Former President Donald J. Trump spoke to the Evangelical Faith and Freedom Coalition in Washington on Saturday, presenting himself as a defender of religious freedom and a martyr for Americans of faith and denouncing what he called mass persecution of Christians.
Alluding to his own legal troubles, Trump also suggested his political beliefs were being targeted and portrayed himself as having “wounds all over his body”.
“At the end of the day, it's not me they're after, it's you,” Trump said. “I just happen to be standing there with great pride in their eyes.”
“We need Christian voters to turn out in record numbers to say to evil Joe Biden: 'You're fired!'” he added to thunderous applause.
Trump's appeal to evangelicals comes at a crucial moment in the presidential election. President Biden and Trump are debating on CNN on Thursday in an unusually early session with polls suggesting a close race. FiveThirtyEight's tally of national polls shows Biden with a slight lead over Trump for the first time since records began in March, and the company's election forecast suggests the outcome of the election is effectively a coin toss.
Biden is traveling to Camp David this weekend to prepare for the debate, accompanied by his former chief of staff, Ron Klain, who has spent his post-White House career helping the president prepare for the debate, and other key advisers.
The appearance marked something of a triumphant return to the event for the former president, who is now considered a leading Republican presidential candidate. Thirteen years ago, Trump was hardly an image of a social conservative warrior. Speaking before the group for the ninth time, the former president voiced his support for many of the culture war talking points raised by conservatives and religious leaders and outlined his vision for what a second term as president could offer the Christian right.
He supported a new Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public classrooms, and wondered aloud whether anyone was opposed to displaying religious literature in schools, adding that “religious rights do not end at the front door of a public school.”
He also pledged to “shut down the federal Department of Education” if elected, a promise that drew a standing ovation from the audience and lawmakers began chanting “Vote, vote, vote.”
He also repeated the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him and fabricated a narrative that the Biden administration is persecuting Christians for their faith while suggesting his own legal troubles made him a martyr on behalf of his supporters. He said that if elected, he would “create a new federal task force to combat anti-Christian bigotry across the country.”
Trump's fierce, righteous rhetoric has been fused with efforts to appease parts of the Christian right who say his policies on abortion fall short. His supporters have implored the former president to support a nationwide abortion ban or adopt a plan to criminalize abortion pills through the implementation of the Comstock Act.
On these issues, Trump did not give hard-line evangelicals what they had hoped for: He repeatedly assured them that those who support stricter regulations “should follow them wholeheartedly,” but he added that “we have to win the election.”
Michael Whatley, a Trump ally and chairman of the Republican National Committee, supported Trump's position against a nationwide abortion ban after his own speech to an evangelical group ahead of Trump's speech.
“We've been fighting for more than 50 years to end the tyranny of Roe v. Wade,” Whatley told reporters after his speech at the Faith and Freedom Coalition, adding, “This needs to be a state-by-state debate.”
“We feel very good about the campaign and the direction we're heading on this issue,” he added.
Donald Eason, senior pastor of Metro Church of Christ in suburban Detroit, who attended the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, said he supports leaving abortion issues to the states.
“Any power not vested in the federal government automatically becomes part of state government. The Supreme Court should never have gotten involved in this in the first place,” Eason said, but left open the possibility of nationwide regulation, adding: “Of course, Congress could step in and issue a nationwide ban.”
Eason also supported Louisiana's law on the Ten Commandments in public classrooms and said the policy should be expanded to other states.
When Trump addressed members of the Faith and Freedom Coalition last year, he was just one of many Republican presidential candidates vying for the support of the Christian right, including former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Trump now has control of the Republican Party again, and his defeated primary rivals have been removed from the stage and replaced by allies, including Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, former Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota and former Housing Secretary Ben Carson, who have all announced themselves as his running mate.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who hinted at a presidential run this year but ultimately declined to oppose Trump's nomination, was given a rare speaking spot at the conference as one of the final speakers to address the crowd before Trump took the stage.