Why does Trump get things back to front?

One of President Trump’s flaws is that he too often gets things the wrong way round. To put it simply, he seems to want the cake but doesn’t like baking. In fact, he doesn’t really do baking at all, but still expects a perfect cake! And that flaw is all too obvious in this week’s frantic round out activity regarding Ukraine and Russia.

So we’ve had the first meeting between the presidents of the USA and Russia in over four years – but it was arranged at the drop of a hat. Normally months of preparation would precede such an important meeting. First, diplomatic envoys from both sides would thrash out all the details, leaving the two presidents merely to dot the "I"s and cross the "T"s and do the flashy PR bit with the handshakes and the press conference. But before the Alaska summit last Friday, there was no time for preparation.

What is more, many of those who would have conducted such negotiations on the American side have, since President Trump took office, either been sacked or resigned. As a result, much of the institutional memory of the U.S. State Department (their equivalent of our Foreign Office) has been sadly lost. Then we had the gathering at the White House where President Trump met with the president of Ukraine and his seven supporting European leaders.

But after both those “summits” there were no formal press conferences, no written communiques. Why? Because no-one quite knew what, if anything, had been agreed. So everyone goes home – or, in Trump’s case phones in to Fox News – and says what they think has been agreed. And there lies the danger – and the flaw. As Steven Pifer, a former ambassador to Ukraine under President Bill Clinton, told the New York Times (NYT) this past week: "The risk [with Trump’s way of doing things] is that he doesn’t prepare the details. My impression is that he wants a deal. He wants any deal so he can claim, 'I solved another war.' But the details matter." ^[1] The trouble is, as the NYT itself put it, "For Trump, Flashy Summits Come First. Work Comes Next." But that’s the wrong way round.

Sadly, Trump seems to make the same mistake in things spiritual as in things political. He gets things the wrong way round. He seems to think that his peace-making efforts could gain him entry into heaven! So in that post-White House summit phone call to Fox & Friends on Fox News, Trump declared: "If I can save 7,000 people a week from being killed, I think that’s pretty [good]. I want to try to get to heaven if possible. I’m hearing that I’m not doing well. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons."

This is not the first time Trump has made such a claim. Last year he told Laura Ingraham on Fox News that "if I’m good I’m going to heaven, and if I’m bad I’m going someplace else."

But Trump’s self-made version of the Christian faith does not sit well with Ephesians 2v8-10 where the apostle Paul makes it clear that our “good works” follow, rather than precede, our coming to faith in Christ. Or, as Paul writes in Philippians: "That I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God through faith" (Philippians 3v8b-9, NKJV). Good works follow repentance and faith; they never precede it.

Or to put it another way: "Why am I living a holy and sanctified life? Is it because I love the Lord Jesus who died for me and has come to take up residence in me by His Spirit? Or is it because I’m determined to prove to everyone watching that I’m one of the best people that ever lived on this earth?" With President Trump it seems sadly to be very much the latter.

Trump’s flaw regarding Ukraine may have devastating consequences in the months and years to come – for Ukraine, for us in the UK, for the rest of Europe and for the USA. Trump’s flaw regarding the gospel will, if not corrected, have eternal consequences. Let us pray on that neither might be the case.

1. Quoted in Zolan Kanno-Youngs, New York Times, August 19, 2025.