Thanks ttbn, Armchair Critic, mhaze for your comments.

mhaze,

That's an old rhetorical trick. Anyone familiar with Trump’s style knows the pattern: inflame early, divide throughout, and end on "beauty and friendship" to create plausible deniability.

Trump's certainly no master off-script, though:

"The building is right next to a thing called the Potomac River. The beautiful Potomac River. That means lots of water.

"And the water is right under the building. And they decided to build the basement under the building in the Potomac River.

"So in order to do that, you need the biggest pumps that God ever created. And they were pumping their hearts out. But as big as those pumps are you can't pump it fast enough because it's the Potomac River. If the pump were bigger than this room, you could pump it. But they tried.

"And they've been building a basement. And I said, why did you want to build a basement? I thought it would be a good idea. Sure. A basement is the least valuable floor in a building. I know a lot about real estate. The least valuable thing is the basement, and you don't build a basement under a building that is two feet above the river. That's right next door.

"You know, it's right near the river. People don't realize a river is right out their window. And that’s the beginning. They… they did just a terrible job. They instead of…

"I could take a ceiling like this. They’d rip out the ceiling because they see it crack. Let’s hear about the ceiling. And I would fix the crack, and I would paint the ceiling. And under the ceiling, they put the most incredible protective material. They go up by three inch brand new, gorgeous three quarter inch plywood and sheetrock, hardened sheetrock, and they had it all over the building.

"So this little piece of flake came down. But the problem is, when they took the ceiling down and it would hit, they spent millions of dollars on protective material that you didn’t have to spend anything."

- Trump at the unveiling of the Kennedy Centre Honourees

Jesus Christ never forgave anyone.

"Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." Luke 23:34

Yuyutsu says “Jesus never forgave anyone.”

mhaze rightly pointed to Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

But that’s not an isolated moment - it reflects a broader theme. Jesus forgave sins publicly (e.g. the paralytic in Mark 2:5), taught forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer (“forgive us our trespasses as we forgive…”), and made it central to discipleship: “How many times must I forgive my brother? Seventy times seven.” (Matt 18:21–22)

So yes, forgiveness is a remedy - but in Christian teaching, it’s not a backup plan. It’s the ideal.

What’s more interesting is how selectively some are invoking that teaching right now. Erika Kirk’s public act of grace was powerful - but it’s been immediately followed (even in this thread) by talk of vengeance, retribution, and political revival.

If we’re quoting Christ, let’s follow through on his example - not just borrow it to score points.

Dear John,

"Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."

As if... Father, Creator and Sustainer of the universe wrongly believed that Jesus' assailants knew what they were doing, so His son Jesus had to remind and correct Him?

Or was Jesus an imperfect human being?

What we observe here and in similar verses, is Jesus teaching his students at their own level, rather than the highest ideals, understanding that they are not yet ready to grasp the idea of not being upset in the first place because whatever comes is by God's will alone - He asks his disciples to forgive because that is the best they can do for now.

«Erika Kirk’s public act of grace was powerful - but it’s been immediately followed (even in this thread) by talk of vengeance, retribution, and political revival.»

How else can one forgive 77 times?

To catch Jesus on his superficial literal word, there was a rich American who was not happy with the verse "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”, so he constructed a giant needle then successfully passed his camel through its eye... did he actually reach the kingdom of God...?

Forgive those who had no choice ! Discipline those who did !