Donald Trump told a group of evangelicals that they “cannot afford to sit on the sidelines” in the 2024 elections, imploring them at some point to “go out and vote, Christians, please!”
Trump also supported displays of the Ten Commandments in schools and other places during a speech to a group of politically influential evangelical Christians in Washington on Saturday. He caused applause, calling new law signed in Louisiana this week requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom.
“Has anyone read Thou Shalt Not Steal? I mean, has anyone read this incredible stuff? It’s just incredible,” Trump said at a meeting of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. “They don’t want the price to go up. It’s a crazy world.”
A day earlier, Trump posted an endorsement of the new law on his social media account, saying, “I REALLY LIKE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS AND MANY OTHER PLACES SO. READ THIS – HOW CAN WE, AS A NATION, BE WRONG???”
Former President and supposed The Republican presidential candidate has backed the move as he seeks to galvanize his supporters among the religious right, which vehemently backed him after initially being suspicious of the twice-divorced New York tabloid celebrity when he first ran for president in 2016 year.
This support continued despite his belief in the first of four criminal cases he faces, in which a jury last month found him guilty of falsifying business records for what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election. Daniels claims she had sexual contact with Trump ten years earlier, which he denies.
Trump declared opposition sign a nationwide ban on abortion and his reluctance to detail some of his views on the issue is at odds with many members of the evangelical movement, a key part of Trump’s base that is expected to help him win over voters in his November rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden.
But while many in the movement would like to see him do more to restrict abortion, they hail him as the cause’s greatest champion because of his role in appointing the U.S. Supreme Court justices who struck down the nation’s abortion rights in 2022.
Trump highlighted Saturday by saying, “We did something amazing,” but the issue will be left to the people in the states.
“Every voter has to follow their heart and do the right thing, but we also have to get elected,” he said.
While he still takes credit for overturning Roe v. Wade, Trump also warned that abortion could be banned. politically difficult for Republicans. For months, he put off questions about his position on a national ban.
Last year, when Trump addressed He told the Faith and Freedom Coalition that the federal government plays a “vital role in protecting unborn life” but gave no details beyond that.
In April this year Trump said he believes in this problem must now be left to the discretion of the states. He later said in an interview that he would not sign a nationwide abortion ban if it passed Congress. He has still refused to detail his position on women’s access to the abortion pill mifepristone.
About two-thirds of Americans believe abortion should be legal, according to a poll conducted last year by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Attendees at a gathering of evangelicals on Saturday said that while they would like to see a national ban on abortion, Trump is not losing his deep support.
“I would rather see him sign the national ban,” said Jerry Dickinson, a 78-year-old retired social worker and Faith and Freedom member from New Jersey. “However, I understand that the Constitution requires that this decision be left to the discretion of the states.”
Dickinson said she loathes her state’s abortion law, which does not place restrictions on the procedure based on gestational age. But she said other than preferring a national ban, leaving the issue up to the state “is the better alternative.”
About 8 in 10 white evangelical Christian voters supported Trump in 2020, and nearly 4 in 10 Trump voters identified as white evangelical Christians, according to AP VoteCast, a large-scale poll of the electorate. White evangelical Christians made up about 20% of total voters that year.
In addition to offering its own support in the general election, the Faith and Freedom Coalition plans to help get votes for Trump and other Republicans by seeking to use volunteers and paid workers to knock on millions of doors in battleground states.
Trump is also rallying voters in Philadelphia, where supporters gathered to hear him speak at the arena.
Tyler Cecconi, 25, of Richmond, Virginia, said he’s glad Trump is getting out of his comfort zone and going to places that might not be red. At the venue, organizers hung a banner that read “Philadelphia is Trump Country.”
“He shows people that whether you vote for him or not, whether the county is blue or red, it doesn’t matter to him,” Cecconi said. “The President is for everyone in this country.”
Pennsylvania Senate Republican candidate Dave McCormick attended the rally and took the stage to talk to voters about the economy and immigration.
“This economy is not working for most Pennsylvanians and is not working for most Americans,” McCormick said.
Earlier in Washington, Trump returned several times during his roughly 90-minute speech on the U.S.-Mexico border and at one point, after calling migrants crossing it “tough,” joked that he told his friend Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, to attract them to a new version of the sport.
“Why don’t you create a league of migrants and create your own regular league of fighters. And then you have the champion of your league, these are the greatest fighters in the world, fighting the champion of migrants,” Trump described his words to White. “I think migrants can win, they are so tough. He didn’t like the idea too much.”
His story drew laughter and applause from the crowd.
The Biden campaign responded to Trump’s remarks by saying it was “appropriate” that Trump, a convicted felon, spent time at a religious conference threatening immigration and “bragging about taking away Americans’ freedoms.”
“Trump’s rambling, incoherent tirade in his own words showed voters that he is a threat to our freedoms and is too dangerous to be allowed near the White House again,” campaign spokeswoman Sarafina Citica said in a statement.