Trump’s dangerous closing message to his white Christian followers 

Down the home stretch of the campaign, Donald Trump has doubled down on his message of Christian nationalism and white grievance. While his speeches have indeed become more meandering and more extreme, they nonetheless contain a coherent appeal that taps key elements from authoritarian playbooks around the world, including 1930s Nazi Germany:

• The once proud nation and the Christian institutions that made it that way are in decline and in danger of being destroyed. We must fight, fight, fight to make this nation great again.
• The nation was once racially and religiously pure but is now being contaminated by elements from without and defiled by enemies from within.
• The political opposition is not just misguided or wrong on policies; they are sick and evil people who want to destroy the country.
• Only one political leader, chosen by God for this moment, can save the country. He alone can restore order and glory to the nation and restore white Christian America. He alone can bring us back to being “one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God.”

As I show below, this extreme and racist rhetoric has been prominent in Trump’s speeches throughout his 2024 presidential campaign and indeed is central to his appeal going back to 2015. But in 2024, the resonances with authoritarian leaders around the world and in recent history have become sharper.

Perhaps the most chilling is this: At his rallies, Trump’s favorite closing incantation of “one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God” closely echoes the rhythms of Hitler’s “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer” (one people, one realm, one leader).

As we stand on the day of the 2024 election, I also show how this authoritarian politics of desolation and disgust has been peppered through his closing arguments at various speeches and interviews across the last 30 days of the campaign.

Should Trump be elected, he is telling clearly that he will seek to restore a vision of a white Christian America, the only people he sees as true Americans and the only people he is pledging to represent as president.

How it started

One year ago, I covered the rising extremism in Donald Trump’s early campaign speeches, when he began regularly to use words like “vermin” to describe immigrants and to talk about the “poisoning of the blood” of the country.

“In 2024, the resonances with authoritarian leaders around the world and in recent history have become sharper.”

One of the most dangerous things about Donald Trump is the way he has normalized hate speech. The venom and vitriol come so often that even when it is reported, its extremism fails to register with a fatigued and desensitized public. For a campaign that began with vulgar boasts about grabbing women by the genitalia and the mocking of a disabled reporter …

In March, I covered Trump’s speech to a white evangelical audience gathered at the National Religious Broadcasters meeting in Nashville, where he most clearly laid out his white Christian nationalist vision.

I know, it’s easy to dismiss Trump’s extremist rhetoric as just another occasion of “Trump being Trump.” Because the deluge is unrelenting, paying attention is emotionally and morally exhausting. But especially now that he has essentially secured the nomination as the next GOP presidential candidate, it is vital that we sound the alarm as Trump tells us …

Is how it’s ending

In this final installment on the eve of the election, I highlight Trump’s rhetoric in the last 30 days of the 2024 presidential campaign, showing how he has continued to push these authoritarian, anti-democratic themes. (H/T to Roll Call’s Factbase, a searchable database of every public speech and interview given by leading elected officials.)

Speech: Donald Trump holds a campaign rally in Gastonia, N.C., Nov. 2

With your help from now until Election Day, we will restore America’s promise, and we will bring back the nation that we love. We’re going to bring it back. We’re going to bring it back fast. We are one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God. 

We will never give in. We will never give up. We will never, ever back down, and we will never, ever, ever surrender. Together, we will fight, fight, fight. We will win, win, win. We will vote, vote, vote. (Audience chants “Fight”) Thank you very much. That’s what we have to do. November 5th will be the most important day in the history of our country, and together, we will make America powerful again.

Speech: Donald Trump holds a campaign rally in Henderson, Nev., Oct. 31

But I would do great if we had an honest vote. I always say if God came down just for one day to be the vote counter, in other words, we had — I would win in California. I would. (Applause) That’s a disgrace what happens …

And I don’t know what’s going on with Catholics, but many Hispanics are also Catholics, and Kamala is persecuting Catholics. What the hell did Catholics do? They are being persecuted. … They’re being persecuted. And by the way, evangelicals, Christians are — you’re next. You’ll be next if they win. … 

I will defend your jobs. I will protect your children, and I will defend religion. Kamala Harris is a low-IQ individual who is running a campaign of hate and anger and retribution.

Interview: Donald Trump sits for questions at the National Faith Summit in Georgia,  Oct. 28

Paula White-Cain: We have thousands of pastors here and faith leaders, and their No. 1 issue that they want to know about is what about your faith. Let’s talk about how is faith formed in you and what does it mean to you.

Trump: Look, we’re going through a lot of problems in our country. If you take a look at the anger, the problems that we have. And a lot of it is that it’s less based on religion now than it was 25 years ago and 50 years ago. And I mean, we were a — really, people would say a Christian and really religious, even other faiths country. And that seems to be heading in the wrong direction. And I think as that goes down — I think that our country goes down. I really do. I think this is a country that needs religion. It’s like the glue that holds it together, and we don’t have that. 

That’s why you are the most important people, and I’m not sure you even realize it. And they’re trying to hurt you. They’re trying to stymie you, this new administration, this new, radical left group of people — and it’s not so new. It’s been around for a while. And they are people that are not nice people. …

And they have a very bad agenda, and we have to stop it, and we have to win this election. I think winning this election — I think it’s going to be the most important election in the history of our country. …

Paula White-Cain: I’ll never forget Ralph Reed and Joanne were — we were at the Journey concert with my kids, and somebody said, “The president’s been shot.” And I froze like so many people, started crying and started praying. But when you rose up with fight, fight, fight (applause) (audience chants “Fight, fight, fight”). So, share just a tiny bit about God in your life now and what — because we all have these journeys of faith. We have ups, we have downs, we fall, we get back up. You know, but you’ve consistently had this deep respect and honor of God in your life. And that day, I think, showed the world when you knew that God saved you for a purpose.

Trump: So, somewhere, all of us, we had a little help up there. And I would like to think — and I don’t know this at all, but I would like to think that it’s because he wants our country and maybe the world to be helped. Wants our country to be helped. God wants our country to be helped. …

But I just want to let you know that the people think you’re so important. I got rid of the Johnson Amendment and I fought that very hard during my entire term because I — you know, they didn’t want you to speak to people. And if you did, they’d take away your tax-exempt status. And I said, “But these are the people that me and others want to hear from, and you’re not letting them speak. What’s that all about?” And we’re going to try and get rid of it permanently the next time. That’s one of the things we want to do. We got rid of it during my term, but I’m going to put it in. And it’s amazing that people would fight me on that, but they do. 

You have people that are against us very much so in politics and in our country. And sometimes I think maybe they hate our country.

Speech: Donald Trump holds a campaign rally in Concord, N.C., Oct. 21

And the FBI would send spies into Catholic churches. I don’t know how many Catholics are here, but if you’re Catholic, there is no way you can be voting for these people. These people are a nightmare. I don’t know what they have against Catholics, but Catholics are treated worse than anybody. And by the way, evangelicals are next. You can bet on it. Evangelicals are next. But they label Catholics as potential domestic terrorists. And the fact is that they’ll be coming after you soon. 

These people are sick. These people are very sick people. Christians will not be safe with Kamala Harris as president of the United States. It’s not even thinkable.

As soon as I take the oath of office, I will stop Kamala Harris’ weaponization of law enforcement against Americans of faith. We’re going to do it. We’re going to do it. … But I will create a new federal task force on fighting anti-Christian bias. That’ll be done immediately. And I think it’s very important for the people in this room to know, like Dr. Ben Carson knows, Americans of faith are not a threat to our country. Americans of faith are the soul of our country, right?

Kamala Harris supports the 1619 Project. (audience boos) Think of that. She supports it strongly. That teaches children to hate their country, that’s what it does. The 1619 Project was condemned by every historian, and yet, Kamala Harris’ administration tried to push it into schools all across America. She fought very hard for that. She also fought very hard for the people that burned down Minneapolis, that were literally at war in Minnesota with one of the worst governors.

On day one, I will sign an executive order banning schools from promoting Critical Race Theory or transgender. I will take historic action to defeat the toxic poison of gender ideology and reaffirm that God created two genders, male and female. I will keep men out of women’s sports. I will sign a law banning child sexual mutilation in all 50 states, won’t happen anymore. And we will proudly say Merry Christmas again. On day one, I will stop the migrant invasion. We will begin the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.

“I will take historic action to defeat the toxic poison of gender ideology and reaffirm that God created two genders, male and female.”

In our movement, we love Christians, we welcome believers, and we embrace followers of Jesus. (applause) Thank you. (audience chants “Jesus”) Thank you very much. Thank you very much. But at Trump rallies, we don’t tell Christians to get lost, we tell Christians to get out and vote. (audience responds “Yeah”)

You don’t have the choice of sitting out this election because, if Kamala Harris gets four more years, the radical left is not going to leave Christians alone, it’s going to get worse and worse, and you’re going to suffer greatly. They will come after Christians all over the country. Kamala Harris has vowed to abolish the filibuster, letting her pack the Supreme Court and I even heard as many as 25 justices. The Supreme Court with Marxist radicals, with people that we don’t want on the Supreme Court to rewrite the Constitution and to overrule your values.

We want a landslide that is too big to rig, too big to rig. Early voting is under way so you know what you have to do. So, Christians, get everyone you know and vote. You have to vote, or we’re not going to have the life that we should have, a life of prosperity and hope, a life of beauty. We’re not going to have it. 

We’re going to be fighting for our lives. These people have — they mean serious business. I honestly believe in many cases, they’re sick. And we cannot let this happen because it was our religion that kept our country together for many years. It was our religion that kept it together. And they’re trying to take that away and they’re trying to destroy our country.

Interview: Chris Salcedo of Newsmax interviews Donald Trump, Oct. 12

And I think I’m getting all of the Christian vote. How could a Christian vote for it? I’ve had — I have such endorsements. I have so many people supporting me. I was watching the other day Robert Jeffress. I had so many people on television say we have to vote for Trump, almost universal support. Because if you look at (Kamala Harris), she’s against religion, absolutely. He was, too. Biden was bad. But he wasn’t like — you know, this one’s bad. This one’s a Marxist. She’s a Marxist.

Speech: Donald Trump holds a political rally in Juneau, Wisc., Oct. 6

But they did tell me that people that own guns and rifles don’t vote relatively. A very small percentage, like 15%. If you would vote, nobody could beat us. I’ll tell you other ones who don’t vote. I love these people. Evangelicals. Evangelical Christians. The Christian community doesn’t vote as much as they should. They go to church. So, now, what we’re going to do is we’re going to go to church, so we’re going to get out and vote. But the evangelicals don’t vote that much. And if they did vote, we could never lose an election. You couldn’t lose, you know? 

 

Robert P. Jones serves as president and founder of PRRI and is the author of The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future and White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, which won a 2021 American Book Award.

 

This column originally appeared on Robert P. Jones’s substack #WhiteTooLong.

 

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