Most of us already know that former President Donald Trump was rarely capable of original ideas. But in general one might assume his daughter Ivanka is more intelligent. Overall I think that’s the case but there was one incident where one of her ideas was particularly disastrous.

A new book written by Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows makes it clear that it was apparently Ivanka’s idea to have dear old dad pose for that controversial Bible photo op at St. John’s Church in June 2020, smack in the middle of protests over the m*rder of George Floyd, The Washington Post reports.

According to Meadows, Ivanka wanted to “send a message to people of faith.” Somehow Meadows’ book fails to mention that Trump’s little photo-op wound up causing an outcry among the faithful and also resulted in the forcible ouster of a priest and a seminarian from the church’s patio as racial justice protesters were being cleared away from Lafayette Square outside the White House in the run-up to the event.

Funny how Meadows “forgot” to mention that in his book The Chief’s Chief. I mean, he did spend a good deal of time detailing Trump’s photo op discussing the growing crowd of protesters gathering outside the White House, beginning in May 2020. Of the demonstrators, he writes that he “noticed that the crowds were getting a little too close to (St. John’s Church) for my liking.”

Meadows complained about the amount of damage done to buildings as the protests continued and added “I shuddered at the thought of the same thing happening to a sacred place like St. John’s.” Apparently, Trump was also worried and “expressed similar concerns.”

Roughly 48 hours later, the church was in fact damaged during the evening of May 31. A window was smashed and someone set a fire in the basement nursery of the historic Episcopal church. Over time, St. John’s has become known as the Church of the Presidents, not just because it’s close to the White House, but because every president since James Madison has attended services there.

The Right Rev. Mariann Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington that oversees the church was, of course, dismayed about the destruction, telling The Washington Post at the time that “obviously we wanted the church to be a place of haven and safety.”

Budde, however, didn’t criticize the larger goal of the racial justice protests. She even noted she’d been participating in the protests earlier that day and handing out water to the demonstrators.

“It’s a building,” she added. “No one’s life is gone, but we have work to do, and we’ll do it. Cleaning up, rebuild and focus on the rebuilding of our country which is more important.”

You sure wouldn’t know that by Meadows’ book since he spends a good deal of time ruminating on the damage done to the church, claiming in his book, that the church burning was an inevitable consequence of the protests.

“It didn’t surprise me that all of the historic buildings standing around Lafayette Square, these rioters would go after a sacred house of worship,” Meadows writes. “It all seemed terribly on brand for them.”

And Meadows also said he and other Republicans were inundated with calls from other insenses conservatives who were outraged over the burning of the church.

“To them the sight of a church being burned in the United States of America — just a few hundred yards from the White House, no less, was simply too much to take,” he writes.

Gee, I wonder if these same conservatives find themselves bothered whenever a Black church in the south is burned?

Ivanka, Meadows writes, was also getting calls about the fire, and that’s when she hatched her little plan: dear old dad should “give his address in the Rose Garden — which was already in the works. But then, she suggested, he should lead a group of his closest aides and advisors over to the church. There, she added, he should deliver a short message to the American people.”

That message, Ivanka told dear old dad should signal that “law and order would prevail” and should also “send a message to people of faith.”

“As I watched President Trump listening to his daughter, I could tell he loved the idea.”

Even if it was a bone-headed idea.

Trump gave his little speech in the Rose Garden about the nation needing “security, not anarchy” and then they made their way over to Lafayette Square where there was anything but security and instead air still smelling of the smoke bombs police had used to disperse the crowd. And of course, to pull away those who actually belong at the church, such as the priest and the seminarian. Which, as I said earlier, was somehow excluded from Meadows’ book.

And, a month or so later, an investigation by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s inspector general found that federal law enforcement had also used clubs, riot shields, smoke canisters, and pepper spray to disperse the crowd. But that’s not all, local police also lobbed tear gas canisters at the fleeing crowd.

Meadows’ book also doesn’t spend much time on the reaction to Trump’s using the Bible as a prop, other than briefly mentioning it gathered negative press. Unsurprisingly Trump’s evangelical “advisers” extolled its virtues, but those with true faith were disgusted by it.

“The symbolism of (Trump) holding a Bible … as a prop and standing in front of our church as a backdrop when everything that he has said is antithetical to the teachings of our traditions and what we stand for as a church — I was horrified, Budde told RNS (Religion News Service) at the time.

The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, also accused Trump of using “a church building and the Holy Bible for partisan political purposes.”

Anyone who understands anything about Trump, his family, and those within his administration understands that this is a man who cares little about people of faith or Christians in general. This was nothing more than an embarrassing debacle that undoubtedly helped him lose the election.

I’m not a religious person, but for that I’m thankful.

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