The launch of Donald Trump’s new National Faith Advisory Board got off to a rocky on Thursday after he complained to religious leaders about Jewish voters not appreciating what he did for them during his four years in office, according to a report from the Religion News Service.
The official launch on the board took place this week with Trump and longtime Trump advisor Paula White speaking to members on a conference call –with the suggestion the one-term president may make another run in 2024 with the hope he can round up enough people of faith to support him.
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According to the report, “Trump referenced hypothetical future scenarios ‘if we’re able to get back in,’ while repeating the widely discredited claim the 2020 election was ‘stolen’ from him. In discussing the Catholic vote, he acknowledged he had lost ground with the bloc in his four years in office.”
“I’m a little bit surprised that we didn’t do better with the Catholic vote,” Trump told those listening in. “I think now they would give us a vote. I think we got about 50% of the vote. And yet, we did a lot for the Catholic vote. So we’ll have to talk to them. We’re gonna have to meet with the Catholics.”
Jenkins notes that Trump was hit hard by Catholic defections in the hard-hit Rust Belt states, pointing out, “Trump’s margin dropped from 64% to 57% between 2016 and 2020, whereas Biden won 42% — an 11% improvement over Clinton in 2016.”
The former president was less pleased with Jewish voters, bitterly complaining that “Israel has never had a better friend.”
“The former president expressed frustration with the lack of support from Jewish voters, despite his administration’s support of Israel,” Jenkins wrote, quoting Trump declaring, “Look what I did with the embassy in Jerusalem and what I did with so many other things … Israel has never had a better friend, and yet I got 25% of the vote. I think they have to get together. There has to be a little bit more unity with the religious groups all represented on this call.”
You can read the entire report here.
