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IN A HOTEL ballroom owned by Donald Trump, barely an hour into a two-day conspiracist talkathon, your correspondent lost the plot. It happened amid calls for the audience to quit being “weak-kneed wussies” and “join Team Jesus”, and warnings about child traffickers and poisonous vaccines. What really did it, though, was an invitation to approach the stage to be healed by a self-styled prophet resembling Ozzy Osbourne.
Later one of Mr Trump’s sons took to the podium. Worship music played; several hundred hands went up in prayer. Someone blew a shofar, a trumpet used in Jewish rituals that is popular among some charismatic Christians. Was this a Trump rally, a religious revival or a gabfest about how globalists had spread covid-19 to suspend civil liberties? Was it all of those things? The man selling tickets over the phone—at a recommended price of $250, or pay what you wish—had offered just two instructions. No masks allowed and please leave guns in the car.
The event was part of the ReAwaken America tour, a roadshow helmed by Michael Flynn and born of protests over lockdowns and election “theft”. (Mr Flynn served as Mr Trump’s first national security adviser, was prosecuted for lying to the FBI, then pardoned by his ex-boss.) This was the 21st incarnation of the...