was completely made up.
3:23 I I at some point I was like, this is this can't be real, right?
3:26 And and yet it was.
3:27 I mean, insane.
3:31 Yeah.
3:31 And yet and still, I mean, and then you have a pastor who is I
3:34 think he's supposed to be an evangelical or Southern.
3:36 I'm not exactly sure with Mark Burns, but Mark Burns and I go way back to 2015,
3:41 2016 when he was basically a surrogate for Donald Trump and would say
3:45 the most bizarre things and then test text me in the middle of the night.
3:49 There's a whole I had a whole another life where
3:52 I had had a direct contact with these people a lot.
3:56 So Aaron, they're a big Thank you for for coming on today.
4:01 Yeah.
4:00 And by the way, congratulations on being a new dad.
4:02 We're very happy for you.
4:04 And I hope that's going well for you.
4:06 Let's talk though about the big stories.
4:07 We've been talking about Hantavirus virus.
4:10 Lawmakers are coming back to Washington this week.
4:12 So it's going to be a big week.
4:13 This Hantavirus thing though is quite frightening.
4:17 Yeah, I mean it is.
4:18 I I think though that it's important to recognize
4:21 that to me the what's not really frightening is the virus itself,
4:25 but rather kind of the implications of the virus, right?
4:27 So I think this is really exposing the fact
4:30 that us pulling out of the World Health Organization,
4:32 us decimating the CDC the way the Trump
4:34 administration has over the past 15 months.
4:36 That to me is what's terrifying because there will
4:38 be a virus at some point that's COVID potential, that has pandemic potential.
4:43 This Hantavirus isn't it.
4:45 Every single epidemiologist,
4:46 public health expert says we're not going to have an a pandemic
4:49 from this, but there will come a time where there is
4:52 a virus that could cause a pandemic and we won't be ready
4:55 for it because of what we've seen over the past 15 months.
4:59 And that to me truly is terrifying.
5:01 And I mean even Don,
5:03 you look at the HHS announcement of the American that tested positive,
5:07 they said quote he tested mildly positive.
5:09 What the hell does mildly positive mean?
5:11 Can you be mildly pregnant?
5:13 Like what does that mean?
5:15 Like I'm a little bit pregnant.
5:17 What It's so funny because my mom,
5:18 we were listening to we had the I had the GPS on I was
5:21 in the car with my mom and it says make a slight right turn.
5:23 She goes, "What is a slight right turn?
5:25 A right turn is a right turn, but go on." Yeah, exactly.
5:27 So I mean like we have people like RFK Jr.
5:30 running the health department.
5:32 You have lack of leadership at CDC.
5:34 And when push comes to shove, when we will need guidance,
5:38 when there is an actual virus that could really harm
5:40 a lot of people in a quick a short amount of time,
5:43 I mean we don't have the leadership that's willing
5:45 to kind of uh that's equipped to fight back.
5:47 So, that's I mean that's a scary part.
5:49 I also think yeah, you mentioned Congress going going back to session.
5:52 To me what's even more interesting is this Trump-Xi summit
5:55 and it comes just as Iran said screw you Trump,
5:58 we're not going to give you what you want on the deal.
6:00 Now Trump's heading to China.
6:02 Iran kind of froze him.
6:04 He can't really do much until he's back from China
6:06 after the 15th cuz he doesn't want that push.
6:09 So, I mean yeah, there are a lot of news stories happening this week.
6:11 It's going to be a very very hectic
6:13 week on Capitol Hill and just around the world.
6:16 Well, Republicans are going to want to get back to, you know,
6:18 the big beautiful bill which is uh shocking because
6:20 they're calling it beautiful meaning taking your Medicare away.
6:23 That is uh that doesn't sound beautiful.
6:25 Medicare away, that doesn't sound beautiful uh to me.
6:28 And the other thing is that they they want to, you know,
6:30 get this passed but also with a $1
6:33 billion uh allocation or allotment for this vanity project,
6:38 this ballroom that most Americans,
6:41 the vast majority of Americans will never see and never use or take part of.
6:46 Yeah, for sure.
6:46 I mean I would actually predict though that that's going
6:48 to get thrown out of this for a number of reasons.
6:50 Number one, I think it's a terrible vote for any moderate Republican to take.
6:54 I don't think Republicans are willing to risk re-election efforts on this vote.
6:58 But number two, as you know, there's something called the bird bath rule,
7:01 the bird rule in the Senate and it
7:03 essentially any spending provision in these reconciliation packages,
7:07 they have to be uh associated with whatever
7:10 the package is that you're putting forth here.
7:12 Um it's specifically related to ICE funding, CBP funding.
7:15 A ballroom has nothing to do with any of that and so I actually would predict
7:18 the parliamentarian's going to throw it out um
7:20 in the United States Senate if it ever gets there.
7:23 I think one of the most important stories is
7:25 um the the Voting Rights Act and the redistricting that's
7:28 happening across the country that is going to that changes
7:30 a political landscape especially for African-Americans uh political power.
7:34 That is going to be front and center.
7:36 There even lawsuits surrounding this.
7:38 Um there's a Jonathan Martin uh from Politico is going to be on later
7:44 and he's going to he has an article which I think is very interesting.
7:46 He says Trump's redistricting push could cost Republicans more than it it gains.
7:51 I that's a take that I have not heard,
7:53 but this is a huge huge story that everyone
7:56 should be concerned about and paying attention to.
7:59 Yeah, 100%.
7:59 I actually don't disagree with this column.
8:01 I read it, it's interesting.
8:02 I think that Republicans are flying a little close
8:05 too close to the sun here in some states.
8:07 I think they're at risk of the a dummy mander
8:09 and for those who don't know what a dummy mander is,
8:11 it's essentially when you gerrymander a state
8:13 so badly that you have five, for example,
8:16 lean Republican seats rather than three solid Republican seats and you
8:20 lose all five of those seats or you lose more
8:22 seats than you would have had you just not gerrymandered
8:24 and I think that's what will happen to them in Florida.
8:26 I think they're flying a little close to the sun,
8:28 but I I I do think that people aren't talking
8:31 enough about how they're targeting black majority districts across the country,
8:35 whether Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, I mean you name it,
8:38 they're going after it and it it is
8:40 I mean racism through and through and unfortunately,
8:44 it's just kind of fallen by the wayside for a lot of folks.
8:48 I think yes and I think that they
8:49 don't understand just how much this infuriates African-Americans,
8:54 especially, but not just African-Americans,
8:56 people who understand the history of this country and how,
8:59 you know, and the original sin, one of the original sins, one was it,
9:04 you know, it was, you know, doing what they did to Native Americans, right?
9:08 The almost the extinction of Native Native Americans,
9:10 but the other one is slavery and then Jim Crow
9:13 and reconstruction and then Jim Crow and it just seems like they
9:16 they're tone deaf and I actually think that this is going
9:19 to I don't think this is going to work well for them,
9:22 but the Republicans are very good at coming together,
9:26 they fall in line and if they redraw these districts the right way,
9:29 that will just essentially it can decimate
9:32 um Democrats standing and also black voters.
9:35 Oh, 100% and I and I think that what a lot
9:38 of people aren't even talking about is that in just about
9:40 1 month to 6 weeks the Supreme Court's about to hand
9:43 out a decision that's going to gut mail-in ballots or mail-in voting.
9:46 It's going to make it much harder to vote especially in rural
9:49 communities across the country that don't
9:51 have immediate access to a voting booth.
9:53 And that's another attack coming down the pipeline.
9:57 This is just setting the stage for a Congress heading into 2027
10:01 where you actually no longer will have a black Republican member of Congress.
10:05 Literally every single one is retiring or leaving.
10:08 And they're working to dilute uh black and brown
10:11 representation on Democratic side any chance they get.
10:14 It's all part of the plan and we're just seeing it happen in in real time.
10:18 Yeah.
10:18 Aaron Parnas, I I uh you're a good dude.
10:21 I've watched your your updates and your um you know, your your news reports.
10:26 Uh where can we find you and what's up?
10:28 Do you have any breaking news or scoop that you're working on?
10:31 Um well, the big thing that I'm working on is these data centers.
10:35 Uh especially the one in Utah backed by Kevin O'Leary.
10:37 A data center the size of 2,000 Walmart's
10:39 will produce the energy of 23 atom bombs daily.
10:42 Uh will decimate the environment and not many people are talking about it.
10:45 So, we'll have a big breakdown on that this week on the
10:47 Is that going in a minority neighborhood?
10:49 Usually they do put things somewhere else.
10:51 I mean Utah's not a minority There there really But yes.
11:00 I feel you.
11:00 You're right about that.
11:02 But yeah, I'll have a big uh kind of breakdown on that.
11:04 Parnas perspective on Substack.
11:06 Go check it out.
11:06 Go subscribe.
11:07 It'll come out this week.
11:08 Thank you.
11:08 And Aaron, go restack and check out the uh Lucky Lemon newsletter on Substack.
11:14 Um and we appreciate it.
11:15 So, we'll go check yours out.
11:16 Thank you very much, Aaron.
11:18 It's a pleasure seeing you and congratulations, new dad.
11:20 We'll see Aaron Parnas, everyone.
11:22 All right.
11:22 Thanks for watching, everybody.
11:24 I appreciate you.
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