Former U.S. President Donald Trump urged Evangelicals on Saturday to vote in large numbers in the upcoming presidential election scheduled for November to help him win, promising to "strongly" protect religious freedom if elected.
During an event at a hotel in Washington for hundreds of participants at the "Faith and Freedom Coalition" conference, Trump stated, "Evangelicals and Christians don’t vote as much as they should." He added, "They go to church every Sunday but don’t vote. We have to make sure they vote this time only." He continued, "After four years you’re not obligated to vote. Okay? After four years, don’t vote, I don’t care," eliciting laughter from the audience.
The Republican billionaire assured the Evangelicals, many of whom are very loyal to him and played a significant role in his rise to power in 2016, that he would defend their faith. He had previously helped them achieve a historic victory concerning abortion by appointing three conservative justices to the Supreme Court.
On the sensitive issue of abortion, many Evangelicals seek a nationwide ban. Trump welcomed the fact that the matter was "pulled" from the federal government and returned to the states, saying, “The people will decide, and that’s how it should be. The people decide now.”
Trump continued, "We will protect Christians in our schools, in our military, in our administration, in our workplaces, in our hospitals. We will also create a new federal mission to combat bias against Christians," aimed at investigating "discrimination" and "persecution" against them in the United States.
The former president asserted that the Democratic camp seeks to "silence" Christians and "weaken their morale." Trump said, "They don’t want you to vote, that’s why you have to vote. If you vote, we can’t lose," to which the crowd responded by chanting, "Vote! Vote! Vote!"
Trump faces off against his Democratic rival, current President Joe Biden, in a televised debate next Thursday, four months before the presidential election.
According to a Pew Research Center survey published in March, nearly half of Americans (49 percent) believe that the influence of religion is declining in the U.S., and that this is a negative development. The number of Americans identifying as Christians has dropped from about 90 percent in the 1990s to less than two-thirds of the population in 2022, largely due to the rising number of those religiously unaffiliated.
For many white evangelical Christians, it’s important that religion remains closely related to public life.
The former president also encouraged gun owners to head to the polls. He said, "You have a gun. If you want to keep your gun, you’d better go vote," adding that their rights have become "besieged."
In the rest of his speech, the Republican billionaire touched on his favorite topics, such as immigration. He declared amid cheers, "On the first day (of a new term), I will launch the largest deportation operation in U.S. history." He also promised to build a "great Iron Dome over our country," referring to a missile defense system. He remarked, "Israel has one; why don’t we have one?"
For their part, Biden’s campaign team criticized Trump’s speech in a statement, describing it as "incoherent" and "disjointed."
