Donald Trump kicked off his "Pastors in the Pews" meeting with evangelical Christians in Orlando on Thursday with a joke. "For evangelicals, for the Christians, for the everybody, for everybody of religion, this will be, may be, the most important election that our country has ever had," he said. "And once I get in, I will do my thing that I do very well. And I figure it is probably, maybe the only way I'm going to get to heaven. So I better do a good job." Trump dedicated about 20 minutes of his speech to vowing to scrap the Johnson Amendment so churches can engage in partisan politics, and then he made a number of allusions to Mormons.
"I'm having a tremendous problem in Utah," he said. "Utah is a different place. Is anybody here from Utah? I didn't think so." The audience laughed. No Democrat has won Utah since Lyndon Johnson (who sponsored the Johnson Amendment as a senator) in 1964, and Trump will probably get Utah's six electoral votes, though Hillary Clinton is within striking distance and knows it. In fact, Bill Clinton was in Salt Lake City at a fundraiser on Thursday night. Trump also blamed evangelicals for Mitt Romney's loss in 2012. "Honestly, you did not vote for Romney," he said. "Had you voted for Romney, it would have been much closer.... You did not vote for Romney. Evangelicals, religion, did not get out and vote. And I don't know why. Whatever the reason, I'm not sure why."
At The Washington Post, Tom Hamburger and Sean Sullivan note that some of the evangelical Christian leaders Trump was addressing "have privately expressed skepticism about Mormons," suggesting that Trump's highlighting his problems in the only majority-Mormon state is "an apparent play for support" from the white evangelicals Trump needs to turn out and vote for him.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Mark Silk at Religion News Service doesn't tiptoe around Trump's insinuation. "White evangelicals turned out and voted for Romney at rates equal to or greater than they did for the two previous GOP presidential candidates," he said, though Trump "knows perfectly well why evangelicals might not have voted for a Mormon." And at Thursday's meeting with evangelicals, Silk added, Trump was "sucking up to them by implying that the Mormons are against him. Honestly."
-
Home Depots are the new epicenters of ICE raidsIn the Spotlight The chain has not provided many comments on the ongoing raids
-
Why does Trump keep interfering in the NYC mayoral race?Today's Big Question The president has seemingly taken an outsized interest in his hometown elections, but are his efforts to block Zohran Mamdani about political expediency or something deeper?
-
The pros and cons of banning cellphones in classroomsPros and cons The devices could be major distractions
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
A long weekend in ZürichThe Week Recommends The vibrant Swiss city is far more than just a banking hub
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
