WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump spoke to a large crowd of Christians at Turning Point USA's Believers Summit at the West Palm Beach Convention Center on Friday night. The president's speech has been misquoted and distorted in mainstream media and on social media, falsely claiming that Trump said, “I'm not a Christian,” and fueling comments that people of faith would never have to vote again if he is re-elected.
“It is through the power of prayer and the grace of Almighty God that I stand before you tonight. As you can see, I am recovering well, in fact I have just removed the last of the bandages from my ear,” Trump said at the podium, referring to the bullet wound in his right ear during the July 13 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“I just took it off. I took it off for this group,” he said. “I don't know why I did it for this group, but that's it.”
“Christians, I love you. I'm a Christian. I love you. Get out. Go vote. In four years, you don't have to vote anymore. We're going to make it better so you don't have to vote,” Trump told a crowd of about 3,500 people organized by Charlie Kirk's advocacy group, Turning Point Action.
A video purporting to show Trump saying he is not a Christian was quickly shared on social media, garnering tens of millions of views — and it's clear from watching the video that this is not true.
The New York Times then joined nearly every other mainstream media outlet in publishing the headline, “Trump Tells Christians 'They No Longer Need to Vote' If Elected.” The article went on to say that Trump's casual remark was “further evidence of the authoritarian, anti-democratic tendencies he has displayed throughout his campaign.”
Trump's comments take a different look when listening to speakers including former Trump economic adviser Peter Navarro, Dr. Ben Carson, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, Christian apologists Frank Turek and Charlie Kirk, who have all urged people of faith to flock to the polls in November and challenged religious demographics that have not historically voted.
“Only half of Bible-believing, church-going Christians are registered to vote,” Charlie Kirk explained before Trump took the stage. “And only half of those actually vote. In 2016, Donald Trump won 72% of the evangelical vote. In 2020, he got 68%, down four points. Evangelical support is not automatic.”
Taken in context, Trump's comments, delivered with a sense of humour throughout, appeared to be an appeal to Christian voters to break the cycle of apathy and get out to the polls, if only this once.
Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), defended Trump's comments in a post on July 27, saying, “It's always important to watch the video to the end. Trump is urging disengaged voters to go vote,” Musk, who formally endorsed Trump last month, continued, “And he wants to implement voter ID laws across the country, but probably won't succeed. That way, in his opinion, the amount of voter fraud would be reduced to the point that disengaged voters won't have to go vote next time.”
In his speech, Trump promised to double down on his commitment to Christians, defend religious freedom and appoint more constitutional justice judges to the Supreme Court and lower courts, and touted his historic support for the state of Israel and his decision in 2017 to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv.
On abortion, the former president, whose Supreme Court appointments helped overturn the landmark pro-abortion case Roe v. Wade, was booed by nearly a third of the audience when he touched on the issue, saying that, like Ronald Reagan, he “believes strongly that there should be exceptions for the life of the mother, for rape and for incest.”
“You have to follow your heart,” he told the crowd, “but you also have to win the election.”
