The Maga 'king' who preaches with an assault rifle and has a dark vision for US if Harris wins election

Pastor Sean Moon tells Pennsylvania gun rights festival that only Donald Trump can save the United States

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With a golden assault rifle at his shoulder and a crown of bullets on his head, Pastor Sean Moon delivers a grim warning to a gun rights festival in rural Pennsylvania: if Kamala Harris wins the presidential election on November 5, the US as we know it is finished.

Members of the audience, many with pistols on their hips, nod as the preacher predicts a Harris administration would usher in a “1984-like world” of totalitarian governments, Satanism and communism.

“If the torch of liberty is snuffed out in America, the world will enter a kingdom of hell on Earth,” he says. “The most evil, vile and wicked psychopaths will rule with despotism and cruelty, and crushing of every freedom protected by the Constitution.”

Such a dystopian vision might sound fringe but cataclysmic thinking like this has entered the mainstream for millions of US voters who see this year’s election as an inflection point for the country.

At Pastor Moon’s Freedom Festival in the small town of Greeley, near the New Jersey and New York state lines, Donald Trump supporters said only the former president can defend the US from a takeover by “communists” and an unchecked “invasion” of immigrants.

Festivalgoer Bob Styles, 73, a retired telecoms engineer, worries Ms Harris would oversee the dismantling of the country.

“The United States is not going to be the free United States that it is now,” said Mr Styles. “The left wants it to end.”

Several thousand people attended this year's event, held over an October weekend on the grounds of a sprawling gun factory. The plant builds Trump-labelled semi-automatic Tommy guns capable of holding 100-round magazines and pistols laser-etched with the former president's likeness, depicting him pumping his fist after an assassination attempt in July in Butler, western Pennsylvania.

Aside from the proliferation of firearms being carried openly, the “family fun” festival appeared at first sight to resemble any other autumn fair, offering pumpkin painting, food stands and a small petting zoo with rabbits and a tortoise.

But conversations were dominated by politics and the coming election, with many parroting debunked right-wing conspiracy theories as if they were fact. Patrons said they saw Mr Trump as being guided by God, with divine intervention at play after he survived the shooting in Butler and after a gunman in Florida appeared poised to open fire at him near a golf course last month.

Voters like these in Pennsylvania will have an outsize role in the national election. The state is critical for Ms Harris or Mr Trump to win if they are to secure a path to the White House, and whoever claims Pennsylvania will probably do so by only a narrow margin. Both the main parties have cumulatively spent hundreds of millions of dollars on radio, television and digital advertising across the state, according to AdImpact, the most for any state in any election.

American flags and Donald Trump memorabilia for sale at a festival stalls. Joshua Longmore / The National

Another prevailing sentiment at the festival, one echoed by Republicans across the US, is that the only way Mr Trump can lose the election is if the Democrats cheat. Since refusing to accept defeat in 2020, he and his allies have pushed a false narrative that President Joe Biden won through voter fraud – and they claim more mischief is afoot this year.

Mr Trump’s false narrative is now stated as reality by millions of Republicans, who say with certainty that this year’s election will be rigged if Ms Harris wins – but not if she loses.

“They're going to cheat, we know they’re going to cheat,” Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump adviser and a guest speaker, told the Freedom Festival. “We have to have a landslide where it doesn't matter how much they cheat, because it's so big.”

Even though he lost by seven million votes, Mr Trump tried to overturn the 2020 result through dozens of lawsuits that ultimately failed. He pressurised Georgia officials to try to “find” him more votes and a crowd of supporters, riled by his false claims, stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a violent attempt to stop his vice president, Mike Pence, from confirming Mr Biden’s win.

“I believe in my heart that he lost by a lot of foul play ... there’s no doubt in my mind,” said Mr Styles, wearing a red baseball cap emblazoned with the words “Trump, God and Guns”.

Mr Trump has spent years laying the groundwork to contest this year’s election, too. Democrats, for their part, have accused Mr Trump of being an aspiring dictator determined to shred the US Constitution and overturn democracy itself.

Deep mistrust means nearly three quarters of voters across the country are "very worried" about political violence, according to a poll this month by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Another poll, by the Public Religion Research Institute, found nearly one in five Republicans say that if Mr Trump loses the election, he should simply declare the result invalid and do whatever is necessary to seize office.

Many Democrats assume any violence will be orchestrated by Trump supporters if he loses, such as in the attack on the US Capitol in 2021. But here at the Freedom Festival, Republicans have explained away that day's violence as overblown and repeat a false claim that it was provoked by federal agents hiding in the crowd.

They say a Trump victory – not his defeat – would be the catalyst for future violence.

“I think we're probably going to see a lot of turmoil in our inner cities,” said festival attendee Charlie Stecker, with a customised AR-15 slung across his back. "A lot of things happen that can be very detrimental to the country, even, dare I say, and I don't like to say it, bordering on possible Civil War-type stuff."

Pastor Sean Moon carries his trademark golden AR-15 assault rifle. Joshua Longmore / The National

A handgun engraved with a likeness of a defiant Donald Trump after he was shot at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Joshua Longmore / The National

The Rod of Iron Freedom Festival is an annual event held in the battleground US state of Pennsylvania. Joshua Longmore / The National

Pastor Sean Moon raps on stage under his stage name King Bullethead. Joshua Longmore / The National

Former adviser to Donald Trump, Sebastian Gorka, gives a speech at the Freedom Festival in Greeley, Pennsylvania. Joshua Longmore / The National

An image of former president Mr Trump's face is emblazoned on an AR-15 assault rifle. Joshua Longmore / The National

Spectators cheer during a musical performance at the festival. Joshua Longmore / The National

A shop assistant at the Tommy Gun Warehouse shows off a Trump-branded handgun. Joshua Longmore / The National

US flags and Trump memorabilia for sale at a festival stall. Joshua Longmore / The National

Bottles of Trump honey are sold for $20 a unit. Joshua Longmore / The National

Campaigners handed out Trump signs and encouraged visitors to register to vote in the coming election. Joshua Longmore / The National

Donald Trump supporters look on as speakers encourage Pennsylvania residents to vote in the election next month. Joshua Longmore / The National

An assortment of Trump hats on sale. Joshua Longmore / The National

Charlie Stecker shows off his gun at what is said to be one of the largest 'open-carry' events in the US. Joshua Longmore / The National

Pastor Moon rails against the Democrats during a speech at the Freedom Festival. Joshua Longmore / The National

An AR-15 was available for festivalgoers to fire. Thomas Watkins / The National

AI-generated imagery venerating former president Mr Trump was widely displayed. Thomas Watkins / The National

A Trump-branded Tommy gun on sale for $2,599 on display at the Kahr Arms weapons factory in Greeley. Thomas Watkins / The National

From the Moonies to the Rod of Iron

Pastor Moon’s father is the late Sun-Myung moon, founder of South Korea's Unification Church, better known as the Moonies and famous for its mass wedding ceremonies. Following his father's death and an ensuing family schism, the pastor and his brother Justin Moon in 2015 set up their own sect called the Rod of Iron Ministries that glorifies the AR-15 assault rifle as the modern incarnation of the rod of iron that Jesus refers to in the Bible’s Book of Revelation.

“Jesus Christ is an assault weapons manufacturer, as he manufactures a scourge, which is a nine-tailed whip with blades on the end for the express purpose of assaulting the money changers in the temple,” Pastor Moon says.

Several hundred people from South Korea and Japan who were connected to the church attended the Freedom Festival, many of them wearing red Make America Great Again (Maga) baseball caps.

“It’s very important for Trump to be president,” said Yoko Yamazaki, who had travelled from Japan’s Ishikawa prefecture to hear Pastor Moon and show her support for Mr Trump, whom she believes would tell the Japanese government to oppose “communists” and China.

Pastor Moon’s church came to international attention after congregants started worshipping with AR-15s, leading to criticism that he was leading a dangerous cult. He espouses an aggressively homophobic worldview and attended the January 6 Capitol riot – he can be seen on social media after seemingly being pepper-sprayed. His church has made connections with top Maga figures and members of Mr Trump’s family, including his sons Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, who gave a speech at the gun factory when it opened in 2016.

The soft-spoken, goateed pastor envisions a future kingdom, over which he would preside as monarch, that will be created as the current system collapses.

“It's just the earthly kingdom of God, which is prophesied in the Bible. We don't see that as an authoritarian Christian state. We don't see it as a totalitarian Christian state. We see it as a libertarian, Republican monarchy,” he says in an interview with The National.

The preacher, 45, who moonlights as a pro-Trump religious rapper performing under the name King Bullethead, is speaking in a temple a short walk from the festival.

The building's idyllic setting belies the fire-and-brimstone tenor of his sermons. A koi carp-filled pond is fed by a gurgling stream outside, while maple trees with reddening leaves sway in the breeze near a pagoda.

But any aura of serenity is punctuated by the deafening sound of AR-15s being fired on an adjacent gun range, free for festival goers to use.

With an estimated 400 million guns in circulation, firearms already outnumber people in the US, which has a population of 345 million. Pastor Moon insists, though, that the country would be safer if more people carried weapons.

He chuckles at the suggestion he is a cult leader.

“The Democrats and the [neoconservatives] are a cult,” he says. “[Those] people believe in government, not God … we are patriotic Americans.”

Former president Donald Trump's face is emblazoned on an AR-15 assault rifle. Joshua Longmore / The National