Donald Trump spoke at the Faith and Freedom Coalition on Saturday, with a few speakers deeming him “the anointed one.”
Trump spoke for approximately one hour and twenty-five minutes. The coalition slotted multiple hype-men right before he appeared, including Republican governor Kristi Noem. The former president hit all his usual talking points — the economy, the border and immigration, Joe Biden, Ukraine, Israel, his cute “tic-tac” trick — and made sure to mention the Ten Commandments, and said, “We answer to God in heaven,” not to political leaders. There were at least two impressive instances in which Trump expertly responded to the inclinations of the crowd.
“From day one, I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory,” Trump declared. The crowd went wild. He continued, promoting universal school choice, supporting America’s homeschool families and shutting down the Federal Department of Education, which resulted in the audience getting even louder. “This room likes that more than some rooms. Some rooms don’t, and that’s OK. Glad I said it, actually.”
In the second instance, Trump mentioned how often Catholics were persecuted — and he got crickets. So he quickly switched to the persecution of all Christians and was better received. The good sir almost seemed to forgot he was talking to an evangelical crowd.
For anyone who believes the age of political sermons is dead, fear not. The hours before Trump appeared were filled with many speakers, Pastor Kelvin Cobaris being the most notable. Cobaris spoke at the beginning of the day and again right before Trump — and he knows how to work a crowd.
The general feeling among the speakers and audience members was that God has called Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States. FFC founder Ralph Reed got up amid the speakers earlier in the day. He claimed we had felt “the presence of the Holy Spirit in this ballroom” and said he sees the “anointing on the people that are speaking.”
Politics are dirty. Mixing the holiness of religion with the slander of political campaigns is tricky business. Personally, I found kinship with the southern gentleman in front of me who was upset they closed the cookie room due to Trump’s appearance.
