During a segment on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Friday, former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele predicted that former president Donald Trump will ignite a civil war within evangelical churches to punish pastors he deems as “disloyal.”
Trump this week lashed out at Evangelical leaders, calling them “disloyal” for saying their flocks are ready to turn the page on Trump in the 2024 GOP primary.
Addressing Trump’s complaint, Steele told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that conservative pastors would eventually be forced to pay the consequences for the deal they’d made with the devil back in 2016.
“Just because you lay your hands on the devil doesn’t make him a saint, and they knew full well what they were getting,” Steele said. “Donald Trump’s view is, as he said in the interview, ‘I delivered what you wanted, I gave you the Supreme Court justices to give you the one thing you wanted, and that was to overturn Roe v. Wade — this is how you repay me?”
“He’s not a Kevin McCarthy, he’s not just going to roll over and go, okay — that’s not how this plays out,” Steele explained. “I keep telling folks, when the man engages, let’s see how he engages, when he decides it’s time to take down these disloyal pastors, he will take them down, and you know who will help take them down? Their very congregants.”
He added: “So the reality for Donald Trump is the leaderships are the tools, those are the tools for him. He knows where his bread is buttered. It’s the base, so as long as, you know, he’s at 53 percent, he’s not worried about the 45 percent. Remember, this is a man who went through four years, never cracked 45 percent, 46 percent, and still wreaked havoc.”
Watch the segment below from MSNBC.