HOT TAKES! - A 22-Foot Golden Donald Trump Statue… Seriously?!

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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