In the closing minutes of his speech to a gathering of religious conservatives Friday night, former President Donald Trump told Christians that if they voted him into office in November, they would never need to vote again.
“Christians, get out and vote. Just this time,” he said at The Believers’ Summit, an event hosted by conservative advocacy group Turning Point Action, in West Palm Beach, Florida. “You won’t have to do it anymore, you know what? Four more years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”
Trump, who never made a particular display of religious observance before entering politics, continued: “I love you, Christians. I’m a Christian. I love you, you got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.”
Trump’s comments came at the end of a nearly hourlong speech in which he appealed to religious conservatives by promising to defend them from perceived threats from the left. Earlier in his remarks, he lamented that conservative Christians do not vote in large numbers, a complaint he had made repeatedly on the trail.
“They don’t vote like they should,” Trump said of Christians. “They’re not big voters.”
Trump’s suggestion that Christians would not have to vote again if he is elected quickly spread across social media. Some argued that it was a threat that the 2024 election could be the nation’s last if he were to win and claimed it was further evidence of an authoritarian, anti-democratic bent he has displayed throughout his political candidacy.
Asked to clarify Trump’s intent, Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for his campaign, said in a statement: “President Trump was talking about uniting this country and bringing prosperity to every American, as opposed to the divisive political environment that has sowed so much division and even resulted in an assassination attempt.”
The former president — who continues to falsely insist the 2020 election was rigged, a claim that inspired some of his supporters to storm the Capitol in a bid to keep him in power in 2021 — has raised alarm from Democrats and some Republicans. He has compared his political opponents to “vermin”; said he would have a prosecutor investigate President Joe Biden and his family; and framed his campaign as one of retribution.
James Singer, a spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, criticized Trump in a statement, pointing to the Capitol attack and accusing him of an “assault” on democracy.
“After the last election Trump lost, he sent a mob to overturn the results,” Singer said. “This campaign, he has promised violence if he loses, the end of our elections if he wins, and the termination of the Constitution to empower him to be a dictator to enact his dangerous Project 2025 agenda on America.”
Since his 2020 loss, Trump, who often praises strongmen leaders on the trail, has further embraced a brand of conservatism that experts on autocracy have said veers toward totalitarian.
Trump provoked further outcry when, in an interview with Sean Hannity, he said he would not categorically dismiss concerns that he might abuse presidential power but instead said he would not be a dictator “other than Day One.”
Trump added: “We’re closing the border. And we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.”
Trump and his allies have long dismissed the criticism as alarmist political attacks from liberals. They argue that Democrats have been anti-democratic, labeling the criminal cases brought against Trump as an effort to weaponize the justice system.
The Harris campaign — and the Biden campaign before that — have consistently attacked Trump as a threat to democracy. More recently, Democrats and their allies have highlighted Project 2025, a set of conservative policy proposals developed by a group that includes former Trump advisers and that would bring about a radical shift to the federal government.
Trump himself was not behind Project 2025, and he has repeatedly tried to distance himself from it. But The New York Times has reported on his plans for a second term, which would include casting aside the norm that gives the Justice Department independence from the White House; appointing ideologically aligned lawyers who would be less resistant to Trump’s policies; and a vastly expanded crackdown on immigration that would involve scouring the country for immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission and deporting millions of people annually.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
