Trump courts Christian vote and says ‘God saved me for a purpose’

Donald Trump urged Christian voters on Monday to participate in the 2024 election, claiming that a Kamala Harris administration would restrict religious freedoms and casting himself as a protector of Christians.

During an event in North Carolina billed as an “11th-Hour Faith Leaders Meeting”, a series of conservative pastors warmed up for Trump, including Guillermo Maldonado, an “apostle” and longtime Trump ally who cast the election in perilous terms.

“You know, we’re now in spiritual warfare,” said Maldonado, alluding to the idea that Christians are at war on the supernatural plane against dark forces that impact the real world. “It’s beyond warfare between the left and the right. It’s between good and evil. There’s a big fight right now that is affecting our country and we need to take back our country.”

Introducing Trump, Ben Carson, the campaign’s National Faith Chairman for the 2024 election, openly rejected the idea of secular society.

“This election is about whether we are a secular nation or one nation under God,” said Carson, echoing the aims of Christian nationalists who view the US as a Christian nation that must return to God.

In a meandering speech, Trump spoke about the assassination attempt at rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, leaning on the idea embraced by many Christian conservatives that God intervened to save his life.

“My faith took on new meaning on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, where I was knocked to the ground, essentially by what seemed like a supernatural hand,” said Trump. “And I would like to think that God saved me for a purpose, and that’s to make our country greater than ever before.”

He urged Christians to vote.

“You have a reputation of not voting proportionately,” Trump said. “Christians, evangelicals … but Christians and gun owners don’t vote.” The former president vowed, as he frequently does, to roll back the Johnson amendment, which prohibits non-profits, including churches, from endorsing political candidates.

“Within the first week, you’re gonna have that right,” said Trump.

He touted his decision while in office to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, which was widely condemned by world leaders for threatening to inflame tensions in Israel and Palestine. “I said, ‘We are going to do exactly what a lot of people didn’t want me to do,’” said Trump.

Many evangelicals and nondenominational Christians view Israel as the site of the end-times prophecy, and militant support for Israel is common on the Christian right.

Trump also railed against inclusion and gender-affirming healthcare for trans people, vowing to “take historic action to defeat the toxic poison of gender ideology and reaffirm that God created two genders: male and female”.

Earlier on Monday morning, Trump’s son Eric – who co-hosted the event with Carson and Trump – appeared on the Prophets & Patriots podcast on ElijahStreams, a streaming service and hub for prophetic voices on the Christian right.

“One of the things that really bothers me is: you see a constant war in this country against God, from the current administration, from the Obama administration,” Eric Trump said.

“They really have gone after religious liberty in this country unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, and I don’t think you’ve ever had a bigger proponent of religious liberty than under Donald Trump.”

During the call, Eric Trump assured his audience that “there is a hand of God on my father’s shoulder” and said an angel had saved him from the would-be assassin.

One of the minds behind the North Carolina faith leaders meeting, according to Eric Trump, was Clay Clark – an Oklahoma entrepreneur and co-founder of the ReAwaken America tour, a traveling roadshow featuring a lineup of pro-Trump conspiracy theorists and charismatic Christian preachers.

Like Monday’s faith leaders summit, the ReAwaken America tour featured figures in the New Apostolic Reformation – a movement on the Christian right that embraces modern-day prophets and apostles, and seeks to achieve Christian dominion over society and government.

“The faith leader’s event is gonna be incredible,” said Eric Trump on an 11 October episode of Prophets & Patriots show. “Clay’s been the backbone of so much of this event.”

Trump’s faith coalition – in which evangelicals have long been a key force – is closely tied to the leaders of a growing movement of nondenominational charismatic preachers and self-styled prophets who see Trump as a savior figure.

Last month, JD Vance appeared at a stop on Lance Wallnau’s Courage Tour – a pro-Trump tent revival that criss-crossed the swing states in the months ahead of the election, seeking to bolster support for Trump.

The open association with figures like Wallnau, who has written that the US is headed toward civil war and has accused Harris of practicing “witchcraft”, could be a gamble, given the strong influence such figures wield among their followers – and the outrage they stoke among the uninitiated.