Blank book claims Trump’s divine mission—an empty proof

Rihanna Teixeria self-published a book called “Scriptural Evidence That Trump Is Set Apart by God,” selling 1,000 copies in two months—only to fill it with blank pages. The gag grew out of years of religious “prophecies” she says encouraged her church to back

When Rihanna Teixeria clicked to publish her first book in a matter of hours, she didn’t expect it to land like a theological prank. Within two months, her self-published “Scriptural Evidence That Trump Is Set Apart by God: Biblical Proof that Trump Will Save America” sold 1,000 copies.

Then she revealed the catch: the book is filled with blank pages.

The 40-year-old Florida resident said the idea came to her after nearly a decade of watching religious figures praise Donald Trump as God’s chosen instrument. “There’s prophets in that [religious] world that make prophetic videos about how Trump is being called by God to change and save the nation. ” Teixeria told HuffPost. She said the pattern kept nagging at her. especially because she didn’t see what evidence those claims were based on. “So. because it’s now been close to 10 years of [me] seeing the church idolize this man. it popped into my head. And because I could never wrap my head around what evidence they have. Like, to me, this guy is not representative of Jesus or Christianity as it’s supposed to be at all.”.

The political faith she’s challenging isn’t marginal. Teixeria pointed to a long-running strain of American conservative Christianity in which so-called “prophets” claim God picked Trump to “save” the country. She said Christian leaders across the country have also preached from the pulpit that Trump is the chosen one. And she said Trump has not dismissed those ideas.

After an assassination attempt on Trump in July 2024, Teixeria said he echoed that belief. Following his win in the presidential election. he told a Florida crowd. “Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason. And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness. And now we are going to fulfill that mission together.”.

Teixeria’s book—whose cover she designed after spending a few hours on Canva—went up on Amazon in April, according to her account of how quickly she put it together. She said most feedback has been positive and that she believes many people understood it was meant to be read as a joke.

One review she shared reads. “I’m a doctoral student. and I know firsthand how intense. difficult. and. honestly. grueling quality research and writing can be. Yet, this book centers such rigor. The author meticulously combs the pages of the ancient text. and thoughtfully synthesizes the all of the evidence proving why our dear leader is truly anointed for such a time as this. And to her credit, when the evidence isn’t robust enough, it’s clear that she refused to include it. This is true scholarship. This is sound science. This is what real faith looks like. Kudos!”.

But the reaction isn’t uniform. Teixeria is also a living example of what pushed her toward deconstruction in the first place—and what she says she lost along the way.

She grew up in the evangelical church in Arizona and attended a private Christian school. She voted for Trump in 2016. After that. she said she started questioning church leaders about some of Trump’s choices. including his cabinet appointees. and that is when she described beginning to dismantle what she believed.

By 2017, she said she stopped attending church. Today, she posts social media videos about her upbringing and has previously gone viral explaining how she deconstructed her beliefs.

Teixeria said the evangelical message she encountered wasn’t only theological—it carried political direction. She described an undertone that church members should vote conservative. tied to anti-abortion views shared by the church and the right. and to fears that the left was trying to take away freedom of religion—“specifically freedom to be Christian.” When Trump ran for president. Teixeria said her church began telling its members to vote for him.

She also pointed to the influence of “prophets” spreading their claims through social media. She cited Kim Clement, who died in 2016 but whose YouTube channel, which has nearly half a million subscribers, is still posting videos claiming he prophesied Trump’s reign.

Her argument against the movement is personal, too. She said she is still a Christian, but her faith looks different now. She is in therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder, specifically scrupulosity, a religious-related form of OCD. Teixeria said worrying about the rapture led her to perform rituals as a child. including tapping her fingers a certain number of times to ensure none of her friends or family members would die. She said leaving the house was difficult because her OCD made her believe she had to pray for everyone she saw.

“What if I didn’t, then they might go to hell and that would be my fault,” she said.

As her beliefs changed, Teixeria said her view of Jesus changed as well. “In the evangelical church, he’s always presented as this strong warrior, like a white American Jesus,” she said. “And if I go back and I read the Gospels now with a different perspective. I see him just as a man who was against government and people who were thirsty for power. and I just see him as a man who cared for the sick and the hungry and the poor. regardless of political affiliation or nationality or gender or any of those things.”.

She said she feels she has “a sweeter relationship with Jesus. ” and that he represents how Christians are supposed to act. In her view. she said. many people in America behave like they want “all the power and to control people.” She contrasted that with her belief that Trump’s policies are not consistent with that message—saying he is “cutting funding from the hungry. ” and not protecting women and children. or people in minority groups.

For Teixeria, the blank pages are the point: a claim of “biblical proof” that refuses to provide any proof at all.

And for a moment, the self-published stunt became something else, too. The profits, she said, have helped relieve her of a $4,000 medical debt. The book may be empty, but the aftermath—selling out a version of religious certainty she once shared, then stepping away from it—feels full.

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