The one and only good thing to come from a New York jury’s conviction of President Donald Trump on 34 felony counts is that it established me as a prophet.

During the 2020 election, I predicted that as soon as Trump was no longer president, the Left would reverse the feminist axiom: For him, the political would soon become intensely personal. The second impeachment aimed not only at setting the “historic” precedents of impeaching a president for the second time, and after he left office, but also to bar the president from seeking another term in office. When that effort predictably failed, I stated on multiple occasions that the Left would initiate the “private sector” legal takedown unfolding across multiple venues this election season.

The first bit of evidence that turned up on short notice is this clip from a February 2021 radio show, when I said: “Either this or other related issues with the Trump Organization will play out, probably in the Southern District of New York court system or some other secular court, on bona fide charges.” (The relevant discussion begins at 14:14.) Now, in close proximity to the next election, New York jurors have delivered.

That forecast was not based on prophecy or clairvoyance but simply knowing the Left’s beliefs, tactics, and modus operandi. After all, hadn’t Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) said, “I’m concerned that if we don’t impeach this president, he will get re-elected”? Yet there is a spiritual element behind the Left’s insatiable lust for political power of which the Trump prosecutions are one manifestation — one Christians must recognize when they enter into the political battlefield. In fact, the spiritual warfare of our age manifests itself in two ways.

The first corresponds to ancient Egypt, where Pharaoh imposed the dictates of his hardened heart on God’s people with the help of his official advisors, the “wise men and sorcerers” and magicians. The Bible records that they could cast spells and even work an inferior grade of miracles (Exodus 7:9-12 and 8:7). Although their dark arts failed, they maintained their proximity to power by attuning their occultic powers with the ruler’s will.

This has reemerged in the last decade, as a gaudy occultism has burst onto the U.S. political scene. At the Texas Capitol, abortion supporters drowned out pro-life advocates singing “Amazing Grace” by chanting “Hail Satan!” The Satanic Temple has staged grotesque pro-abortion displays and baseless lawsuits stating pro-life protections violate their religious freedom, because abortion is a demonic sacrament. When the state of Colorado sued to force Christians to design websites for a same-sex “wedding,” hooded, masked, pentagram-clad protesters held signs outside the court proclaiming, “The Future is Satanic.”

In the Trump years, their malice has burst from rhetoric to action. In 2016 and 2020, self-described witches attempted to place a “hex” on President Donald Trump. Wiccan practitioners on TikTok — which they have aptly dubbed “WitchTok” — also exerted their spiritual energies against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy.

“[W]itches have shown up at times of injustice to keep the energies of the universe,” Teen Vogue helpfully told its adolescent readers. The story quoted “Florida Witch” Lindsay Melnick that a hex “can be used with good intentions.” Paraphrasing Melnick, Vogue explained, “[H]exing can be the right choice to assert power and to disenfranchise those who are hurting society. … In this case, it’s being used to get vengeance on the patriarchy, white supremacists, and racists.” Vogue concluded by warning “baby witches” to “[c]onsult a professional witch before hexing” in their own power, but “[u]sing yours with the collective for the better can help change the world.”

The title of the 2021 story — “Witches Hex Trump and His Supporters After Capitol Insurrection” — shows this malevolent spiritual warfare has placed everyday Christians in the crosshairs. They have invoked a Bush doctrine: They will make no distinction between conservative political leaders and the individuals who support them.

Christians consistently living out their faith have little to fear from demonic attacks — which means American Christians are in trouble. But the Left has not relegated its political agenda in the hands of Wiccan attackers; liberals love having an “insurance policy.” That brings us to the second form of spiritual warfare the Bible warns about in our day.

By the time King Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon, the capabilities of his court conjurers and seers had significantly degraded (Daniel 2:48). Yet despite their incompetence, the “wise men” and “satraps” remained in power, one administration after another, leveraging their unwarranted influence to steer the ship of government behind the scenes (Daniel 6). Their spiritual impotence led them to carry out their battle against God’s people through the instrumentality of government.

The Encyclopedia Britannica defines witchcraft as “the exercise or invocation of alleged supernatural powers to control people or events.” Just as Christians’ spiritual warfare usually takes place without dramatic manifestations and apparitions of angels and demons, so too can witchcraft manifest itself without cauldrons and hexes — possibly even without TikTok and Teen Vogue. In a secular age that trusts government as its “god,” modern witchcraft means using the State to harass and control, to loose and to bind, and to impose a dark will on a subdued populace.

To prosecute President Donald Trump, Alvin Bragg and his federal companions conjured up the rarest magic. First, prosecutor Michael Colangelo bounced from the Biden administration to Bragg’s office, creating the illusion of a local prosecution. (This is an old favorite previously used to pretend local officers in Richmond investigated traditional Catholics and “rogue” IRS agents in Cincinnati persecuted the Tea Party.) Bragg resurrected a federal campaign finance allegation whose statute of limitations had passed, morphed it into a local issue, and transubstantiated a misdemeanor into 34 felonies. Judge Juan Marchan further enchanted the law, instructing jurors that they did not need to unanimously agree what “predicate” crime the president allegedly committed in order to convict. Then the court scheduled Trump’s sentencing for July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention, to maximize its mesmerizing power over the political process.

Alvin Bragg pulled off an act of voodoo jurisprudence. Observers on both sides of the political divide recognized the sorcery at work. On the evening of the verdict, Judge Jeanine Pirro took to Fox News airwaves to call the trial “a magic show.” Meanwhile, a left-wing Trump foe exclaimed, “There is a God(s).”

In the Left’s cosmology, Trump conviction was necessary to keep their idol “pure” from his — and our — touch. (Why should the government be infected by “patriarchy, white supremacists, and racists,” possibly even “Christian Nationalists”?) The Left’s desire to whisper incantations into the law explains why they inevitably weaponize government, while politicians who do not belong to the statist cult default to accepted protocol, norms, and standards. Consider: 

• Republicans call a special session so Joe Biden can appear on the Ohio ballot; Democrats sue to remove Trump from the ballot.
• Trump declassifies his phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; Biden refuses to release his recordings with Special Counsel Robert Hur. 
• Numerous Republican presidents appoint independent special prosecutors from outside government to investigate and vitiate their administrations; the Biden administration names a friendly prosecutor from within the Justice Department who previously worked out a sweetheart plea deal with Hunter Biden. 
• Republicans let Ted Kennedy write their “No Child Left Behind” education bill; Democrats spy on Moms for Liberty and treat parents at school board meetings like domestic terrorists. 
• George W. Bush gives Barack Obama a “gold standard” presidential transition; Obama sets up a phony Russian collusion narrative designed to entrap his successor in legal troubles for years. 
• Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) apologizes to Joe Biden for rolling his eyes during 2023’s error-ridden State of the Union address; Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) rips up the text of Trump’s State of the Union, destroying irreplaceable historic documents.
• Pro-life advocates go to jail for peaceful, prayerful “protests” that look more like church services in or around abortion facilities; BLM/Antifa rioters don’t go to jail for fiery conflagrations that killed innocent people, decimated poor neighborhoods, and caused billions of dollars of poverty damage. In fact, the homeowners who tried to defend themselves got prosecuted, and the black female police chief who tried to prosecute the rioters got fired.

As these examples show, the Babylonian form of spiritual warfare impacts not just Donald Trump or others in government but all heretics who do not share their political faith. Just ask Jack Phillips, Dr. Päivi Räsänen, Scott Smith, and Mark Houck.

Christians in the public arena must know the danger to which they subject themselves. They must prepare spiritually for invisible assaults. They should also consecrate their political action toward exorcising the law of this malign influence.

When the Emperor Constantine’s conversion finally let Christians crawl out of the catacombs, they did not continue with business as usual. The early Christians destroyed pagan idols, razed their temples, and erected Christian churches on the ashes. The newly-erected parish’s position embodied Christ’s mystical triumph over the demon (masquerading as a pagan deity) who once dominated that area. The next era of Christian politics must expel the army of career bureaucrats and politicized prosecutors who bend the law to their master’s will. In its place, we must reestablish one binding rule of law for all people (Numbers 15:16). And if those who abused the legal process broke any applicable laws or statutes in the process, perhaps they should learn the truth of the Scriptures: “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7).