[guest post by Dana]

Here’s how Trump supporter Jared Schmeck’s Christmas Eve phone call with President Biden went down:

The phone call started cordially enough. Schmeck, 35, had called the NORAD Santa tracker like he does every Christmas Eve. Normally, the call is automated. This year, the president and first lady Jill Biden were taking calls together.

For a couple of minutes, things were pleasant. “I assume you’re a dad,” said the president. “What do you want for Christmas?”

Schmeck laughed. “Maybe a quiet night.”

“Lots of luck, Dad!” Biden responded.

The president asked Schmeck what his children wanted for Christmas… The first couple then began wrapping up the amiable call.

To make sure Santa shows up, “you guys have to be in bed by nine o’clock!” the president said, adding: “I hope you have a wonderful Christmas”

That’s when Schmeck, speaking to the leader of the free world, parroted a catch phrase that’s been adopted in conservative circles, and which, when translated, means “[expletive] Joe Biden.”

“Yeah, I hope you guys have a wonderful Christmas as well,” Schmeck said. “Merry Christmas and let’s go, Brandon.”

Biden took the remark in stride. “Let’s go, Brandon, I agree,” he said.

It certainly wasn’t difficult to puzzle out what makes Schmeck tick, even before he spelled it out:

The southern Oregon father of four who ended a Christmas Eve call with President Joe Biden by declaring “Let’s go Brandon” told a former adviser to President Donald Trump this week that he believes the verifiably false claim that “the election was 100 percent stolen.”

Despite telling The Oregonian/OregonLive on Saturday that he was not a “Trumper” and the comment was in jest, Jared Schmeck said Monday he’s “proud” of using the conservative dig against Biden at the end of a live streamed Santa tracker call and called the moment “pretty darn funny.”

“Donald Trump is my president and he should still be president right now,” Schmeck told Steve Bannon in an interview on Bannon’s program, “War Room,” which airs on a network called “Real America’s Voice.”

Schmeck wore a “Make America Great Again” hat and struck a defiant tone in the conversation with Bannon, saying that using the euphemism for “F*** Joe Biden” was a way to express his dissatisfaction with the president.

Anyway, it goes without saying that Schmeck is now considering a run for office. This is, of course, completely unsurprising, given today’s ReTrumplican Party. Schmeck will probably get some traction too because he flattered Trump by insulting Biden and now wears that like a badge of honor. Obviously, it’s impressive in certain circles. So here we are:

An Oregon man who invoked a coded vulgar insult of President Biden…is considering running for office and says he would welcome former president Donald Trump’s blessing.

“I want to pray about it, see what God has for me,” Jared Schmeck said of his political ambitions during an interview this week with conservative Christian broadcaster Todd Starnes that focused on his use of the phrase ‘Let’s go Brandon.”

“At the end of the day, I want [God’s] will for my life and the direction that it goes,” Schmeck added. “And I strongly believe that standing up is the right thing to do here as long as that message that I’m portraying is glorifying his name. And yeah, I’ll see where it goes.”

“Something tells me if you do run, you’ll be invited to a certain place in Florida,” Starnes said, referring to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, where the former president now lives.

“I would be honored,” Schmeck replied.

The real question I have is: When Schmeck says that he “strongly believe[s] that standing up is the right thing to do here as long as that message that I’m portraying is glorifying his name,” does he mean glorifying God or glorifying Trump? Because certainly, they are not one and the same, no matter how much a large segment of White evangelicals have attempted to merge the two. And most certainly, God wasn’t glorified by Schmeck’s “Fuck Joe Biden” insult.

So I guess I’ve answered my own question.

–Dana