Renzo Downey
Former President Donald Trump fielded questions Thursday from religious leaders on a call with a group meant to shore up support from evangelical Christians.
The National Faith Advisory Board is based on the Trump White House’s Faith and Opportunity Initiative. President Joe Biden ended that program when he took office.
The coalition is intended to consolidate support from evangelical Christians. But the former President said the group would also defend other religions’ freedoms.
Religion would be the biggest loser of the 2020 election if Biden won, Trump said he predicted during the presidential debates. And things have turned out worse than he thought.
“What they’re doing to religion, what they’re doing to Christianity, it’s a very sad, sad thing for our country,” Trump said.
“They want to take your religious freedoms away,” he continued later. “In terms of a threat, they want to take them away.”
Trump said his White House opened its doors to all, especially the faith community.
“One of my greatest honors was fighting for religious liberty and for defending the Judeo-Christian values and principles of our nation’s founding,” he said.
The former President touted accomplishments like moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and the Abraham Accords, which saw the first normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
He also touted removing the “Johnson Amendment” from the federal tax code, which prohibits religious organizations and many nonprofits from endorsing or opposing political candidates. However, the Washington Post reports that the executive order Trump claims ended the Johnson Amendment didn’t do that. The law remains on the books and the U.S. Department of Justice says tax laws on religious organizations weren’t lifted.
Trump also highlighted other accomplishments, like promoting gasoline and oil for energy independence. Meanwhile, he hit Biden for how the War in Afghanistan unfolded, and for inflation.
Trump still contends he won the 2020 election.
“We have to change election results, and we have to change the election. This election was rigged and robbed, stolen, and we have to work on that and we also have to look to the future, ’22 and ’24,” Trump said.
However, the former President noted he only received half of the Catholic vote and about a quarter of the Jewish vote.
“I think they have to get together,” he said. “There has to be a little bit more unity with the religious groups all represented on this call.”
At the top of the call, Trump paid tribute to the service members who died in Afghanistan last week and those affected by Hurricane Ida and its remnants, from Louisiana to the Northeast.
Trump said they “have a chance” at 2022 and 2024 now because of how Biden ended the nation’s involvement in Afghanistan and the ensuing “disgrace.”
“We didn’t lose a soldier in 18 months. And then when I got out, all of a sudden they started claiming all land,” Trump said. “They weren’t doing anything when I was there.”
The National Faith Advisory Board is headed by Paula White, a Florida televangelist who served in the Trump administration for evangelical outreach under the White House’s Faith and Opportunity Initiative.
“You’ve conquered the business world, the media world, the sports world, the political world, and I believe that is because the hand of God is on you and your force and this world to bring forth greater things,” White said when introducing the former President.
6 comments
PeterH
September 2, 2021 at 4:49 pm
From the article:
“We didn’t lose a soldier in 18 months. And then when I got out, all of a sudden they started claiming all land,” Trump said. “They weren’t doing anything when I was there.”
Donald Trump
Facts First:
76 American soldiers we killed in America’s longest war in Afghanistan before Trump’s second impeachment.
Of course the Taliban didn’t conquer and reclaim Afghan real estate during the Trump administration! In February of 2020 Trump and Pompeo negotiated America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Taliban only needed to wait-out the timetable they negotiated with Trump.
AND WAITING WAS EASY FOR THE TALIBAN ….. BECAUSE TRUMP FAILED TO NEGOTIATE AMERICA’S EXIT WITH THE AFGHAN GOVERNMENT.
AND REPUBLICANS ARE SURPRISED WITH THE OUTCOME!
Alex
September 2, 2021 at 5:40 pm
Jesus would have thrown Trump out of the Temple.
Ron Ogden
September 2, 2021 at 6:43 pm
Acting on his own beliefs and in accord with the will of the American people, President Trump honorably negotiated the end of American involvement in Afghanistan. NOBODY (especially the two above) complained. Joe Biden presided over one of the greatest military debacles in American history, knowing all along, as it was revealed yesterday, that the Taliban would conquer Afghanistan within days. Furthermore, Joe Biden lied to the American people. He knew it would happen, he tried to convince the leaders of Afghanistan to cover it up, and he lied to the American people to cover his pathetic ass. The responsibility for this does not lie fully with him, after all he is just Joe Biden being Joe Biden, it lies with every Democrat, liberal and progressive in America, including the two here, who installed this overinflated bag of hogwash in office, under very questionable circumstances. You got what you wanted when American service members died at the airport gate, Democrats. Stand up to it.
Peterh
September 2, 2021 at 6:46 pm
Ogden…..Magical thinking is not reality.
Alex
September 2, 2021 at 7:40 pm
Lol
I didn’t complain because it’s one of the few things Trump did right (despite not including the Afghan Government as he should have, which contributed to the chaos), and which the majority of Americans supported, and continue to support today.
Yep, America knows leaving was the right thing to do, but Biden didn’t handle it well. He’ll take his lumps and not accuse some Deep State conspiracy nonsense of trying a coup. He will survive this intact.
Oh, and you believe Trump’s Big Lie that the election was stolen from him huh?
No wonder you have everything else wrong too.
Susan Puzio
September 2, 2021 at 8:45 pm
One of the biggest blunders for Donald Trump was his association with Paula White who is a sad excuse for a “Christian.” I doubt her Christianity as she promotes and praises cult leader Mrs. Moon and she once promoted watching porn from her pulpit. You can see the video here. https://youtu.be/1sviw4ed8IQ
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