Part of Donald Trump’s base thinks he is fighting a spiritual war 

IN A HOTEL ballroom owned by Donald Trump, barely an hour into a two-day conspiracist talkathon, your correspondent lost the plot. It happened amid calls for the audience to quit being “weak-kneed wussies” and “join Team Jesus”, and warnings about child traffickers and poisonous vaccines. What really did it, though, was an invitation to approach the stage to be healed by a self-styled prophet resembling Ozzy Osbourne.

Later one of Mr Trump’s sons took to the podium. Worship music played; several hundred hands went up in prayer. Someone blew a shofar, a trumpet used in Jewish rituals that is popular among some charismatic Christians. Was this a Trump rally, a religious revival or a gabfest about how globalists had spread covid-19 to suspend civil liberties? Was it all of those things? The man selling tickets over the phone—at a recommended price of $250, or pay what you wish—had offered just two instructions. No masks allowed and please leave guns in the car.