Washington: In a turbulent start to his reelection campaign, he was indicted over hush money payments to a porn star and found responsible in a sexual abuse lawsuit, but America's evangelicals just can't give up on Donald Trump.
The 45th president of the United States, who is running to be the 47th, has spent years embroiled in legal and moral scandals, including claims that he abused his position and attempted to rig an election. He has also been accused of having affairs.
The 77-year-old Republican is still incredibly popular among Christians, as demonstrated by the 3,000 evangelicals from the Faith and Freedom Coalition who came together for Road to Majority in Washington over the weekend.
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In his characteristically apocalyptic speech at the closing gala, Trump said, "Together we're warriors in a righteous crusade to stop the arsonists, the atheists, the globalists, and the Marxists," to rapturous applause.
They are exactly that. And we'll rebuild our Republic as a unified people under God.
Trump's white evangelical supporters needed some convincing when he declared his candidature for president in 2015. But as soon as they started, they went all-in.
In 2016 and 2020, non-Hispanic white Republicans who regularly attend church supported him by 81 percent and 76 percent, respectively. These numbers astound those who doubt the former reality TV star's religious credentials.
Suzzanne Monk, a 50-year-old conservative political activist, told AFP that the difference between a representative and a leader is what accounts for Trump's enduring appeal.
Many of the politicians we have witnessed over the years are representatives, and they only take the bare minimum of steps to ensure their reelection. Donald J. Trump considers situations and works to improve them.
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The more obvious choice for evangelicals would seem to be Trump's renown devout vice president Mike Pence, who is currently polling a dismal third in the race for the 2024 nomination. He was jeered at the 2021 Road to Majority for refusing to work with Trump to overturn his election loss, but this year's applause was largely civil.
Chris Christie, a former governor of New Jersey, was the only speaker to openly criticise Donald Trump, and his remarks drew loud jeers from the audience.
The conference was held one year after the US Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to an abortion on demand, and Trump has expressed concern about some of the more onerous restrictions being pushed in conservative states.
Additionally, he angered some Christian right leaders by attributing Republican underperformance in the 2022 midterm elections to severe restrictions on abortion; as a result, he has refused to endorse a federal ban during the 2024 campaign.
The star of the show, however, was undoubtedly the twice-divorced Trump, who is being investigated for paying a porn actress hush money in exchange for an alleged sexual encounter.
"I think it's a really brave thing to do. More applause erupted when he said, "I'm being indicted for you, and I think the 'you' is more than 200 million people who love our country.
The founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, Ralph Reed, refuted claims that evangelicals have formed a "cult of personality" around Donald Trump in his opening remarks.
Delegates at the conference seemed to concur; many of them spoke favourably of Trump's record rather than making remarks about his personality. First, that he fights for his supporters like no one else in politics; and second, that he delivered more of their policy priorities than any other modern president, from defending religious freedoms to nominating three Supreme Court justices who severely restricted abortion rights. These two theories emerged as the arguments for another Trump term.
The political activist Monk cited Trump's early support for parental choice in education and the fact that he was the first sitting president to attend the annual March for Life protest in Washington in 2020.
The question, "Do we match? Do we share a common identity? It's about 'Will you put my values into policy?'" she remarked. And that's why everyone here adores Donald Trump.
While Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was Donald Trump's main primary opponent, Enzo Alcindor, the manager of a real estate office in south Florida, claimed he had cast two votes for him, he would fall four-square behind Trump in 2024.
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Alcindor, who is in his 50s and immigrated to the United States from Haiti in 1986, claims that the other candidates "do not have the melons" to stand up for us, fight for us, and protect us from the system. There is only one candidate for me, therefore. President Donald Trump is present.