I shared this story over dinner yesterday evening and it raised eyebrows. Incredulous or not so incredulous, see the video for yourselves from a July 26 presentation Donald Trump gave at a Turning Point Action gathering of Christians where he is urging them to vote in greater numbers.
Trump's comments are so inflammatory and grotesque that they merit re-posting alongside this New York Times piece on the matter today. I wonder how this would appeal to Christians he's trying to reach anyway? After all, Christians aren't a monolith. They're also the denizens of a democracy from which all have benefitted and cherished.
That said, his targeted audience is white Christian evangelicals that according to Roll Call (2023) are not actually reducing, but increasing their rates of voter participation, despite their shrinking numbers.
Despite Trump's attempts to distance himself from the extremist de-democratizing Project 2025 agenda crafted by his friends at the Heritage Foundation, this is no longer possible as Trump himself has brought attention to this and JD Vance wrote its foreword.
We should pay close attention to Liz Cheney's warning that a Republican House majority in 2025 could pose a "threat" to the country. The reason? The current Republican Party "has not chosen the Constitution." Why would we elect a president who belongs to a party that has made this choice?
I'm looking forward to Joy Reid's televised "ReidOut" next week on Project 2025. Starting Monday on MSNBC, she will begin dissecting the 900-page document, examining how it could empower Donald Trump to establish an authoritarian form of government that would strip away many of our rights.
We all need to get out and vote this November, my friends. In fact, plan your vote. If you're in Texas, go to VoteTexas.gov to ensure your vote and that it gets counted.
-Angela Valenzuela
#2024election #reiders #Project2025
Trump Tells Christians ‘You Won’t Have to Vote Anymore’ If He’s Elected
Donald Trump, after lamenting that conservative Christians are not “big voters,” urged the religious right to turn out for him “just this time.”
Former President Donald J. Trump at the Turning Point USA Believers Summit in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Friday.Doug Mills/The New York Times
In the closing minutes of his speech to a gathering of religious conservatives on Friday night, former President Donald J. Trump told Christians that if they voted him into office in November, they would never need to vote again.
“Christians, get out and vote. Just this time,” he said at The Believers’ Summit, an event hosted by the conservative advocacy group Turning Point Action, in West Palm Beach, Fla. “You won’t have to do it anymore, you know what? Four more years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”
Mr. Trump, who never made a particular display of religious observance before entering politics, continued: “I love you, Christians. I’m a Christian. I love you, you got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.”
Mr. Trump’s comments came at the end of a nearly hourlong speech in which he appealed to religious conservatives by promising to defend them from perceived threats from the left. Earlier in his remarks, he lamented that conservative Christians do not vote in large numbers, a complaint he had made repeatedly on the trail.
“They don’t vote like they should,” Mr. Trump said of Christians. “They’re not big voters.”
Mr. Trump’s suggestion that Christians would not have to vote again if he is elected quickly spread across social media. Some argued that it was a threat that the 2024 election could be the nation’s last if he were to win and claimed it was further evidence of an authoritarian, anti-democratic bent he has displayed throughout his political candidacy.
Asked to clarify Mr. Trump’s intent, Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s campaign, said in a statement: “President Trump was talking about uniting this country and bringing prosperity to every American, as opposed to the divisive political environment that has sowed so much division and even resulted in an assassination attempt.”
The former president — who continues to falsely insist the 2020 election was rigged, a claim that inspired some of his supporters to storm the Capitol in a bid to keep him in power in 2021 — has raised alarm from Democrats and some Republicans. He has compared his political opponents to “vermin,” said he would have a prosecutor investigate President Biden and his family and framed his campaign as one of retribution.
James Singer, a Harris campaign spokesman, criticized Mr. Trump in a statement, pointing to the Capitol attack and accusing him of an “assault” on democracy.
“After the last election Trump lost, he sent a mob to overturn the results,” Mr. Singer said. “This campaign, he has promised violence if he loses, the end of our elections if he wins, and the termination of the Constitution to empower him to be a dictator to enact his dangerous Project 2025 agenda on America.”
Since his 2020 loss, Mr. Trump, who often praises strongmen leaders on the trail, has further embraced a brand of conservatism that experts on autocracy have said veers toward totalitarian.
Mr. Trump provoked further outcry when, in an interview with Sean Hannity, he said he would not categorically dismiss concerns that he might abuse presidential power but instead said he would not be a dictator “other than Day 1.”
Mr. Trump added: “We’re closing the border. And we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.”
Mr. Trump and his allies have long dismissed the criticism as alarmist political attacks from liberals. They argue that Democrats have been anti-democratic, labeling the criminal cases brought against Mr. Trump as an effort to weaponize the justice system.
The Harris campaign — and the Biden campaign before that — have consistently attacked Mr. Trump as a threat to democracy. More recently, Democrats and their allies have highlighted Project 2025, a set of conservative policy proposals developed by a group that includes former Trump advisers and that would bring about a radical shift to the federal government.
Mr. Trump himself was not behind Project 2025, and he has repeatedly tried to distance himself from it. But The New York Times has reported on his plans for a second term, which would include casting aside the norm that gives the Justice Department independence from the White House, appointing ideologically aligned lawyers who would be less resistant to Mr. Trump’s policies and a vastly expanded crackdown on immigration that would involve scouring the country for undocumented immigrants and deporting millions of people annually.
Michael Gold is a political correspondent for The Times covering the campaigns of Donald J. Trump and other candidates in the 2024 presidential elections. More about Michael Gold
A version of this article appears in print on July 28, 2024, Section A, Page 15 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump Tells Christians, Vote ‘Just This Time’. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
