“Christians, get out and vote! Just this time,” said former President Donald Trump Friday. “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. I love you, Christians.”
Trump, the GOP’s presidential candidate, made the remarks during Turning Point Action’s “The ‘Summit” in West Palm Beach, Fla. While he did not elaborate on what that meant, he did repeat it, saying: “We’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”
Back in 2020, Trump lost his bid for a second term in office to sitting President Joe Biden. Starting even before that election, Trump began making claims about voter fraud. Those claims go unfounded today and they have played apart in a variety of legal issues surrounding Trump. Still, Trump has continued to stoke fears about election and voter fraud, including his evocation of myths about non-Americans casting ballots.
While Trump has been critical of mail-in voting in the past, he encouraged the crowd gathered in Palm Beach to vote via what ever means they need to. He said he wants a majority that’s “too big to rig.”
“Trump has also called for the termination of the Constitution in order to overturn the 2020 election results following his loss to President Joe Biden,” Rolling Stone reported this week. “In December 2022, during one of his rants on Truth Social, he incorrectly called himself the ‘rightful winner’ and claimed that ‘Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.’”
Apart from his claims about voter fraud, Trump has made comments in recent months about being a “dictator,” including when he told Fox News host Sean Hannity late last year he would be a “dictator” on day one to enact border policies if he wins the election. Trump mentioned the comments again in a speech delivered at the New York Young Republican Club’s 111th Annual Gala.
This May, he told Time magazine “I think a lot of people like it,” of his dictator comments. It may come as a surprise... but he was right, at least about his voter base. Results of a UMass Amherst poll of more than 1,000 people found that 74% of Republicans believe Trump’s promise to be a dictator on just the first day of a second term is definitely or probably “a good idea for America” while just 36% of independents, 13% of Democrats and 39% of all voters thought so.
White evangelicals make up much of Trump’s base, as they have made up much of the Republican base since at least 2004. According to Gallup, 81% of white evangelical Protestant voters went for Trump in 2020 compared with 18% who voted for Biden. Edison exit polls estimate that 76% of white evangelicals voted for Trump compared to 24% for Biden.
“Trump and his campaign recognized this structural pattern prior to his bid for the presidency in 2016 and targeted evangelicals in that campaign,” said Gallup. “Subsequently, once in office, Trump has done a great deal to maintain this connection with evangelical-friendly policy decisions and public pronouncements. At the same time, Biden's campaign this year made its own concerted effort to reach white evangelical voters (along with other religious voters).”
During his term Trump appointed three justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who is known for her strong Christian beliefs. In June 2022, the court made the controversial decision to overturn Roe v. Wade abortion protections.
Most of the country was opposed to the move and support for abortion access has continued to increase since the ruling. As of last June, a record 69% of Americans said abortion should generally be legal in the first three months of pregnancy, according to Gallup polling.
One group that does support strict restrictions on abortion is white evangelicals. According data provided by the Pew Research Center this May, 73% of white evangelical Protestants think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. Other groups overwhelmingly said it should be legal in all or most cases, including 64% of white nonevangelical Protestants and 59% of Catholics, 71% of Black Protestants and 86% of religiously unaffiliated Americans.
“Among religious groups, white evangelical Protestants continue to have the most positive opinion of Trump,” said the Pew Research Center this March. “Overall, two-thirds of white evangelical Protestants say they have a favorable view of the former president, including 30% who have a very favorable opinion of him.”
Additionally, roughly half of white Catholics (51%) express positive views of Trump, as do 47% of white nonevangelical Protestants and 45% of Hispanic Protestants, said Pew. Although “most people who view Trump positively don’t think he is especially religious himself, many think he stands up for people with religious beliefs like theirs,” the center explained.
While Trump had a considerable lead over Biden with white evangelical Christians, Gallup noted that polling figures indicated Trump’s share of the white evangelical vote fell back slightly in 2020. Some experts have linked that decrease with Trump’s 2020 performance in Georgia, “where about a third of the vote is classified as white evangelical Protestant,” according to Gallup.
Edison exit polls estimate that 52% of all Catholics, another Christian voting group, went for Biden (who is himself a Catholic) in 2020. In 2016, Edison exit polls showed a 46% Catholic vote for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and 50% for Trump.
“About one-fourth of all voters were white evangelical Christians, and they voted overwhelmingly for Trump, providing a core segment of his base vote,” said Gallup of the 2020 election. “About as many voters were ‘nones’ – those with no formal religious identity – and 65% of them voted for Biden, providing him a key component of his winning coalition.”
Biden recently dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. Vice President Kamala Harris is currently expected to be at the top of the Democratic ticket this November.