President Donald Trump crashed a wedding taking place at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday to lecture the happy couple on how he might connive his way through the pearly gates.
While speaking with the bride and groom, Trump became distracted when he saw right-wing radio host Eric Metaxas and began shouting that the man would be his ticket into heaven.
Illustration by Eric Faison/The Daily Beast
“He’s going to get me into heaven!” Trump said, shaking Metaxas’ hand.
The prominent Trump supporter and children’s book author replied: “I want to talk to him about getting into heaven… but not here. Not here.”
President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Metaxas, 62, shared the clip to social media, where he said that his friend’s wedding “wasn’t the place” for that kind of conversation.
“I laughed and told him, ‘I’d really like to talk to you about that… but another time,’” Metaxas wrote on Instagram. “Then I reminded him, ‘Don’t forget—you’re America’s Supercentennial President.’
“Truthfully, I would love to have that conversation with him one day. But this wasn’t the place.”
The wedding Trump wandered into was that of investment banker Michael Wilkerson, founder of “patriotic forum” Stormwall. He is the author of two American exceptionalism polemics, including Why America Matters: The Case for a New Exceptionalism, which addresses questions including “Who are we?” and “Where are we going?”
“This is a good-looking couple,” Trump said of the newlyweds. “Take their picture and use it in a hotel ad.”
President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate pictured on Sept. 14, 2022, in Palm Beach, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Trump has a habit of turning up unannounced at weddings. In 2021 he wandered into a wedding at Mar-a-Lago to complain about Iran.
In 2023, he crashed a gathering at his New Jersey golf club just hours after pleading not guilty to attempting to overturn the 2020 election result.
The host of the Eric Metaxas Radio Show is known for his Christian texts, biographies of historical figures, and more than 30 children’s books, including two about Trump, called Donald Builds the Wall and Donald Drains the Swamp.