In his new race for the White House, Donald Trump’s newest target is evangelical leaders who are not backing him in the Republican primary, at least not yet, but his complaint is generating unhappy comments about the former president’s demands.
In an interview with CBN, chief political analyst David Brody asked Trump about a lack of public support from that vital base of the Republican Party.
“I don’t really care,” said Trump, who obviously does care about the lack of endorsements from evangelical leaders after he announced a White House run two months ago.
“It’s a sign of disloyalty,” Trump continued. “There’s great disloyalty in the world of politics, and that’s a sign of disloyalty because nobody… has ever done more for ‘right to life’ than Donald Trump.”
Trump went on to point out three justices are sitting on the U.S. Supreme Court, where Roe v Wade was overturned last summer, thanks to him.
To his credit, Trump also spoke in person at the annual March for Life rally in 2020, the only Republican president to ever do so, but just two weeks ago the former president blamed the GOP’s midterm losses on staunch pro-life candidates who turned off voters. That comment angered many pro-life leaders who felt betrayed by the pro-life former president.
Back in November, Trump mocked Gov. Ron DeSantis at a political rally because the popular governor is expected to run for president and thus be a major rival to Trump in 2024.
In a calculated effort to get an early start, Trump announced his White House run Nov. 16, now two months ago, but the momentum of his campaign was disappointing his staff just weeks later.
‘I look at who can win’
Reacting to Trump’s comments to Brody, “Today’s Issues” radio host Tim Wildmon told his audience a lot of political water has passed under the bridge since 2016.
“I’m sure [Trump] sees it that way. I don’t see it that way,” said Wildmon, who is president of the Mississippi-based American Family Association. “Just because somebody has a different take on politics in 2022 than they did in 2016, that doesn’t mean that they are disloyal.”
Wildmon, who routinely praised and criticized Trump on the air during his term, attended Trump’s 2017 inauguration where he also attended a worship service that morning as an invited guest. At the worship service, evangelist James Robison and pastor Robert Jeffress took turns preaching to the gathering at St. John’s Church.
Back in 2016, during the Republican presidential primary, Jeffress raised eyebrows when he became the first prominent evangelical leader to publicly back Trump’s candidacy in what was then a crowded field of candidates. The justification for supporting the trash-talking billionaire over other candidates, Jeffress said at the time, was Trump was the most likely candidate to defeat Hillary Clinton on Election Day.
Reached this week about Trump’s comments to CBN, Jeffress declined to comment to AFN.
Back on the “Today’s Issues” radio show, co-host Ed Vitagliano said he is waiting to see who jumps into the White House run as 2024 nears.
“I look at who can win,” Vitagliano said, “and in winning hinder the far-left agenda, which I think is destructive and corrosive to our country.”
If Trump does win the GOP nomination for president again, AFN news director Fred Jackson predicted a majority of Evangelicals will repeat 2016 in order to keep the Democrat nominee out of the White House.
Editor’s Note: The American Family Association is the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates AFN.net.
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Copyright American Family News. Reprinted with permission.
I really liked Donald Trump’s positions, policies and actions that were great for our country. But he does not know when to shut up.
Trump mocked Gov. Ron DeSantis at a political rally because the popular governor is expected to run for president and thus be a major rival to Trump in 2024. This was not respectful toward another great Republican.
If Trump does not improve his abrasive character, he may lose to Ron Desantis.
He’s already lost MY vote.
I’ve said for years that all Conservative Christians needed to do was embrace their common interests and beliefs and that if ever organized, would be able to throw off the yoke of secular dominance of being ruled by a radical minority which even when in power just drives down the roads that lead to their own and our destruction, paved of course with their good intentions that they disguise in Christian concepts, but execute in self-centered secular paganism. Trump was the first to recognize, value and organize various Christian concepts and apply them to politics. His problem is that the baggage he brings with him has become a cross too heavy for even a Christian to bear. Instead of humbling himself and admitting his faults, he stubbornly clung to a ego the size of a planet, never humbling himself in Christ-like fashion to correct the faults that eventually became his own undoing. I always viewed him not as the Savior, but the voice on one crying in the wilderness to make straight in the desert a highway for a much better man,,A man of God’s own choosing, not Trump’s own choosing who like the past election has shown,,,when he is the chooser, they most often become the loser. Like John the Baptist his contributions to the Christian Conservative causes were large, and in many way none yet proven better. Unlike John, Trump refuses to step aside when the time comes when better arrives at the scene, sans baggage and pure of heart and self-less intention.
The more he continues to talk like this, the more republican voters will consider leaving him. Not very wise in my opinion, as people like me are watching rising star DeSantis closely as an alternative. He comes without the Trump egotistical mouth baggage. We don’t need it.
Exactly. More and more he’s showing how much of a spoilt brat/petulant child he is.
I already prefer DeSantis before the latest temper tantrum.
“Sic Semper Tyrannis” is what John WIlkes Booth shouted as he knocked off President Lincoln.
“SicK Temper Tyrranis” is what the voters will reply when they knock Trump off in the voting booth.