Trump told his supporters that to beat President Joe Biden he needed them “in the largest numbers ever” | Photo: Bloomberg
By Hadriana Lowenkron and Stephanie Lai
Former President Donald Trump told evangelical voters to increase their voter turnout as he sought to strengthen — and expand — his base during a pair of campaign events on Saturday.
Trump spoke Saturday afternoon at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington, a gathering of evangelical conservatives who have provided a base of support for his three presidential bids. Later, the presumptive Republican president held a rally in North Philadelphia as part of his effort to make inroads among black voters in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania.
Trump told his supporters that to beat President Joe Biden, he needed them “in the largest numbers ever.”
“The evangelicals and Christians are not voting as much as they should, I don’t know if you know that,” Trump said. “They go to church every Sunday, but they don’t vote.”
Trump further complained that gun rights activists were also not voting in sufficient numbers, and said ballot drop boxes should be placed in churches.
“You have to come out, just this time,” Trump continued. ‘Four years from now it won’t matter to me. You don’t have to vote, okay? In four years I won’t be allowed to vote anymore, it doesn’t matter to me.”
Trump was given a hero’s welcome by the organization, founded by conservative activist Ralph Reed, despite a presidency in which he took little action on many of the group’s top priorities, from opposing gay marriage to ending the legalization of medical marijuana.
Still, Trump’s effort to appoint Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade — along with his embrace of clashes between culture and war — has strengthened his appeal among evangelicals and his position as leader of the Republican Party.
Trump’s occasionally scolding attempt to translate enthusiasm at the Washington rally into votes at the ballot box underscored how much his hopes for a second term depend on motivating committed supporters. Polls show that large groups of moderate voters are disappointed with both candidates and are considering third-party options or are reluctant to vote.
“I think it’s a kind of protest. You’re so angry about what’s happening,” Trump said. “Do you know how much power you would have if you voted?”
Even as Trump’s political operation focuses on rolling out committed conservatives, he is also trying to appeal to Black and Latino voters — who have traditionally supported Democratic presidential candidates — but have borne the brunt of post-pandemic inflation. Trump’s rally at Temple University in Philadelphia came just days after a visit to a black church in Detroit.
“We will also work to strengthen Black, Hispanic and other communities in Philadelphia and across the United States,” Trump said.
Polls show Biden’s standing among minority voters has softened, potentially providing an opening for Trump and Republicans hoping to gain just enough support to win close battleground states.
Trump’s efforts are complicated by his frequent descriptions of cities with large black populations as crime-ridden and failing, as he did last week when discussing Milwaukee, where the Republican National Convention will take place.
In Philadelphia, Trump complained that “convenience stores are closing left and right” and described statistics showing a substantial drop in the city’s homicide rate as “fake news.” As of April, homicides in Philadelphia had fallen by more than a third compared to the previous year.
Trump also showed his penchant for controversy at both stops, telling attendees that he had thrown Ultimate Fighting Championship head Dana White out of an event that would pit his league’s champion against a competing “migrant league of fighters.”
Trump has regularly highlighted examples of undocumented immigrants committing violent crimes and warned that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” while critics — including Biden — have argued the rhetoric is racially coded.
“I think the migrant man could win,” Trump said. “They are that tough. He didn’t like that idea very much, but it wasn’t actually the worst idea I’ve ever had.”
Biden won Pennsylvania in 2020, and his hopes of retaining the state in November’s rematch against Trump will depend in part on his ability to win black voters and retain working-class voters in the state. A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll in May showed Trump leading Biden 48 percent to 46 percent in Pennsylvania.
The state has become a flashpoint for his re-election bid. According to an internal memo from the Trump-allied super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., the group has and will continue to focus its efforts and funding across Pennsylvania.
More broadly, Biden has also struggled to include workers, who are important in Michigan and elsewhere, on his economic agenda.
Trump has stepped up his campaigns after his hush-money trial in New York made him the first former president to be convicted of a crime. He has also managed to use the conviction to bolster his war chest, with the campaign raising $141 million in the month of May, surpassing the $85 million Biden raised that month.
Trump’s visit to Washington on Saturday is his second this month. Last week, he returned to Capitol Hill for the first time since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters seeking to block the certification of the 2020 election, meeting with House and Senate Republicans.
First print: June 23, 2024 | 7:35 am IST