Gerald Fitzhugh is a minor character in the Left Behind series, but is a main character in Neesa Hart's Left Behind: End of State series. He is the President of the United States during the Rapture. He is married to Wilma Fitzhugh, who was raptured.
Biography
After the Rapture
Holding office when the Rapture occurs, Fitzhugh initially supports the moves taken by the United Nations and its new Secretary General, Nicolae Carpathia, to restore peace. Prior to this he had personally requested the company of Nobel Prize-winning Israeli chemist Chaim Rosenzweig, to make an offer for a miracle agricultural fertilizer formula that was only exclusively available to Rosenzweig's home nation of Israel. However, Chaim turned him down and would later license the formula to distribution by the United Nations as part of a seven-year protection treaty with Israel (the same covenant that would begin the Tribulation).
Carpathia convinces Fitzhugh to destroy 90% of the United States' weapons, and to donate the remaining 10% to the U.N. (a requirement of all nations wishing to belong to the new world government, the "Global Community"), and the President initially appears be a benevolent pacifist. He also voices his opposition against the growing militia movement, comprised of people refusing to give away their weapons (presumably, U.S. Army soldiers and survivalists). During the ceremony of the signing of the covenant, he was introduced as “the Honorable Gerald Fitzhugh, president of the United States of America, the greatest friend Israel has ever had."
However, Fitzhugh is cruelly disillusioned after he discovers that his position as the one of the world's most powerful heads of state will be severely downgraded to that of advisers to the Global Community subpotentate assigned to North America, placing it on equal footing with the Canadian Prime Minister and the President of Mexico. His new office would no longer be the White House's Oval Office but a rather ordinary one in the Old Executive Office Building, with limited security provided by the GC.
Realizing that these moves would effectively make him Carpathia's puppet, Fitzhugh secretly aligns himself with the militia and rallies the support of Great Britain and Egypt, threatening to assassinate the newly retitled potentate during a visit to Washington, D.C. But when Carpathia discovers Fitzhugh has turned on him, he flees the city and launches a retaliatory strike, in which Fitzhugh is killed.
Appearances
Left Behind: End of State series
- End of State: Now All the Rules have Changed
- Impeachable Offense: The Conspiracy Grows...
- Necessary Evils: A Time for Treason
In other media
Left Behind III: World at War
In the third movie of the original Left Behind series, Left Behind: World at War, Fitzhugh is played by Louis Gossett Jr.. The third film in the series revolves more around him unlike the previous the two that revolved around Buck Williams and Rayford Steele. He opposes Nicolae Carpathia's rule, so he commits suicide by carrying a transponder that allows a guided cruise missile to home in on his location, with the expectation that the missile would take out Carpathia with him. Carpathia, however, was unharmed by the missile, even though Fitzhugh died and the building they were in imploded.
Trivia
- One significant difference between his character in the books and his character in the film is that Gerald Fitzhugh became a believer prior to his attempt of taking down Nicolae Carpathia with a guided missile directed straight towards him in his Global Community office.
- It is mentioned that he owns a ranch, and George H.W. Bush is said to be one of Fitzhugh's predecessors as the U.S. president.
- The name Gerald Fitzhugh may be an allusion to John Fitzgerald Kennedy, one of the more popular U.S. presidents of the past.