I didn't think this election could get crazier. Then I Googled each candidate and 'Jesuit'
Jim McDermott
February 01, 2016

In preparation for the start of the primary season, the next “big step” in the continuing long dark nightmare that is the American political “process,” over the weekend I was trying to come up with some facts you might not already know about Donald Trump, a candidate so overexposed he makes Hillary Clinton look like that shy kid who sat in the back of the class eating her own hair.

I had not gotten very far—did you know Mr. Trump’s middle name is John? That he’s the fourth of five kids? That he’s a teetotaler?—when I came upon something unexpectedly interesting for readers of America. Donald Trump went to the Jesuit-run Fordham University. It’s true: After being away five years at military school, Mr. Trump moved back in with his folks in Queens and did his first two years of undergraduate education at Fordham before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Online, there’s some speculation about how well he did at Fordham, assorted memories of his fellow students at both schools as to how forgettable or unnoticed he was. In one place I found a quote from one of his many books about his time at Fordham: “I began by attending Fordham University,” he writes. “But after two years, I decided that as long as I had to be in college, I might as well test myself against the best.” Always a charmer, the Donald. On behalf of all past, current and future alumni of Fordham University, may I wish him the very best in the race ahead and in all his endeavors as a higher life form.

But that’s not the end of the story. See, I figured somewhere online there must be more about him at Fordham. It was two years of his life, after all. So I Googled “Donald Trump Jesuit.” The top response was a link to a Reddit post from five months ago entitled “Donald Trump: Secret Jesuit Agent for Commander-in-chief?”

Intrigued, I read on: “Could it be though, that Donald Trump is a „false flag candidate‟ being used to secure the vote of the ever-increasing independent constituency in order to inevitably lull the U.S. into a false sense of positive political novelty and thus to subsequently impose Jesuitical right-wing fascism leading to a nation-wide race war as devised by the masters of class adversarialism, the Sons of Loyola?”

Now, if you don’t understand most of what is going on in that paragraph, let me break it down: “A false flag candidate” is someone who seems to represent one point of view, but actually is working for an entirely different agenda/organization.

It is actually not a new critique of Trump; about six months ago Gawker’s conspiracy blog (of course Gawker has a conspiracy blog) Black Bag posted this article suggesting Trump was in the race strictly in order to get Hillary Clinton elected.

Moving on: “The ever-increasing independent constituency” means the electorate, which this writer believes more and more flexible about who it will vote for, especially given Mr. Trump’s “positive political novelty.” Oh yes, especially.

But then things really get crazy. “Jesuitical right-wing fascism” would make sense, if by “Jesuitical” was meant playing semantic games, the worst version of casuistry. But this writer actually means to say that Jesuits are pulling the strings, so as to begin a race war...

I thought I would try to see if any of the other main candidates for president had a Jesuit connection. I started with Ted Cruz. One of the first 10 links was from Jesuit Refugee Service USA. One was from The Jesuit Post.

But others again leaned heavily into the same basic swirling pot of crazy: “Satanic Freemason Jesuit Ted Cruz Master of the Second Veil Hand Sign Exposed.” “Trump/Ted Cruz Ticket; Illuminati and Jesuits.” “Ted Cruz—Jesuit Coadjutor.”

Marco Rubio was a little better, with pieces from Religion News Service, Christianity Today and Mother Jones on his religion and politics. But the number one link was to a mysterious, constantly freezing video entitled “Marco Rubio a TUTH JESUIT” (which I would explain if I had been able to watch the video and understand it). Others in his top 10 links included “Illuminati Puppets: Proof that America is a Captured Operation” and a link to a Ron Paul forum where someone says that Rubio is a “Catholic imposter jesuit RINO [Republican in Name Only].”