Trump: Evangelical leaders ‘disloyal’ due to lack of support in 2024

Former President Donald Trump is criticizing evangelical leaders for not yet backing his 2024 Republican presidential candidacy.

“I don’t care, it’s a sign of disloyalty,” he told David Brody, chief political analyst at CBN News. “There is a lot of disloyalty in the world of politics, and that is a sign of disloyalty, because no one has ever done more for the right to life than Donald Trump.”

Many evangelical leaders have firmly supported him in 2016 and 2020, but this time they have largely remained silent. Pastor Robert Jeffress, a longtime friend and evangelical ally of Trump, said he would wait to see how the Republican nomination contest progresses. Others, such as former supporters James Robison and Mike Evans, have been somewhat critical of him.

“I put in three justices of the Supreme Court who all voted, and they got what they fought for for many, many years,” Trump said. “No one thought they could win. They won – Rowe against Wade – they won. Finally, they won.”

Trump has made it clear that if pro-life candidates for public office run on a platform with no exceptions for abortion, that will not be a winning formula. “If you don’t have it, I think, frankly, it’s very difficult to be elected,” he said. “With that said, you have to go with your heart. You have to go with what you feel.”

Trump said the situation arose in Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial race with Republican Doug Mastriano and Michigan’s gubernatorial race with Republican Tudor Dixon.

“I explained it to Doug, I explained it to Tudor,” Trump said. “I explained it to others and said, ‘You have to follow your heart, you have to do what you think is right.’ But I think that made it very, very difficult for them to win the election.”

He pointed out that Ronald Reagan also supported abortion exceptions and made it clear that despite the anti-abortion viewpoint, Democrats are abortion extremists. “I think they are radicals,” Trump said.

“There is no way to a nomination without winning the evangelist vote. No one knows this better than President Trump because, to the surprise of almost everyone, he won their support in 2016,” says Ralph Reid, executive director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.

“He’s going to get a very fair hearing from faith voters. But it will be a primary with a lot of pro-abortion candidates, and all of them will be able to state their position,” Reid says. “No one should assume that the vote of the evangelists voted for them or was excluded from them.”

Recent polls show the former president is still popular with Republicans, but his support is at its lowest since he made his famous escalator ride at New York’s Trump Tower. However, a majority of Republican respondents (70%) have a favorable view of him as of December 2022 (up from 77% in July).

Despite recent polls showing rising national support for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump remains front-runner in the 2024 Republican nomination. Republican voters chose Trump with 48% and DeSantis with 28%. Former Vice President Mike Pence was third with 7%.

In a hypothetical primary race between Trump and DeSantis, the numbers are much closer as DeSantis gains momentum. 55% support Trump, while 45% said they would support DeSantis.

– Dwight Vidaman | MV