Dear Christian: a billionaire who could vanish to any island in the world instead sat down in the ashes of America and asked the same question David asked at Ziklag (1 Samuel 30:8) — “Shall I pursue?” That is not political analysis. That is Dr. Linda Lee Tarver’s testimony, and she has now written two books to defend it.
Tarver is a nationally recognized Christian author, election integrity expert, and adviser to President Donald J. Trump. She has met him personally going back to 2015. She has prayed with him. She has watched him over a decade. And on the latest United Patriots Uprising with Gary Binford, she lays out what most pastors will not touch from their pulpits this Sunday: that Trump is a judge and deliverer in the pattern of Judges 3, not a pastor in the pattern of Ephesians 4 — and confusing the two has caused the church to slander a man God raised up.
You may not like that framing. Watch the interview anyway.
After you watch, you will not be able to un-know what Dr. Tarver said. The only question left is what you intend to do about it.
Shall I Pursue: When a Billionaire Sat in Ashes
Tarver’s first book, Shall I Pursue?, takes its title and frame from 1 Samuel 30. David returns to Ziklag and finds his city burned, his wives and children kidnapped, his wealth gone, and his own men ready to stone him. He weeps until he has no tears left. Then he calls for the ephod and asks the Lord one question.
“Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And He answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all” (1 Samuel 30:8, KJV).
Tarver argues that Trump prayed an identical prayer before the 2024 race. “He was already catching grief in the courts,” she told Binford. “He was already dealing with the lawfare from the Biden administration. But he saw America dead in the ashes and I know that he prayed that prayer. Shall I pursue?”
Consider the human math. Trump was a billionaire. He was facing what Tarver called “92 felonies to be prosecuted” — a number disputed by some, but the lawfare itself is undisputed. “He didn’t need it,” Tarver said. “Me and Melania can go to any island and go and not be seen anymore. But he said America was dead. And he sat in the ashes of America like David sat in the ashes of Ziklag.” (Editor’s link: “Donald Trump indictments: Ex-president faces 91 felonies punishable by 700 years in jail“)
This is the parallel that should land hard. David did not pursue out of ambition. He pursued because his people were captive and the Lord said go. If Trump’s run was a third act of vanity, the man is a fool. If it was Ziklag, the man is a deliverer. The interview forces you to pick a lane.
Judges, Not Pastors: Why the Pulpit Test Misses Trump
Here is where Tarver dismantles the most common Christian objection in three sentences. “I tell you, he’s a judge and a deliverer of the people. They are raised up for political and military leadership under Judges 3. But nevertheless, these people come and they look for problems.”
Read Judges 3 carefully. Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar were Israel’s first three judges. None of them were spiritual leaders. None preached, none prophesied, none held priestly office. They were political and military deliverers raised up by God because His people cried out under oppression. “He raised up a judge, but he didn’t call them judges,” Tarver explained. “He said, ‘I raise up a deliverer.'”
This reframes the entire debate. The Christian critic who demands Trump quote Spurgeon and confess like Whitefield is applying a standard Scripture itself does not apply to deliverers. Moses murdered an Egyptian. Abraham lied about his wife twice. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and arranged the murder of her husband Uriah. Samson had what Binford memorably called “the she weakness.” Yet God used every one of them — not because they were perfect, but because they were willing.
Steel-man the critics for a moment, because they deserve it. Their concern is real. They fear Christians making Trump into an idol. They fear blurring the gospel with nationalism. Those fears are biblically warranted and the church should heed them. Tarver herself does — she repeatedly distinguishes Trump-the-deliverer from Christ-the-Savior. But the answer to potential idolatry is not to slander the man God raised up. The answer is to keep Jesus on the throne while honoring the deliverer in his lane.
Tarver pushes the point harder by comparing Trump’s critics to the Pharisees. “The religious leaders back in his day were the Pharisees and Sadducees and they looked for things that were wrong with Jesus. And that is what the religious leaders now who complain about everything that President Trump does. And they don’t complain about their own pastors. They don’t complain about their own walk with the Lord.”
Sit with that. When was the last time you scrutinized your own elder board with the energy you spend criticizing the president?
The Spiritual Evolution: 2015 to May 17
Tarver’s eyewitness timeline is the most underreported part of this interview. She has watched Trump up close for a decade and describes a discernible spiritual progression.
2015, Grand Rapids. First meeting backstage at a rally. “He was very nice, very much a gentleman. He was not arrogant and that’s what drew me to him.” Tarver said Trump told the small group that day: “Look, I’m well educated. I can talk all of the big use big words… but he said people don’t want to hear that. He said, ‘I really want to talk to the people like I’m talking to you today and that’s what I will run my campaign.'” His faith was not yet prominent.
2016, Detroit. Tarver helped lay groundwork for Trump’s first visit to a black church, hosted by Bishop Wayne T. Jackson. “He was not uncomfortable with the people of God. He was not awkward… They prayed for him. They gave him a Bible. They gave him a prayer shawl. The media went crazy because they didn’t understand the things of God.” Outside the building, Jesse Jackson reportedly led protests as the pastor inside faced threats for hosting Trump.
2020, Good Friday at the White House. With COVID raging and the nation reeling, Trump appeared from the Resolute Desk with the late Bishop Harry Jackson and made what Tarver calls a declaration no other president had made: “Today we remember the death and the resurrection, the death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And on Sunday, we will celebrate his glorious resurrection.”
2024, Butler, Pennsylvania. A bullet grazes the president’s ear and a young supporter dies behind him. Trump tells the Republican National Convention that “the providential hand of God” spared him. “He was empowered at that point,” Tarver said, “to pursue.”
2025, May 17. Trump publicly rededicates America to God — one nation under God. “It spits in the face of these atheists and these Democrats and liberals who hate the things of God,” Tarver said. “But God is still going to get the glory.”
You can argue the political significance of any one of these moments. What you cannot honestly argue, after listening to Tarver, is that nothing has changed in this man’s spiritual posture between 2015 and 2026.
All the President’s Men: David’s Three, Trump’s Three
Tarver’s second book, All the President’s Men, draws its frame from 2 Samuel 23 — David’s final recorded words. On his deathbed, David did not eulogize his battles, his palaces, his wives, or his sons. He named his mighty men. The three. The thirty. The ones who stood with him in the cave when others fled.
“That is what David, beloved King David said in his final words,” Tarver told Binford. “He talked about the men who stood with him in the cave and stood with him in the castle.”
One detail from 2 Samuel 23 should haunt every reader. When David’s men crossed enemy lines just to draw water from the well of Bethlehem that he had longed for, he refused to drink it. “He said that the water was too precious for him to drink because of the blood of the men who would sacrifice themselves to get it for him. So he used that water to give unto the Lord.” That is covenant loyalty — loyalty that costs blood and is treated as holy.
Tarver names Trump’s three: Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. She names more in the book — Tom Homan, Howard Lutnick, Scott Bessent, Brooke Rollins, Scott Turner, Dr. Ben Carson — and connects them to David’s thirty.
Then she takes on the media line directly. When James Comey complained that Trump asked for a “loyalty oath,” the press treated loyalty itself as scandalous. Tarver answers from Scripture. When men deserted Saul’s house to join David in the caves, they did not say we like you. They said: “We are yours, David, because the hand of the Lord is upon you.”
“The loyalty I speak of in All the President’s Men has nothing to do with blind loyalty,” Tarver clarified. “It has something to do with covenant loyalty that we see the hand of God.” That distinction matters. Blind loyalty deifies a man. Covenant loyalty recognizes God’s hand on a man and stands with him for the sake of the work.
She closes the parallel with a flourish worth quoting in full: “David had his three, Trump had his three, and Jesus had his three.” Peter, James, and John — at the Mount of Transfiguration, in the Garden of Gethsemane. The pattern is biblical, not partisan.
The Tormenting Spirit and the Mirror
Tarver does not soften her diagnosis of Trump Derangement Syndrome. “TDS is not just a mental issue. I believe it is a tormenting spirit.” She points to 1 Samuel 16:14, where the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and “an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.” David was brought in to play music and soothe him. Then Saul, in his torment, hurled spears at the very man trying to help.
That is the spiritual category Tarver is using. Whether you accept her diagnosis or not, you cannot deny the symptoms — a former James Carville salivating on television, a young man riding the train from California to Washington with intent to kill, “86 47” chanted in Chicago streets. Something is in the air, and it is not policy disagreement. And if you are a believer who feels your blood pressure spike at the sound of his name, ask yourself honestly whether that reaction is conviction from the Holy Spirit — or the same tormenting spirit, dressed in church clothes.
Now turn the mirror on the church.
Gary Binford asked the question that should pin every Christian critic to the wall:
“Where were you when God was taken out of the workplace, the school, and the government? Because that’s what got us into this situation.”
Read that twice.
The church handed over the public square decade by decade. Prayer left the schools while Christians complained at potlucks. Abortion became law while pulpits preached self-help. Marriage was redefined while denominations wrote position papers no one read. Now, when a flawed man stands in the gap and tries to rebuild the wall, the same Christians who tolerated forty years of cultural surrender are scandalized that he is not Charles Spurgeon.
This is no longer about Trump’s grammar at a prayer breakfast. It is about whether you will recognize a deliverer when God sends one — or repeat the Pharisees’ mistake one more time.
Hope Grounded in the One Who Holds All Things
The battle is real, but so is our God. Trump is not our Savior — Jesus is. Trump’s three are not the church — the body of Christ is. May 17, 2025 will not save America — only the gospel will. Tarver knows this. Binford knows this. Every honest reader of these two books knows this.
But the same God who told David pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all is still on His throne. “He who dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1). Trump is covered as long as he stays in his lane. So are you.
The question Tarver leaves you with is not whether Trump is perfect. He is not. The question is whether you will stand with the deliverer God raised up, examine your own loyalty, and stop straining at gnats while swallowing camels.
THIS WEEK, do four things. Not next month. This week.
- Buy both books. Shall I Pursue? and All the President’s Men, available through drlindaleetarver.com. Read them. Mark them up. Do not skim. Do not say you will get to it. Buy them by Friday.
- Pray for President Trump by name every single day between now and the end of his term. Not when you remember. Daily. With your morning coffee. With your evening Bible. Add him to your family prayer time so your children hear you do it.
- Email your pastor before next Sunday and ask him one question: Does our church pray for the president by name from the pulpit? If the answer is no, ask why not. 1 Timothy 2:1-2 commands it.
- Examine your own heart. Where were you when God was taken out of the schools? Confess what needs confessing. Then stop holding Trump to a standard you have never held yourself.
The day will come when every knee bows. You will not stand before Christ and explain that you spent the Trump years posting clever critiques on social media. You will give an account for what you did with the deliverer God raised up — and for what you did with your own faithfulness.
Pursue.
Key Takeaways
- Dr. Linda Lee Tarver argues Trump prayed David’s Ziklag prayer — “Shall I pursue?” — before the 2024 race.
- Judges 3 establishes deliverers as political and military leaders, not pastors. Trump fits that biblical category.
- Critics demanding Trump preach like a pastor apply a standard Scripture itself never applied to deliverers like Moses, David, or Samson.
- Tarver names Trump’s spiritual progression from 2015 to 2025 — humble before God, then publicly declaring Christ’s resurrection in 2020.
- Butler 2024 was, in Trump’s own words, the “providential hand of God” — and Tarver argues it confirmed the call to pursue.
- All the President’s Men parallels Trump’s cabinet with David’s mighty men from 2 Samuel 23, naming Vance, Hegseth, and Rubio as his three.
- Covenant loyalty differs from blind loyalty — it recognizes God’s hand on a leader and stands with him for the work’s sake.
- Tarver diagnoses Trump Derangement Syndrome as a tormenting spirit, paralleling Saul in 1 Samuel 16.
- Binford’s hardest question is for the church: “Where were you when God was taken out of the workplace, the school, and the government?”
- Hope is grounded in God’s sovereignty, not political outcomes — but God uses deliverers, and Christians are called to recognize them.
Resources
Full interview: Available at RadioInfluence.com, YouTube, Rumble, GodFamilyAndCountry.tv, the Rose Unplugged Media Network, AmericaFirstWarehouse.com, YourNews.com, OBBNetworkTV, WeSeeMedia.com, and the Queens Village Republican Club.
Dr. Linda Lee Tarver: drlindaleetarver.com — order Shall I Pursue? and All the President’s Men directly through her site or via Amazon.
Gary Binford Archive: United Patriots Uprising at Radio Influence — over 200 episodes including Ben Carson, Charlie Kirk, Judge Jeanine Pirro, Mike Lindell, Bishop E.W. Jackson, Pastor Jack Hibbs, and Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.
Related VCA Content:
- Kay Rubacek: When AI and Tech Replace God (United Patriots Uprising series)
- Peter Schweizer’s The Invisible Coup and Weaponized Immigration (United Patriots Uprising series)
We welcome thoughtful and respectful dialogue from all viewpoints. Comments must remain civil, relevant, and free of profanity, personal attacks, or mockery of Christian faith. Disagreement is allowed — disrespect is not.
