Trump addressing Evangelicals who love him.
It's about the agenda and getting it done.
He gave them Gorsuch and in his speech he hit on their themes, many of them manufactured for them by right wing talk radio.
In victory lap with values voters, Trump boasts 'Guess what, we're saying Merry Christmas again'
He boasted of steps to protect religious liberty, including an executive order erasing the "Johnson Amendment" -1954 legislation that put tax exemptions at risk if a church of other tax exempt entity endorsed a candidate.
Pastors had bristled for decades under what they viewed as a gag rule.
How does an executive order "erase" law?
And didn't the people who love him spend most of O's tenure in office complaining about the Democrat's unconstitutional refusals to more vigorously enforce laws not beloved by those of his party, like certain immigration laws?
Not so long before the 2016 race he'd supported abortion rights and gay marriage. He'd been twice divorced.
But by the time he'd won the GOP nomination he had embraced a social conservative platform.
And -- with Democrat Hillary Clinton as the alternative -- many conservative Christians enthusiastically embracing him.
. . . .
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, warmed up the crowd by recalling that the last time Trump spoke at the summit, two months before Election Day, polls showed little chance for him to win.
"We said it would be worth it for just one thing.
If we could get a conservative on the Supreme Court like Neil Gorsuch it would have been worth it, and indeed we have done it. Don't you think [Gorsuch]is better than Supreme Court Justice Bill Clinton?" Meadows said.
"Somehow we as people of faith knew that God still reigns over the affairs of nations."
He pointed to roughly 150 other judicial nominations from Trump, judges who will protect religious freedom and "make sure that we turn back this country to its roots."
. . . .
"This is our moment," said Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, opening the conference in a hotel ballroom set with around 1,000 seats, an hour before Trump took the stage.
"We have like-minded swamp drainers from around the world," he said, invoking Trump's vow to "drain the swamp" by stripping power in Washington from corporate interests, lobbyists and others.
Says NPR,
80 percent of white evangelicals cast their vote for Trump last November, according to exit polls.
That's a higher percentage than supported President George W. Bush in 2004, Sen. John McCain in 2008 or former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in 2012.
Since taking office, Trump has made many of the voting bloc's priorities a reality, from putting Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, to issuing a religious liberty executive order, to weakening the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate.
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