Donald Trump's Statement on Christianity
Published on Mar 17, 2016
Here's the full Transcript.
I’m a good Christian, and I’m leading with Evangelicals. And I wanna tell you something... Christianity is being chipped away in this country. It’s being chipped away at, and I’m not gonna let this happen. You know, I was with a whole roomful of 50 pastors, ministers - great people. Some of whom I knew pretty well, and some I don’t. And I said to them “let me ask you a question. How many Christians, evangelicals, but mainly just Christians, do we have in this country.”
And they were saying “maybe 250 million, maybe 260 million.” I said “so that’s more than we have women. It’s more than we have men. It’s by far the biggest group. Then why aren’t you banding together and getting the kinds of things you want? When people talk about a temporary ban on Muslims until we find out what is going on there is total outrage. When people talk about Christians and Christianity, there’s no outrage. There’s no Outrage.
I said “let me ask you,” and these are great believers, these are great people, these are strong people, smart people. I said “Why is it,” and I think I really found something that’s very important for all of us. I said “Why is it, that you people don’t have a stronger lobby?”
During Lindon Johnson's term as president, they passed something where the tax deduction is under siege if these pastors do anything that’s a little bit off, okay. So they’re gonna lose tax exempt status, right? And I said “wait a minute, that’s right, that’s the answer.” I figured, you know I’m a pretty smart guy, I figure things out pretty quickly. So as soon as they mentioned that I said, “that’s it.”
I was in Trump tower, I pointed down to the side-walk. There were people walking on the side-walk. I said “so those people walking on the side-walk are more powerful than you people in the clergy, the pastors, the ministers, the priests, the people in the clergy? They’re more powerful?” They said, “that’s right.” I said “not gonna happen anymore.” We’re gonna get rid of that thing. I want Christianity to have a strong flavor. Why did we ever pass such a law?
And it’s so important. I mean, really, they’ve shut Christianity down. And these pastors are great people but they’re afraid. For instance, some people came up to me, “Mr Trump, I love you, you’re the best, you’re gonna be the greatest leader, I wanna endorse you. I’m endorsing you, but I’m not allowed to do it publicly because if I do it publicly I may lose, for the church, the tax exempt status.”
So they’re really being silenced, and we can’t let that happen. We can’t let that happen. I don’t care about the endorsement. They’re really being silenced. We can’t let that happen. We’re not gonna let it happen. And we’re gonna get that law repealed. And think of the power we have over the democrats, over the republicans. I mean the power is incredible. So we’re gonna get that taken care of, and we’re gonna be back.
And I’ll tell you what, come Christmas time, we’re gonna all be in these department stores that don’t have “Merry Christmas” and we’re gonna see “Merry Christmas” right in those stores, right? They don’t put it up anymore. We’re gonna see “Merry Christmas” at the department stores again, folks. You go into these stores, you don’t even see “Merry Christmas” anymore. You say, why? Why? The store owners and the big companies especially, like Macy’s which is extremely a very disloyal company.
But these big companies they don’t wanna use it because it’s not politically correct. It’s gonna be not politically correct not to put it up, you watch. You watch. You watch. So we’re gonna be saying merry Christmas again.
So I told you, they’re chipping away at Christianity, and they’re chipping away at the second amendment. Every year chip chip chip!
I’m a good Christian, and I’m leading with Evangelicals. And I wanna tell you something... Christianity is being chipped away in this country. It’s being chipped away at, and I’m not gonna let this happen. You know, I was with a whole roomful of 50 pastors, ministers - great people. Some of whom I knew pretty well, and some I don’t. And I said to them “let me ask you a question. How many Christians, evangelicals, but mainly just Christians, do we have in this country.”
And they were saying “maybe 250 million, maybe 260 million.” I said “so that’s more than we have women. It’s more than we have men. It’s by far the biggest group. Then why aren’t you banding together and getting the kinds of things you want? When people talk about a temporary ban on Muslims until we find out what is going on there is total outrage. When people talk about Christians and Christianity, there’s no outrage. There’s no Outrage.
I said “let me ask you,” and these are great believers, these are great people, these are strong people, smart people. I said “Why is it,” and I think I really found something that’s very important for all of us. I said “Why is it, that you people don’t have a stronger lobby?”
During Lindon Johnson's term as president, they passed something where the tax deduction is under siege if these pastors do anything that’s a little bit off, okay. So they’re gonna lose tax exempt status, right? And I said “wait a minute, that’s right, that’s the answer.” I figured, you know I’m a pretty smart guy, I figure things out pretty quickly. So as soon as they mentioned that I said, “that’s it.”
I was in Trump tower, I pointed down to the side-walk. There were people walking on the side-walk. I said “so those people walking on the side-walk are more powerful than you people in the clergy, the pastors, the ministers, the priests, the people in the clergy? They’re more powerful?” They said, “that’s right.” I said “not gonna happen anymore.” We’re gonna get rid of that thing. I want Christianity to have a strong flavor. Why did we ever pass such a law?
And it’s so important. I mean, really, they’ve shut Christianity down. And these pastors are great people but they’re afraid. For instance, some people came up to me, “Mr Trump, I love you, you’re the best, you’re gonna be the greatest leader, I wanna endorse you. I’m endorsing you, but I’m not allowed to do it publicly because if I do it publicly I may lose, for the church, the tax exempt status.”
So they’re really being silenced, and we can’t let that happen. We can’t let that happen. I don’t care about the endorsement. They’re really being silenced. We can’t let that happen. We’re not gonna let it happen. And we’re gonna get that law repealed. And think of the power we have over the democrats, over the republicans. I mean the power is incredible. So we’re gonna get that taken care of, and we’re gonna be back.
And I’ll tell you what, come Christmas time, we’re gonna all be in these department stores that don’t have “Merry Christmas” and we’re gonna see “Merry Christmas” right in those stores, right? They don’t put it up anymore. We’re gonna see “Merry Christmas” at the department stores again, folks. You go into these stores, you don’t even see “Merry Christmas” anymore. You say, why? Why? The store owners and the big companies especially, like Macy’s which is extremely a very disloyal company.
But these big companies they don’t wanna use it because it’s not politically correct. It’s gonna be not politically correct not to put it up, you watch. You watch. You watch. So we’re gonna be saying merry Christmas again.
So I told you, they’re chipping away at Christianity, and they’re chipping away at the second amendment. Every year chip chip chip!
