Donald Trump suggested to a group of evangelical activists that America’s leaders don’t deserve prayer because they’re “selling Christianity down the tubes.” Trump also said it was more important that people pray “to get everybody out to vote” for him in the general election.
The presumptive Republican nominee met with the leaders Tuesday morning at Trump Tower in New York. One of the attendees, Bishop E.W. Jackson, recorded video of Trump’s remarks. At one point, Trump considered the idea that Americans should “pray for our leaders.”
“Well, you can pray for your leaders, and I agree with that. Pray for everyone. But what you really have to do is you have to pray to get everybody out to vote for one specific person. And we can’t be, again, politically correct and say we pray for all of our leaders, because all of your leaders are selling Christianity down the tubes, selling evangelicals down the tubes, and it’s a very, very bad thing that’s happening.”
Watch the video below:
Our leaders are “selling Christianity down the tubes” #ConversationWithTrump pic.twitter.com/55PBY26aAv— E.W. Jackson (@ewjacksonsr) June 21, 2016
At the meeting, Trump also spoke about he “owe[s] so much to Christanity” in “so many ways.” He included in his tally how well he performed in the Republican primary among evangelical voters. “The evangelical vote was mostly gotten by me,” he said.
“I owe so much to Christianity” –@realDonaldTrump #ConversationWithTrump #myfaithvotes pic.twitter.com/dCZLTdwXlA— E.W. Jackson (@ewjacksonsr) June 21, 2016
That stat doesn’t really tell accurate story of Trump’s support among church-going evangelical Christians, as John McCormack recently noted:
Read more about the evangelical leaders who are skeptical or opposed to Trump here.
