Nearly three thousand years ago an ultra-successful business leader of real estate projects in Jerusalem rode a populist wave to the summit of political power in Israel. His Hebrew name, Jeroboam, meant May the People Be Great, eerily similar to President Trump’s motto, Make America Great Again. Jeroboam was intent upon Making Israel Great Again. After his stunning ascension to the throne, aided by the interference of a powerful leader of a foreign government, this new king moved into his palace with his beautiful, foreign-born, multi-lingual wife. Quickly he set out to fulfill his Israel-first promises by building his Wall and Draining the Swamp, two acts forever earning him the scorn of ancient Israel’s media class, the prophets and scribes. Though successful in bettering his people’s lives through creating a vibrant economy, Jeroboam was unrelentingly maligned by Jerusalem’s Establishment, which detected in this unexpected king a core corruption overshadowing the significant accomplishments of his administration. The historical assessment of the biblical narrative is thoroughly filled with Jeroboam-hatred which, in the light of today’s mainstream media attacks on President Trump, the author diagnoses as Jeroboam Derangement Syndrome. In Midrashic fashion the author allows Jeroboam to offer his side of the story, unheard for three millennia, through his dream of Fox’s hit show, The Five, inviting Jeroboam and his family to set the record straight. Jeroboam’s claim that the Bible’s assessment of his reign is fake news doesn’t go unchallenged as the prophet Ahijah, one of the king’s fiercest critics during his lifetime, joins the panel of The Five.Jeroboam Derangement Syndrome gives a much-maligned ancient king of Israel a voice that sounds like America’s current president. Defending himself against the indictment of the biblical narrative, especially in his building the wall and draining the swamp, he finds himself defending President Trump.
