This week we discuss the explosive Vanity Fair article and accompanying photographs that reveal unflattering images of Trump administration officials, including Susie Wiles, Marco Rubio, and Karoline Leavitt. The photographer, Christopher Anderson, defended his work as authentic journalism rather than celebrity-style portraiture. The article and the backslash against it exposed the vanity and vulnerability of authoritarian regimes, who need to maintain the facade of power. We talk about how this vanity is at odds with the humility of Advent and how the White House and the Department of Homeland Security have distorted and defiled the message of Christmas to celebrate the cruelty of their mass deportation scheme. We close by highlighting a recent “Choose Love, Not ICE” ad—produced by Interfaith Alliance in partnership with Protect Democracy and set to the tune of “O Holy Night”—is pushing back.

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Why his latest rants signal a deeper unraveling

We’re living in a moment where authoritarian power is panicking, elites are hiding, and ordinary people are the ones finding their voice.

You could read Trump’s outburst against Somali immigrants as just another racist rant.

But if you listen more closely you can also hear it as a panic siren from an authoritarian project that knows it’s slipping, even as everyday people quietly find their courage again.

Trump’s racist tirade against Somali immigrants wasn’t new, but as Diana Butler Bass, Kristin Du Mez, and I unpacked on this episode of The Convocation Unscripted, it landed differently.

This wasn’t just more ugly rhetoric. It sounded like fear. It sounded like a regime running out of tricks and grasping for one of its oldest tools: dehumanizing immigrants to rally its base.

But while the president doubles down, something else is happening on the ground.

Diana described a subtle but powerful shift in public spaces. Strangers are groaning out loud at the news, trading comments in security lines, and saying what they used to only text in group chats.

In places like Chicago, Nashville, and beyond, people aren’t just talking—they’re organizing, marching, and even turning Home Depot product returns into a protest tactic.

Meanwhile, the elites—on both sides of the aisle—feel further away than ever.

Bubble-wrapped in security details, donor circles, and curated media, they seem unable or unwilling to name what’s happening: an authoritarian movement testing the limits daily, and a public that is more awake than the political class wants to admit.

Kristin put it bluntly: they keep pushing because they keep getting away with it.

When there finally is pushback—a lawsuit, an impeachment article, a rare moment of moral clarity—the response is denial, distraction, or outright lies. But beneath that, the fear is showing. The grip is loosening.

If you want to hear how all this connects to Advent, empire, and light breaking through the darkness, you’ll want to watch the full conversation.

Register to see Jemar, Diana, and more at the Southern Lights Conference.

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Just this week, Trump and his administration have shrugged off the brutal 2018 murder of a Washington Post Journalist and welcomed the person the CIA identified as its mastermind to the White House, called for the death penalty and hanging for six democratic sitting members of Congress, and—over at the Coast Guard under the Department of Homeland Security--downgraded nooses and swastikas from hate symbols to “potentially divisive” objects. We talk about the positive correlations between this increasingly violent rhetoric and Christian nationalism, and the inexplicable tendency of some prominent journalists to refuse to acknowledge the reality of this movement or the scholarship supporting its existence and its threat to democracy. We close with an off-beat segment on the rise of AI-powered chatbots that purport to let Christians text with Jesus. But which Jesus has AI trained itself to emulate? All is not what it seems here.

Check out Jemar's new podcast: The Justice Briefing - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-justice-briefing-with-dr-jemar-tisby/id1460240056

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The Convocation- convocation.substack.com

Robert P. Jones- www.whitetoolong.net

Diana Butler Bass- dianabutlerbass.substack.com

Kristin Du Mez- kristindumez.substack.com

Jemar Tisby- JemarTisby.Substack.com