Rabbi Mendel Kessin is an internationally renowned lecturer and educator who has delivered numerous lectures worldwide. He began teaching about the end-of-days implications of current events and politics more than a decade ago. Rabbi Kessin recently released a lecture framing the recent arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife by the Trump administration as part of the process of redemption.

Rabbi Kessin did not present his lecture as commentary on politics. He presented it as an explanation of function. Speaking with characteristic bluntness, Rabbi Kessin argued that current geopolitical events—Venezuela, Iran, the strengthening of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, and the broader reordering of global power—are not random developments or policy choices. They are stages in a Biblically defined process of redemption. In that process, President Trump plays a specific role, even if he does not understand it himself.

“I was describing Trump—what his job is, which he himself does not know,” Rabbi Kessin said at the outset of the lecture. “I want to bring everybody up to date.”

Rabbi Kessin framed Trump’s actions in the Western Hemisphere as deliberate steps toward restoring order, not as ideological crusades. “Why did he take over Venezuela?” he asked. “He seems to be adopting a certain position, and that position is to clean up the hemisphere.” What stood out to Rabbi Kessin was not only the action itself, but Trump’s indifference to elite opinion. “What’s interesting is that he’s doing it and he doesn’t care what people say.”

To Rabbi Kessin, this posture reflects something more profound than strategy. “What is important to understand is what has come over him,” he said. He connected Trump’s actions to a revival of the Monroe Doctrine, explaining, “He’s trying to reinforce what’s called the Monroe Doctrine, which James Monroe laid out—that foreign powers cannot simply enter the hemisphere and do whatever they want.”

But Rabbi Kessin made clear that this was only the surface layer. “What Trump’s job really is,” he said, “is to assist the Mashiach. That is a critical job.”

At the center of Rabbi Kessin’s teaching was the distinction between the two messianic roles described in Jewish tradition. “The main idea of Mashiach ben Yosef is to remove evil—to transform the world,” he explained. Redemption, he said, does not begin with holiness or spirituality. It begins with removal. “There are different levels of the transformation. The first level is to remove evil. Get rid of it.”

Rabbi Kessin then laid out a moral hierarchy that he described as foundational to understanding current events. “After you remove evil, you remove what’s called bad,” he said. “Bad is not evil in an intensified way, but it is destructive. It borders on destruction.” He gave a concrete example. “I would imagine that’s something like the fraud that took place in Minneapolis—$18 billion. It’s not the evil of selling drugs, which kills people directly, but it harms people from afar. The scale of the scandal is astounding.”

Only after evil and destructive corruption are removed, Rabbi Kessin said, can a society move upward. “After bad, the next level is that good reigns. People think more in terms of good than just getting along.” Above that is tzedek, righteousness. “Righteousness is much greater than good because it has an element of holiness to it. It’s much more in line with Judaism.”

Rabbi Kessin anchored this in Scripture, quoting directly from the Bible. “What does God want? God wants righteousness,” he said, citing the verse, “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof—Righteousness, righteousness you shall pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20). He emphasized that righteousness is not ethical minimalism. It is in alignment with Divine will.

Beyond righteousness lies kedushah. “Holiness means to think in terms of a different universe—a spiritual universe—where your behavior is in accordance with a higher dimension,” he said. Above even holiness, Rabbi Kessin taught, is the ultimate level: the Divine itself.

Within this structure, Trump’s role is sharply defined and limited. “Trump is an assistant to the Messianic King,” Rabbi Kessin said. “His role is to transform the world from the side of evil, corruption, and decay, and to help Mashiach ben Yosef change the world into a place of goodness.” He repeated that Trump is unaware of this role. “He doesn’t know that,” Rabbi Kessin said, “but he’s doing it.”

This framework shaped Rabbi Kessin’s interpretation of Trump’s actions in Latin America. “That’s why he’s invading Venezuela,” he said flatly. “He will invade Cuba next. In many ways, he’s cleaning up the Western Hemisphere. That is exactly what cleaning up evil looks like.”

Rabbi Kessin showed little patience for moral outrage over these actions. “Do not accuse Trump of doing something illegal,” he warned. “He is ridding the world of evil.” He challenged critics directly. “Would you rather have evil continue and kill people?” He framed the question in human terms. “If the one who died was your child, would you then be so merciful to these dictators?”

He pointed specifically to Venezuela’s dictator. “How many parents have buried their kids because of Maduro?” he asked. “Where is your mercy for the evil that Maduro has done?” To Rabbi Kessin, condemning action against tyrants is not compassion but moral blindness. “Those who criticize Trump for attacking and taking over Venezuela,” he said, “have no idea that this stamps them as being unmerciful and as supporting evil.”

Rabbi Kessin extended this analysis to Israel, arguing that Trump’s role includes strengthening Israeli sovereignty. He said Trump would enable Israel “to have Judea and Samaria,” calling this “a key to the descent of the Beit HaMikdash.”

He rejected the notion that the Third Temple is a political or architectural project. “The Third Temple is not something we build from scratch,” he said. “There is a corresponding Temple in Heaven that contains the Divine Presence at an incredible level of intensity.” That Temple, he explained, descends. “It’s not new. It’s new for us, but it already exists above.”

For that descent to occur, Rabbi Kessin stressed, the world must be purified. “In order for this to happen, the world has to be cleaned up. That is Trump’s job, which he’s doing.” He said Trump would also play a role in stabilizing the Middle East. “You’re going to have Arab nations, the Abraham Accords—but first, the main project is Iran.”

Rabbi Kessin described Iran as a spiritual as well as geopolitical enemy. “The fall of Iran is a major destruction of the kelipah—the husk of evil,” he said. He tied Iran’s decline to the Jewish calendar, noting that events began on the 10th of Tevet, the day the decree to destroy the Temple was issued. “Now we’re seeing the reverse,” he said. “The beginning of the fall of Iran happened on Asarah b’Tevet. That’s amazing.”

He traced the progression through the months of redemption. “After Tevet comes Shevat. After Shevat comes Adar. Adar is the month of Mashiach. That’s when Purim eradicated the evil of Haman. After Adar comes Nisan, the month of redemption.”

Rabbi Kessin concluded with a warning and a declaration. “Do not fret that Trump is the agent,” he said. “That’s his role.” Quoting the Sages, he added, “The elder will serve the younger. That is prophecy unfolding.”

In Rabbi Kessin’s view, history is no longer concealed. Evil is being removed openly, forcefully, and without apology. Those who oppose that process, he warned, will be judged accordingly. “In the end,” he said, “you’re accusing someone of removing evil—which is a tremendous mitzvah.”

Trump, knowingly or not, is clearing the ground. The next stage, Rabbi Kessin made clear, belongs to Mashiach ben David, who will establish a kingdom of righteousness and holiness. The cleanup comes first. The redemption follows.