Trump adviser says 'divine intervention and supernatural turnaround' will solve coronavirus

For countries that have managed to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s a combination of forward thinking, a strong testing regime and lockdown measures.

For the Trump administration, "divine intervention and a supernatural turnaround" may be all that’s necessary.

Paula White-Cain, a Trump advisor, asked God to deliver those two things in order to ‘restore this nation’. Her official title is Spiritual Advisor to the White House (yes, really).

She made a speech alongside President Trump on the White House front lawn on Thursday – alongside other faith leaders who had gathered for a ceremony that would lead the country in prayer, amid the Covid-19 crisis. Trump had declared 7 May as a "National Day of Prayer".

White-Cain suggested that "divine intervention and supernatural turnaround" will help to solve the Covid-19 crisis, despite the Trump administration’s mishandling of the pandemic leading to over 75,000 deaths, the highest anywhere in the world.

During her speech, she also quoted other passages from the Bible, compared Trump to David, a significant biblical figure, and said that Trump would "recover all". She also asked that God didn’t delay a vaccine for the coronavirus.

White-Cain has been a spiritual advisor to the Trump administration since October of 2019 – she’s a Pentecostal Pastor from Florida, and the author of several books about prayer and Christianity.

In other videos from previous livestreams, White-Cain has also said that Trump’s behaviour during the action demonstrates that he cares about human life, and asks people watching not to judge him too harshly.

White-Cain has also been criticised recently for other behaviour – she’s asked people for cash donations on livestreams in the last couple of weeks, not for the ill but for people who are “spiritually sick”.

An investigation from Mother Jones in February found a history of soliciting donations and using them to pay for things like waterfront mansions and a private jet.