President Donald Trump began his remarks at an event hosted by the White House Faith Office by expressing his support for religion in public life.
“A nation that prays is a nation that prospers,” he said.
Trump’s remarks quickly turned from religion to the economy.
He called Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell “a knucklehead, stupid guy” who is costing the country hundreds of billions of dollars. He continued by touting the billions taken in by U.S. tariffs so far.
He also touted a recent decision allowing religious leaders to endorse candidates without their organizations losing tax-exempt status.
Addressing religious leaders at a White House event, Trump said, “You have more power than anybody, but you’re not allowed to use your power.”
Paula White, Senior Adviser for the White House Faith Office, called it “a moment of divine alignment.”
[TRUMP] And this group reminds us, as a nation that prays is a nation that prospers. And you see that, I think, one of the reasons we went so bad is they really wanted to take God and religion out of your lives. And there was nobody to, you know, look up to. There was just nobody. It was — we were freewheeling. And we can’t freewheel. No, we have to bring religion back into the country. And we’re starting to do that, I think, at a very high level. Paula, a very, very high level. You see churches are starting to fill up again.
And inflation is dead. It’s dead. We have a bad Fed Chairman, really bad if he would lower the rates if he were to lower the rates, and I tried being nice to the guy. It doesn’t help. He’s like a knucklehead. He’s a knucklehead, stupid guy. He really is, you know each point think of this each point costs us 360 billion dollars.
But as president, I’ve ended the radical left war on faith, and we’re once again protecting religious freedom like never before in our country. We’re protecting it like never before. We’re getting rid of the Johnson Amendment that didn’t let the pastors and ministers and everybody speak about politics. Now you’re able to speak about politics, Paula.
You have more power than anybody, but you’re not allowed to use your power. I said, we’re going to get rid of that because people want to hear what you have to say more than anybody else, pretty much.
I got indicted five times, impeached two times. All bulls—-, right? Terrible stuff. And I got impeached for making a perfect phone call. I congratu — good luck. Congratulations. I had a guy come up to me, a secretary — a secretary of energy from before. Sir, could you call up, of all people, President Zelenskyy?
I told that secretary, who wasn’t the smartest bulb, He wasn’t…Rick Perry. You don’t want him on your debate team. Let me put it that way. Rick, you’re not going to be on my debate team, Rick. But he’s the one that asked me to do it. Rick Perry.
And it’s remarkable to think that it was only one year ago this week that my time on Earth nearly ended. And if you look at that, God was with me because that’s something that, in theory, I should not be with you today. (applause) Well, I believe that, and I do, I believe it that my life was saved by God to really make America great again. I really believe it.
[WHITE] I think America’s spiritual and moral foundations have been restored and it’s only the beginning today’s not just a luncheon, it is a moment of divine alignment, a commissioning, and we believe that God is raising up business leaders who don’t separate faith from enterprise but who see their platforms and their pulpits as their businesses and instruments for eternal impact. Let us pray.
