BREAKING NEWS: Trump’s spiritual advisers are telling him the Iran war is the beginning of the End Times. They mean that as encouragement.

This is not a fringe internet conspiracy. This is not some corner of Reddit. This is happening inside the White House, inside the Pentagon, inside the chain of command of the most powerful military on earth. The Intercept just published an investigation that should terrify every American regardless of faith.

Trump convened nearly two dozen evangelical leaders after launching strikes on Iran. They stood around him, laid hands on him, and prayed for his military campaign.

At the center of that circle is Paula White-Cain, head of the White House Faith Office, who once asked Benjamin Netanyahu on camera whether the world was ready to kick off Armageddon. She has said publicly, “To say no to President Trump would be to say no to God.”

She’s not alone. Pastor Greg Laurie, a regular in Trump’s inner circle, posted a video after the assassination of Iran’s ayatollah linking it directly to end times prophecy. “As far as I can see, the next event on the prophetic calendar would be the rapture,” he told his followers. “Then of course the great tribulation period, culminating in the Battle of Armageddon.”

These are not metaphors to these people. They read Iran as biblical Persia from the Book of Ezekiel. They see this war as a necessary step toward the return of Christ. Suffering, in this theology, is not tragic. It is required.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has tattoos of Crusader iconography and the phrase “Deus vult,” meaning “God wills it.” He prayed at the Pentagon last week, asking God to pour down “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”

He has reshaped the chaplain corps, elevated hardline evangelical figures throughout the military, and pushed an overtly religious tone across the force. Lawmakers have formally called for an investigation into whether extreme religious rhetoric is seeping into how the war is being prosecuted.

Even some conservatives are alarmed. One right-wing commentator called Paula White-Cain a “psychopathic doomsday cultist.”

And then there’s Josh McPherson, a rising voice in Christian nationalist circles who preaches in camouflage and combat boots and advocates for “godly righteous men and women submitted to the Heavenly Father” to run the military. He describes Islam as “demonic” and a “scourge” and calls for mass deportations.

This is not faith-guiding policy. This is prophecy replacing strategy. This is a group of people who believe the world is supposed to end, and they are in the room when the president decides where to send the bombs.

A soldier should not be asked to die for a religion he does not serve. A war should not be fought to fulfill a prophecy.

No American president should be taking military counsel from people who think Armageddon is the goal, not the risk.

*Originally posted by The Other 98%