#2929: Amanda Grace

For those already among the zealously delusional conspiracy theorists forming the Christian nationalist center of gravity in the MAGA universe, the unfettered insanity of Amanda Grace, of the Ark of Grace Ministries, might just come across as a rather typical specimen, but for anyone looking in, the black hole of fervent idiocy that is Amanda Grace still has the power to shock. Grace is a former accountant and self-described prophet who offers prophecies related to current events on her Charisma-affiliated podcast and who ostensibly ministers QAnon conspiracy theories and fundamentalism to “both people and animals”. And her take on “God’s plan for America” apparently has enough of a sympathetic audience for her to have become something of a household name in fundie wingnut circles; she was a central component of Michael Flynn and Clay Clark’s ReAwaken America Tour, for instance.

 

Grace has ideas about the kinds of cultural ills that has, at least until Trump 2.0, brought America down, and the list is substansial and reveals the active participation of Satan – for instance, Grace warns us that “the goal of yoga is to get you into a demonic trance.” And the devil’s efforts go way back: Grace has claimed, with a straight face, that already “Aaron Burr was a deep state operative” intent on delivering the US from Trump to Satan. And some of Satan’s tools might strike you as surprising: at a ReAwaken America event in 2023, Grace spent some effort warning people about the dangers posed by technologically advanced “mermaids and water people”.

 

And of course Trump is God’s chosen champion to lead this battle against Satan and his forces (including the mermaids). According to Grace, God has been preparing President Donald Trump to lead the US for a long time, for instance by delivering him the Covid crisis: “For such a time as this is why President Trump has been raised up into this position. This type of leadership is needed. […] This is the reason he has gone through everything he has gone through in his life. It all intersects at this point, right now.” After all, “it takes a brilliant mind to attempt to orchestrate all of this and lead a nation through an entire epidemic and crisis. It takes a certain caliber of leadership, and the Lord saw ahead when the Lord [rather than the people, through democracy] caused an unprecedented election to happen.” Keep in mind that Trump, according to Grace, uses all his private time to commune with God and receive advice and guidance.

 

Though Trump’s loss in 2020 might have looked like a major blow to her combat with Satan, that conclusion would be erroneous. According to Grace, Trump didn’t lose at all! On Eric Metaxas’s show in February 2021, Grace explained that Trump’s apparent loss is part of God’s plan to make it look as if Joe Biden is president so that everyone will recognize it as a miracle of God when Trump is put back into office – “There’s been a delay because I believe God is trying to get people’s eyes on him,” said Grace, for “God’s ways are much higher when he sees how to make a path when people don't think there is a way” (whatever God she thinks she’s praying to seems to have some disturbing personality traits). Evidence? Well, the then-ongoing impeachment trial was clear evidence that Trump is still the president, for otherwise it wouldn’t be an impeachment trial. More importantly, “[t]he Lord has never said to me [Trump is] not going to serve a second term,” and “sometimes what the Lord doesn’t say is as important as what he says”; also she “prophesied from the Lord in October about the media suffering the biggest crisis they ever had in 2021 for their crimes, so I’m watching for that to unfold”; i.e. God fooling the media to think Trump isn’t president would fit her prophesy, therefore that must be what’s going on. The impeachment process, meanwhile, is just an example of how “the actions of the wicked will give them away” (“the Lord is going to deal severely with the wicked people right now in Congress, by the way”). She had previous asked God to send “an angelic army” of “warring angels with flaming swords” to protect Trump from the impeachment process, proclaiming, on behalf of God (she seems to find the distinction between herself and God to be rather insignificant), that “the den of lions will not touch him, for I have marked him and positioned him for such a time as this. I will give him vision and I will expose to him what is being plotted behind closed doors. Revelation will come forth and he will emerge an incredible witness and mouthpiece for my glory. For I, the Lord, have already ruled in the courts, the gavel has dropped.” At least she doesn’t seem to think Trump lost due to election fraud – but then, Grace doesn’t think presidents get elected through democratic means but through the intervention of God (which would presumably be election fraud) in any case.

 

But not only does Grace speak on behalf of God, she can also call on Him by blowing on her shofar, a “spiritual weapon” that unleashes God’s power (“Demons tremble at the sound of the shofar”). God is, in other words, more like Grace’s pet attack dog.

 

A few days after Trump’s 2024 election win, Grace assured notable fan of hers Eric Trump – who, with his wife Lara and Trump lawyer Alina Habba, were Grace’s guests of honor at her 2024 Night of Prayer for the Trump Family and the Nation livestream – that within the next 24 hours, God would hand down divine “verdicts” against the Trump family's enemies. As evidence, she offered the same she tends to offer for all of her claims: “I don’t say anything unless I know it’s coming from the Lord.”

 

Diagnosis: She struggles to distinguish herself from God, thinks of God as her pet, and claims that technologically advanced mermaids and water people are among the greatest threats the US is facing. There really isn’t much you could add to that, except that Eric Trump is a fan, and given Eric Trump’s mental capacities that is a pretty damning indictment in itself.