Easter in Washington - first gone, then threats in the morning, self staging at midday

While bells are ringing in Washington and services are taking place at St. John’s Episcopal Church at 8, 9, and 11 a.m., Donald Trump chooses a different course for this day. No church visit, no public participation in one of the central rituals of the Christian calendar. Instead, he sits in the presidential motorcade and drives in demonstrative slowness through the city, around Memorial Circle near the Arlington Memorial Bridge, exactly where he is planning his own monument, an arch in his honor.

The 79 year old president uses this Easter Sunday for a staging that has less to do with religion than with control. Between the drives, he picks up the phone. Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst reaches him in the morning for a conversation about the war against Iran. Trump does not speak cautiously. He says that if there is no quick agreement, he is considering "blowing everything up and taking the oil." Shortly afterward, he makes his threats more concrete. One will see bridges and power plants fall across the entire country. At the same time, he claims to have granted immunity to Iranian negotiators and expresses confidence that an agreement could be reached as early as the next day.

At the same time, he publishes a message on Truth Social that stands out on this day for its crude wording and tone. Around eight in the morning, Trump addresses the leadership in Tehran directly. He demands the opening of the Strait of Hormuz and openly threatens consequences. "Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day, all in one, in Iran. There will be nothing comparable. Open the damn strait, you crazy people, or you will be living in hell - just watch. Praise be to Allah. President Donald J. Trump." A threat formulated on a day that for millions of people stands for resurrection and peace.

Meanwhile, Trump continues on to his own golf club in Sterling, Virginia, the Trump National Golf Club. A short stop, part of a day that feels like a sequence of his own stations. Places that all belong to him or are shaped by him.

The reactions do not take long to arrive. Marjorie Taylor Greene, long one of his loudest supporters, turns publicly against him. She calls the post "evil" and urges members of the government to come to their senses. She writes that all who see themselves as Christians must act now, seek peace, and stop the president. She goes even further and says Trump has gone insane and everyone who does nothing is complicit.

At the same time, Pope Leo XIV sends a completely different message from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. He calls for laying down weapons. Peace should not be forced, but should arise through dialogue. Not dominance, but encounter. The resurrection of Christ is nonviolent.

Two messages on one day. In Washington, threats, insults, and the prospect of new attacks. In Rome, a call for calm. In between, a president who consciously places himself against the religious symbolism of this day and instead puts his own role at the center.