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President Trump led Republican delegates in a pledge to God to cheat like Hell to keep control of Congress.

It was many things more than just taking God’s name in vain. It asked his supporters to do what Trump claimed Democrats had done in the 2020 election to justify his attempted coup.

His pledge was one more day’s distraction from Jeffrey Epstein, his own “forever war,” bankrupt farmers, knocking the world’s economy off kilter and much, much more.

Trump spit on our founding fathers’ dream of America as a beacon to the world. Trump spit on Abraham Lincoln’s call for our better angels to keep America from civil war.

All the gold leaf in the Oval Office can’t hide this damaged man’s needy, childlike cry for mommy to watch him again after his millionth jump in the pool. His pool is far more rancid than the botched Reflecting Pool.

Cheat, Distract, Boast, Bully, Lie. Everything Trump does brings dishonor to our nation and to his worshipers, like our own Congressman Pete Stauber. They confuse constant motion for accomplishment.

I saved myself $300 when I skipped filing for Congress this year. It’s not that I wanted the treasonous congressman to go unopposed. Another Republican challenged him. That freed me to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the first modern Democracy.

I wanted to read history books that could help me understand how a party birthed by Abraham Lincoln’s courage, brilliance and humility could degenerate into a rabble that mocks the message Jesus spelled out in the Sermon on the Mount.

Even the God-doubting Lincoln was pulled into the Lord’s orbit as he commanded armies that brought death to one in every three southern warriors and one in every six northerner soldiers. Lincoln felt that burden deep in his soul.

Just days after saving America and days before his assassination he called on the nation to show no malice toward its defeated enemies. What I would give for such leadership again.

I was in Iowa, a farming state, at my wife’s family reunion when I heard Trump’s galling pledge. I sense “red state” Iowan’s fear of abandoning Trump but I also noticed that his rural signs are no longer so numerous.

With bile in my heart, I struggle to live up to Lincoln’s call to hold no malice. My example is not only Lincoln. It is the kind of Christians who flooded into the Republican party. I remember them repeating this mantra; “Hate the sin, love the sinner.”

I could never disagree with this philosophy just quibble about what counted as a “sin.” Today their successors in the GOP seem to have little trouble hating both sin and sinner.

There is one exception. They love Donald Trump, who gave them power. They love what Trump has done and shrug off his sins. Is that how Jesus directed them?

For me, it’s becoming increasingly hard to follow Lincoln’s call. How can I separate this new breed of Republican from the president who wins their vote.

All the way home from Des Moines I planned how to vent my bile against the betrayal of truth. I imagined a sign eight feet long to last until the election because it would be too much of a hassle for anyone to steal in the middle of the night. 

And, if it was stolen, it would be too late for the thousands who drive past my house to unsee it. I wanted the poison dripping from our president’s fangs to linger until election day.

As drivers pass my house they will likely miss another new addition to my home. My history reading this year inspired me to join the little library club.

A pal with vastly more skill than I possess and a woodshop helped me fashion a miniature Lincoln Memorial. It sits on the quieter side of my front lawn. Its tiny space is filled with the kind of books Lincoln would have read.

I will be thrilled if the mid-term election clips Donald Trump’s wings before he can build his golden arch to cast a shadow, Trump’s shadow, over Lincoln’s Memorial.

I pray Trump’s voters don’t cheat like hell.

Meanwhile, Trina Swanson, a Democrat running against Stauber on the Iron Range, lives close to a proposed data center in Hermantown. She condemned the NDAs signed by Hermantown officials, lack of regulations on data center developments and heavy water use and increased energy costs.

“I want guardrails in place,” she said. “I want to understand how we’re going to prioritize our people over corporations like Google that paid zero dollars in federal taxes last year.”

Stauber’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did the office of Rep. Michele Fischbach, R-7th District.

The subject of the first televised campaign ad run by Grant Hauschild, a DFL state senator representing Hermantown, focused on data centers and touted the regulations on the facilities considered by the state Legislature.

The state legislature approved a few regulations of the industry in 2025. But  efforts to impose tougher rules, water permits and bans on local nondisclosure agreements failed this year after strong lobbying by industry groups and labor unions.

Still, Hauschild, in his ad, promises to continue to seek greater regulation on the industry and says, “I don’t work for data centers, I work for you.”

AdImpact, which tracks trends and effectiveness in political advertising, said there’s a “quiet boom” in data center ads. While Ad Impact says most of the money spent on these ads come from Democratic campaigns, a sizable amount 26% are run by Republicans, most of whom oppose the construction of a local data center.