President Donald Trump painted a terrifying and, at points, somewhat incomprehensible vision of the world in a lengthy speech at the Evangelical Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual Road to Majority Conference in Washington, D.C. on Friday afternoon.
The remarks were littered with malapropisms and hyperbolic threats as Trump responded to a string of progressive electoral wins in the past week by describing Democrats as dangerous and godless “Communists.”
Early on in the speech, which stretched to nearly an hour, Trump touted his administration’s efforts to push back on what he described as “transgender insanity” and “radical gender ideology” from the left. He then launched into his own version of the many attacks that Republicans have fired at Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico that have sought to cast his support for the LGBT community as an exaggerated and radical position.
As Trump took on Talarico, his efforts to describe the largely non-existent GOP nightmare of children getting gender reassignment surgery stumbled through a misspoken version of the term “mutilation.”
“We have a man running in Texas who thinks there are six genders,” Trump said, adding, “Can you believe it? Six genders? And we officially banned the chemical and surgical mutilization of our children.”
A few moments later, Trump repeated the accusation that his political rivals support “mutilization.”
“The Dumocrats, they are horrible. They want to resume the transgender mutilization of our children,” he said. “They want to restart the war on Christians and churches. And, as you saw with the communists elected in New York City recently — they’re communists, they’re not social Democrats — they want to completely destroy the traditional American way of life.”
The speech was notable for multiple other verbal gaffes, which came as Trump is increasingly facing questions about his age and health — concerns that the White House has aggressively pushed back on. The speech also featured consistent attempts to cast his political and foreign rivals in dramatic, threatening and even apocalyptic terms, particularly the left-wing candidates who have recently won in New York City, which is the president’s hometown.
After electing Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, last year, New Yorkers voted in several candidates for the U.S. House and state legislature who were backed by the mayor on Tuesday. That slate included other DSA members as well as more established, moderate Democrats.
Trump repeatedly referred to all of New York’s newly installed progressives as “communists” and dubbed them “this new breed of sick people.” He also compared them to foreign terrorists.
“These ruthless communists will attack all religions, but in particular Christianity. They always do. They’re after Christianity more than any other religion,” Trump said. “All communist countries attack religions violently. … it’s part of their deal. As you know, we recently struck Nigeria and largely ended the slaughter of great Christian populations.”
The U.S. military operations in Nigeria targeted militants affiliated with the ISIS terrorist group. While the Trump administration has accused the group of mass killing Christians, the Nigerian government has rejected that narrative and said the militants target victims more indiscriminately. As Trump shared his version of events at the Evangelical forum, he strangely described people being “hatched” while articulating a graphic vision of the violence.
“They have a great Christian population. They were being butchered, butchered,” said Trump. “Thousands and thousands of people were being killed; children, women, old people, just being slaughtered, hatched to death.”
Trump also referenced Mamdani’s successful push to enact a rent freeze on certain rent-stabilized apartments in New York City. This too, he painted in exceptionally grim terms.
“What the mayor doesn’t say is that these buildings will soon turn into ghettos and slums and that everybody will continue leaving New York. And as this spreads throughout the country, very much like an uncontrollable form of cancer, the country itself will be taken down. It’ll be third world strictly. Third world,” Trump said.
While spinning these terrifying depictions of the country’s future, Trump also suggested it could all be avoided if Republicans win in the upcoming midterms, which he described as “very vital.”
Along with pointing to threats from within, Trump turned to his ongoing war in Iran. He recounted the moments when he made the call to launch strikes against that country.
“We’re gonna have to go to war,” Trump said he declared before correcting himself, “Or go to a military operation, which my people would prefer that I use as a term because war means things that they don’t like. But whether you call it war or not, it is what it is.”
Trump blamed former President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, which was called the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), for necessitating the conflict, as he has since the start. That framework had far stricter conditions and less money going to Iran than many of the various plans Trump’s administration has put forward in negotiations to end the current war. However, Trump said the deal, which he mistakenly called the “JCPOC” before later using the proper terminology, was a “disaster.”
He framed it as something that put the world on track for massive destruction.
“Iran would have had a nuclear weapon,” explained Trump. “And then you wouldn’t have Israel, Israel would be gone. I know you have a lot of good fans of Israel in this room. And Israel would have been gone and probably the Middle East would’ve been gone.”
Along with defending his Iran war, Trump touted his immigration policy. He suggested this had stopped a flood of people — many of whom he claimed without evidence were violent criminals released from prisons — from entering the country.
“They’d come up from South America and all through Mexico. They’d go all through and they go through jungles in Colombia, really tough jungles too, dangerous jungles. And women would die and women would be raped,” said Trump.
The president went on to suggest his efforts to curb illegal immigration had led to larger drops in crime. He specifically pointed to Washington, D.C. where he has deployed the National Guard into the streets.
“DC is now one of the safest, most beautiful cities in the country and just a little while ago … it was a killing machine,” Trump said.
However, prior to Trump taking office last year, violent crime in the nation’s capital had reached a historic 30 year low.
While he suggested the situation in Washington is far better during his presidency, Trump did point to one dastardly crime unfolding there. He repeated his questionable assertion that the algal blooms that have marred the reflecting pool on the National Mall are the result of vandals rather than a renovation project his administration executed by giving a no-bid contract to a firm tied to a Trump donor.
“The reflecting pool was so beautiful, they tried to destroy it. They cut it up with a box knife and tried to destroy it,” said Trump. “These people are sick. They ripped a scar 350 feet long through the side of the reflecting pool. These are the people we’re dealing with. These are the people that want to destroy our country.”
Reporting and records indicate Trump has greatly exaggerated the number of people arrested in conjunction with alleged vandalism at the pool. He also has not provided promised video proof for his dramatic claims about the purported damage. The one person charged so far has said he simply picked up a floating piece of paint.
Trump, who repeatedly reiterated his false claim that past elections have been “rigged” against Republicans, concluded the litany of grievances and flubs by again stressing the need for supporters to back his party in the coming election.
“We have a country that’s just the hottest. It just is so hot and I’m working really hard to make it even better. We’re gonna get rid of some of the flaws. We’re gonna make it even better,” Trump said. “The biggest thing we have to do is we have to stop this horrible thread of cancer that’s permeating our country called communism. We have to stop it because that’s what it’s about.”
After giving the religious crowd almost an hour of lies, fire, and brimstone, Trump offered up a solemn prayer.
“We have to stop it,” he said of the supposedly cancerous communists, before adding, “And we ask that God will continue to bless the United States of America.”
Set him up for another network interview. Show the world what a drooling idiot he’s become.
Say what you will, but he knows his audience – Bat Shit Crazy (just like him).
This is truly the dumbest timeline.
Did he fall asleep during his own speech?
Was he wearing pants?
The Lard of the Flies is gonna eat his own hand before this is over.
(And the press will label it “endearing” or some such.)
Are we blessed? With the likes of the CF running the show(supposedly), I don’t think so.
And when did communism become a problem in the WH? Oh, wait…it is living rent free in the CF brain - or what’s left of it.
Trump is vile. Children hear his words.