President Trump on Tuesday announced that Pastor Darrell Scott, his personal friend and impassioned defender, will join the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an adviser on tobacco-related health issues.
“For far too long, tobacco-related disease has taken an enormous toll on American families, including Communities that have too often been overlooked and underserved. Pastor Scott understands these communities, and the challenges they face, and he knows how to bring people together to get RESULTS,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Delivering on a Campaign promise, his work will help ensure that we take a serious look at how we can better protect Americans from dangerous tobacco products, while supporting solutions to reduce harm and SAVE LIVES.”
In Scott’s own telling, he met Trump in 2011 at Trump Tower, where he expected to find a sleazy real estate tycoon and instead found a devout Christian ready to do the work for Black Americans. He was involved in Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, introducing then-candidate Trump at rallies and Christian gatherings, and he co-founded the National Diversity Coalition for Trump, alongside the president’s former attorney turned bitter enemy turned podcast pal, Michael Cohen. After the president defeated Hillary Clinton, Scott was given a role on his presidential transition team. In 2018, Scott called Trump “the most pro-Black president in my lifetime.”
“Pastor Darrell Scott has been with us from the very beginning. He is a GREAT LEADER with a tremendous heart for the people of our Country. Thank you Pastor Scott. MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AND SAFE AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” the president concluded in his announcement.
Although Scott supposedly “understands these communities” impacted by tobacco-related illness, the pastor has zero experience in public health or tobacco policy. His appointment at the CDC is further proof that loyalty, not expertise, is the real qualification for a job in Trump’s administration. That roster includes a former Fox News host running the Department of Defense, a vaccine skeptic in charge of the nation’s health agencies now contributing to the return of measles, and a real estate developer son-in-law tanking negotiations with Iran.
Vice President JD Vance isn’t sure if we’re living in the “end times,” but he’s not afraid to bring them about, either.
In a sit-down interview with 22-year-old evangelist podcaster Bryce Crawford, Vance said that he’s “OK” if his work on earth brings about a biblical doomsday event.
“Do I think we are in the end times? I don’t know,” Vance said in the interview released Monday, noting that it would be bad for him spiritually if he were to spend too much time thinking about that query. “While I’m fascinated by it, I think that focusing on it too much can be very bad.
“I think there are things about the world that make feel like not shocked if the Antichrist was walking among us,” Vance added.
In another portion of the interview, Vance claimed he’s focused on “doing as much of God’s work as possible,” shrugging that “if that leads to the end times, OK.”
Vance: I'm trying to focus on doing as much of God's work as possible. And if that leads to the end times, okay pic.twitter.com/0HlbsZdDfj
The Christian end times refer to the religion’s interpretations of the final days of humanity. That’s detailed in the Bible as a period involving widespread turmoil and deception (such as wars, earthquakes, and a false prophet), a seven-year stretch of unprecedented hardship known as the Great Tribulation that will end in Armageddon, the emergence of the Antichrist and a cadre of their followers who reject Christ’s teachings, and a final judgment by God.
Vance did not speculate as to who he believed the Antichrist could be.
Ultimately, Vance gave Crawford more than an hour of his time, while the White House aggravates long-standing Western alliances, embraces Russia, wages war on Iran, undermines voting rights, and further divides the American public—among other sordid realities.
Crawford founded the ministry Jesus in the Street and has attracted more than a million YouTube followers via clickbait videos such as “Preaching the Gospel in the Hood” and “Gay Man Encounters Jesus.” Last week, Crawford joined comedian Howie Mandel’s podcast to argue that “homosexuality isn’t love” and that “truth trumps a feeling” when it comes to transgender identities.
