Cries of “Bullshit!” “Bullshit” rang out at a packed Phoenix megachurch June 6 as Donald Trump held his first campaign rally since his conviction on 34 felonies in New York.
Trump said the charges against him were “made up” and his convictions were “rigged,” like the 2020 election. He claimed the real lawbreaker was Joe Biden, “the ringleader of one the most vile criminal conspiracies of all time” for his failures to secure the country’s southern border.
As for Biden’s recent executive order limiting immigration? Trump told the crowd at Phoenix Dream Center, an Assemblies of God congregation, that it was “bullshit.”
“They come up with this order,” he said. “I won’t say it, because I don’t like using the word ‘bullshit’ in front of these people.”
But their cries showed they enthusiastically backed his claims and coarse language and they shouted the word back at him repeatedly.
The rally was sponsored by Turning Point Action, the politically activist sister organization of Turning Point USA, the $81 million nonprofit that’s popular with conservative evangelicals and has promoted Trump to youth, women and Hispanics.
The groups also reach pastors through their Turning Point Faith initiative, which has 30 full-time staff members and works to restore “traditional biblical values in our nation.” About 1,200 pastors attended its all-expenses-paid Pastor’s Summit in San Diego last fall.
TPA and TPUSA are working to help Trump win Arizona in 2024 after losing narrowly to Biden there in 2020 by less than 11,000 votes out of more than 3 million votes cast.
“Trump moves many campaign responsibilities to outside group, Turning Point Action,” reported NPR. The group says it is replicating its “Arizona strategy” in nine other states: Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Screencap from TPA website
TPA is creating something it calls “America’s ballot chasing army” and plans to hire “1,000+ field organizers” for “full-time ballot-chasing positions” so it can “deploy an army of 1,000+ field organizers each responsible for tracking and chasing key target ballots in battleground states.”
TPA says the effort will:
- “Identify Republican voters and build key relationships in battleground states.”
- “Register American patriots to vote and encourage them throughout the voting process.”
- “Inspire thousands of patriotic voters at our powerful events and rallies.”
“The Radical Left is beating us in the ballot game,” says TPA. “They have strategically concentrated their efforts on key states, massively expanding their ballot-chasing operations in critical battlegrounds.”
“In 2024, Turning Point Action will launch the first and most robust conservative ballot-chasing operation. With a strong national grassroots network and a track record of empowering conservative leaders, we are committed to ensuring every American makes a voting plan for victory.”
Their goal is to enlist religious leaders who will push evangelical support for Trump above the 81% mark that’s necessary for him to win in November.
TPA and TPUSA are also promoting “Project 81,” saying their goal is to enlist religious leaders who will push evangelical support for Trump above the 81% mark that’s necessary for him to win in November. Pew Research Center says 77% of white evangelicals voted for Trump in 2016, and 84% did so in 2020.
TPA is partnering with Tea Party groups, Moms for America, College Republicans of America and other groups to hire workers with a “passion for conservative ideas and principles” and “past/present involvement in conservative youth organizations.” Employees will be required to sign a nondisclosure agreement complying their silence about TPA’s activities.
“We’re telling churches: Either get involved and have a say in the direction of your country or you’ll leave a void that someone else who doesn’t share your values will fill,” a TPA/TPUSA spokesman told NBC News.
TPUSA holds regular events at Phoenix Dream Center, which is part of the Dream Center Network founded in 1994 by Tommy Barnett in Los Angeles.
Phoenix Dream Center, led by Barnett’s son Luke, regularly hosts TPUSA’s “Freedom Night in America” events, which are designed to help people “defend your God-given rights, expose the lies of the devil, and articulate the connection between faith and freedom.”
TPUSA bused hundreds of volunteers to Trump’s Stop the Steal Rally in Washington, D.C., on January 6.
Nonprofit groups are not allowed to engage in partisan political activities, but the IRS does not enforce the rule.
Coordination between special interest groups like TPA and TPUSA also once was forbidden, but this spring the Federal Election Commission changed the rules, allowing such cooperation.
One critic said the rule change allows these groups to “play an increasingly dominant role in our elections, facilitating the big-ticket, and often secret, political spending of corporations and ultra-high-net-worth individuals.”
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