Former President Donald Trump told attendees at a conservative christian On Friday night, Christians declared that they would no longer need to vote if he were elected in November. He implored Christians to save America by voting “just this once,” so that he could win the presidential election with a landslide victory that was “too big to rig.”
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, made the remarks at the end of a speech at the Believers’ Summit, an event hosted by the conservative advocacy group Turning Point Action, in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“Christians, go out and vote. But this time,” he urged. “You won’t have to do it again. Four more years. You know what? It will be all right. Everything will be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my dear Christians.”
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Trump continued: “I love you Christians, and I’m a Christian. I love you, you need to get out and vote. In four years, you won’t have to vote. We’ll have solved the problem in such a way that you won’t have to vote.”
On social media, some raised alarms in response to Trump’s comments, expressing concern that they hinted at authoritarianism and could be interpreted as an indication that he would not leave office if he won the election.
“Democracy is in danger. This is not a drill,” posted Allison Gill, co-host of the podcast “Jack,” along with an image showing Trump’s message to Christians.
Toward the end of his hour-long speech, Trump said Democrats rigged the 2020 presidential election — and Trump falsely claimed he won over President Biden.
The audience gave him a standing ovation, chanting, “Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight,” and raising their fists as Trump did after a bullet grazed his ear during a protest. assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, two weeks ago.
Trump said he removed the last bandage from his ear just before speaking at the event.
“I just took it off. I took it off for this group. I don’t know why I did it for this group, but that’s it,” he said.
Before Friday night’s event, Trump wore a large white bandage over his ear. At his rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday, he wore a more discreet flesh-colored bandage.
CBS News has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment on his remarks.
Trump addressed a packed audience of a few hundred people at the summit, just hours after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago. Netanyahu met separately with Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris the day before at the White House.
He spent much of his speech criticizing Harris, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee after President Biden. decided to give up his candidacy for re-election.
Other speakers at the two-day event, which focused on “unity and biblical truth,” included former Trump adviser Peter Navarro, Dr. Ben Carson, secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the Trump administration, and conservative political activist Charlie Kirk.
Navarro, who was recently released from prison, spoke shortly before Trump and led the audience in chants: “If we don’t control our government, their government will control us.”
He told the audience that the justice system had unfairly prosecuted him, using rhetoric similar to that often used by Trump.
“What happened to me can happen to you,” Navarro said. “If they can go after Donald Trump, they can go after you.”
Navarro served a four-month sentence for defying a congressional subpoena. He was published earlier this month.
The former president has already sought to appeal to evangelical Christians.
In June, he told a politically influential group of evangelical Christians in Washington that they “cannot afford to be left out” of the 2024 elections, imploring them at one point to “go vote, Christians, please!”
