On July 28, 2024, Tim Reid posted this news report for Reuters, which coincides news reports from other agencies:
WASHINGTON, July 27 (Reuters)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told Christians on Friday that if they vote for him this November, “in four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.”
It was not clear what the former president meant by his remarks, in an election campaign where his Democratic opponents accuse him of being a threat to democracy, and after his attempt to overturn his 2020 defeat to President Joe Biden, an effort that led to the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump was speaking at an event organized by the conservative group Turning Point Action in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump said: “Christians, get out and vote, just this time. “You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.” He added: “I love you Christians. I’m a Christian. I love you, get out, you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote,” Trump said.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung did not directly address Trump’s remarks when asked to clarify them. Cheung said Trump “was talking about uniting this country,” and blamed “the divisive political environment” on the attempted assassination of Trump two weeks ago. Investigators have yet to give a motive for why the 20-year-old gunman opened fire on Trump.
In an interview with Fox News in December, Trump said that if he won the Nov. 5 election he would be a dictator, but only on “day one”, to close the southern border with Mexico and expand oil drilling.
Democrats have seized on that comment. Trump has since said the remarks were a joke.
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In response to the response that Christians won’t have to vote because Trump’s will be a dictator, I observed the remark to be a statement of his narcissistic self-righteousness. I offered an alternative view in a Letter to the Editor:
Letter to the Editor
Donald Trump recently told Christians, “you got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.” Voters leery of Trump conclude a dictatorship will have been established.
I would like to offer an alternate perspective. Trump envisions at the conclusion of his second term, with his impeccable leadership, we will be dwelling in a utopian society. Christians, being satisfied that Christian nationalism has been resorted, won’t feel any need to go the polls. It is fixed.
MAGA followers and evangelical pastors preach that God anointed Trump to be our nation’s savior. Trump, having a narcistic messianic complex, embraces this postulate. This is demonstrated that campaign rallies often begin with a video confessing “And on June 14, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker.’ So God gave us Trump.”
This is also evident after the assassination attempt, when supporters echoed the words of evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress, “I think Donald Trump has a purpose. My own feeling is God spared him for the purpose of calling our nation back to its Judeo-Christian foundation.”
In 2028, Christians will have to go to the polls for it won’t be fixed.
Dr. Ronald H. Love