(RNS) — The fiberglass statue of former President Donald Trump that was wheeled through the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) earned a full measure of derision as Trump’s Golden Calf. It was also the first icon of Trump’s Lost Cause religion.
That the Civil War cast its long shadow over the Trump presidency has long been apparent.
The symbolism was there for all to see, from the “Unite the Right” rally against the removal of Confederate monuments in Charlottesville in 2017 to the insurrectionists carrying Confederate battle flags through the halls of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Trump made the cause his own, standing up for keeping the monuments as well as the names of Confederate generals on military bases.