Trump Warns Evangelicals of "Violence" if GOP Loses in Midterms, and Lies to Them

Trump and Christian extremist leaders at the White House.

Donald Trump was back in Adolph Hitler mode as he addressed a who's who of evangelical Christian extremists and parasitic "professional Christians" such as Franklin Graham and white supremacist loving Tony Perkins.  Specifically, Trump seemed to be messaging to his base that violence would be appropriate against liberals and Democrats if Republican candidates lose significantly in the 2018 midterm elections. In one of his typical lies, Trump attributed to liberals and Democrats that has been consistently engaged in by the far right of the GOP Base.  The second big lie was that even as Trump was de facto encouraging violence, he lied to the Christofascists at the gather when he claimed to have changed laws that restrict churches from engaging in politically partisan election activities. Trump neither rescinded the so-called Johnson Amendment nor does he have the power to do so.  His knuckle dragging, spittle flecked and hate-filled audience nonetheless ate up the lie.  CNN looks at Trump's warnings of violence.  Here are excerpts:

President Donald Trump, facing scrutiny for hush money payments to a porn star and a former Playboy model, pleaded with evangelical leaders for political help during closed-door remarks on Monday, warning of dire consequences to their congregations should Republicans lose in November's midterm elections.

"This November 6 election is very much a referendum on not only me, it's a referendum on your religion, it's a referendum on free speech and the First Amendment. It's a referendum on so much," Trump told the assemblage of pastors and other Christian leaders gathered in the State Dining Room, according to a recording from people in the room. "It's not a question of like or dislike, it's a question that they will overturn everything that we've done and they will do it quickly and violently. And violently. There is violence. . . . "You have tremendous power. You were saying, in this room, you have people who preach to almost 200 million people. Depending on which Sunday we're talking about."
 But inviting the leaders to the White House only days after [Trump] the President was newly implicated by his longtime personal lawyer's guilty plea underscored the degree to which Trump is trying to keep his supporters on his side.
 "You have to hopefully get out and get people to support us," Trump said. "If you don't, that will be the beginning of ending everything that you've gotten." The remarks from an attendee's recording offered a more dire view of the upcoming vote than Trump has projected in public. He often trumpets an upcoming "red wave" of Republican victories, downplaying suggestions that Democrats are poised to exploit his divisiveness and retake the House or Senate.
 Trump didn't mention a "red wave" on Monday, instead acknowledging that midterms often present new presidents with a turnout challenge. . . . there's a real question as to whether people are going to vote if I'm not on the ballot. And I'm not on the ballot."  That's a problem Trump said the evangelical leaders could help solve by galvanizing their congregations and followers to vote.

The New York Times described the event as Trump's "attempt to use the specter of violence at the hands of his political opponents and to fan the flames of cultural divisions in the country."  As noted, at this gathering of the leaders of the American Taliban, Trump boasted about changes in the law that he has not made and lacks the power to make.  NBC News looks at Trump's deliberate lies to the assembled Christofascists.  Here are highlights:

In a closed-door meeting with evangelical leaders Monday night, President Donald Trump repeated his debunked claim that he had gotten "rid of" a law forbidding churches and charitable organizations from endorsing political candidates, according to recorded excerpts reviewed by NBC News.

In fact, the law remains on the books, after efforts to kill it in Congress last year failed.

But Trump cited this alleged accomplishment as one in a series of gains he has made for his conservative Christian supporters, as he warned, "You're one election away from losing everything that you've got," and said their opponents were "violent people" who would overturn these gains "violently."

Trump addressed the law and the upcoming midterms in private remarks Monday during a dinner with evangelical supporters at the White House after the press had left.

The law that Trump says he got rid of is the so-called Johnson Amendment, a provision inserted into law in 1954 by then-senator and future President Lyndon Johnson of Texas, who was miffed that a conservative nonprofit group was helping his opponent.

The law says churches and charities "are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office."

"Now one of the things I'm most proud of is getting rid of the Johnson Amendment," the president said. "That was a disaster for you."

The president doesn't have the power to repeal a law — only Congress can do that. The Supreme Court can also rule a law unconstitutional, but that has not happened in this case.

In May 2017, Trump signed an executive order that purported to ease enforcement of the Johnson Amendment. But experts — and the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes repeal of the provision — say the Trump order was basically toothless.
In other words, religious organizations can express their religious views, as they always could — but still cannot formally participate in political campaigns.