Reexamining Senator Mike Lee's Captain Moroni-Donald Trump Comparison

When Senator Mike Lee compared Donald Trump to Captain Moroni in 2020 it caused a storm of controversy. At the time, I found the comparison ludicrous, but subsequent actions by President Trump have made reading Alma 60 (the Book of Mormon chapter that contains an epistle of Captain Moroni to Chief Judge Pahoran) more interesting, and now the comparison seems rather apt.¹

In that epistle, Captain Moroni accuses Pahoran and his fellow judges of either being incompetent (sitting “upon your thrones in a state of thoughtless stupor” (v.7)) or traitorous and not caring about freedom, withholding supplies to somehow “usurp power and authority” (v.27) over the people. And he warns Pahoran, that unless he “begin[s] to be up and doing” (v.24), he is authorized by God to clean the “inward vessel, yea even the great head of our government” (v.24), and to “stir up insurrections among you…if there be any among you that has a desire for freedom, yea, if there be even a spark of freedom remaining” and “smite you with the sword”(v. 27 & 30). 

It does not matter that Pahoran was legitimately and democratically elected; Captain Moroni asserts (Alma 60:28-36):

“I do not fear your power nor your authority, but it is my God whom I fear; and it is according to his commandment that I do take my sword…for behold, the Lord will not suffer that we shall live and wax strong in your iniquities to destroy his righteous people…behold, the Lord saith unto me: If those whom ye have appointed your governors do not repent of their sins and iniquities, ye shall go up to battle against them. And now behold, I, Moroni, am constrained, according to the covenant which I have made to keep the commandments of my God, therefore I would that ye should adhere to the word of God…and behold, if ye will not do this I come unto you speedily”.

So, according to Moroni, he has been commanded by God to overthrow any government led by people who are not righteous (as determined by Moroni one would assume). So, the only legitimate government is one that fulfills an explicitly religious mandate. This is a slippery slope, and one that has bedeviled (no pun intended) many a government that uses religion for secular authority (the Almoravid and Almohad regimes in Maghrebi history spring to mind, as do the more modern examples of Wahhabi Saudi Arabia and Pakistan). We should not be surprised by this kind of melding of religion and politics though. If Captain Moroni were a modern day figure, he would be considered an out and out religious nationalist.

Throughout the book of Alma he constantly is hailing the “cause of liberty.” Captain Moroni asserts that “the only desire of the Nephites [is] to preserve their lands, and their liberty, and their church” (Alma 43:30 & 45). And he accuses the Lamanites of attacking because “ye are angry with us because of our religion…And now I would that ye should understand that [our victory]...is because of our religion…and we have gained power over you, by our faith, by our religion, and by our rites of worship, and by our church” (Alma 44:2-5). Notice that he speaks of the Nephites as a monolith; they are the Christians defending their faith and homeland, which are intertwined. Throughout Alma, liberty is always mentioned in concert with faith and homeland; a three-legged stool of Nephite identity.

Consider the Title of Liberty, that most prominent symbol for the Nephites to rally around, which was “in memory of our God, our religion, and freedom”. It was overtly religious, designed to appeal to this sort of religious nationalism. Captain Moroni’s subsequent actions continue this theme: “he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should a band of Christians remain to possess the land…and…Moroni prayed that the cause of Christians, and the freedom of the land might be favored…[and] he named all the land [of the Nephites]…a chosen land, and the land of liberty (Alma 46:13-17)” He then encourages the Nephites to “enter into a covenant that they will maintain their rights, and their religion” (Alma 46:20). In Alma 48, about Captain Moroni it says, “he was preparing to support their liberty, their lands…and their peace, and that they might live unto the Lord their God, and that they might maintain…the cause of Christians…[for] he had sworn with an oath to defend his people, his rights, and his country, and his religion” (v10 & 13). In another verse, Moroni writes to Ammaron that they are determined to “maintain our religion and the cause of our God” (Alma 54:10). It seems clear from this kind of exclusive language that most Nephites considered their land, their freedom, and their religion to be inextricably intertwined and mutually dependent, not dissimilar from American religious nationalism in the modern era. 

The comparison to Trump is a good one here because he often taps into the same narrative of a valiant Christian nation defending itself against overwhelming forces intent on its destruction. And like, Captain Moroni, he is particularly careful to point to the threat within (the ideological left), the “inner vessel”, which needs to be cleansed from unrighteousness.

Indeed, President Trump has talked about the Democratic party’s attempt to"stamp out the churches…[and] tear down crosses" whereas he calls himself a “very proud Christian.” His campaign often deploys imagery of him being guided by Jesus, as a sort of mouthpiece for God on the earth, or at least a protector for the believers against the hordes of unbelievers. As Trump has said: “They’re not after me, they’re after you. I’m just standing in the way.”

The other parallel, besides the religious one, is that both men care little about the rule of law when it is deemed problematic. Captain Moroni was willing to overthrow the government in order to ensure supplies for his troops on the front, and President Trump has said that “he who saves his country does not violate any law”, quoting another famous dictator who overthrew the government of his country.² And indeed, much like Captain Moroni promised that “if there be any among you that has a desire for freedom, yea, if there be even a spark of freedom remaining, behold I will stir up insurrections among you” (v.27), President Trump went one step further by actually trying to carry an insurrection out, pressuring Georgia’s Secretary of State to “find” him enough votes to overturn the election or face the consequences of “a criminal offense”, and inspiring a mob to storm the capitol with false claims of election fraud.

For both men, the ends justify the means. Faced with what they perceive as either gross incompetence or a dearth of the love of freedom (on the part of the Democrats or Chief Judge), they are both willing to overthrow the government in order to save the country. Both were ultimately unsuccessful, Captain Moroni because he realized he was wildly incorrect about his accusations about the Chief Judge and so did not follow through with his threats, and President Trump, probably, because his Vice President and key Republican governors failed to believe his claims that the election was stolen: “You will have an illegitimate president. That’s what you’ll have. And we can’t let that happen.”

Obviously this is an uncharitable reading of both men. If you’re a Trump fan, you’ll say the election was stolen and we were ruled by an unelected autocrat for four years. Obviously people would be angry in such circumstances and storming the capitol is thus justified (and hence the pardons are justified too). Or, you might say that my description of Trump’s role in the attempted coup/riot/peaceful protest is exaggerated. And nearly all Latter-day Saints would reject my interpretation of Captain Moroni’s words—he is presented as one of the great heroes in the Book of Mormon after all. Reasonable people can disagree. Whatever your opinion of the two in question here, I do think there are some key similarities.³ Both men were heroes to their followers; defenders of liberty and Christianity and the idea that their country represents a promised land. I think Mike Lee was on to something with his off the cuff comparison five years ago.