Former US president Donald Trump delivered two speeches on Saturday, urging Christian supporters to go to the polls for him one last time and declaring his intention to solve the crime problem.
The Republican candidate, at a rally of several thousand people at Temple University in Philadelphia, promised to immunise police to do their jobs and direct federal resources to cities struggling with violence. However, Trump called data showing that crime is down nationwide in the first three months of 2024 false, blaming Joe Biden.
Under crooked Joe Biden the City of Brotherly Love is being ravaged by bloodshed and crime. Under the Trump administration we are going to bring law and order and safety back to our streets, Trump said in an arena in a historically black neighbourhood.
Trump’s campaign, encouraged by his intention to fight crime, is inspiring voters to cast their ballots for him, opinion polls show. He has also touched on the painful topic of illegal immigrants, portraying them as dangerous and burdensome to the public. Despite, Trump has little chance of winning Philadelphia, the state Biden easily won in 2020, though he remains hopeful of narrowing the gap in Pennsylvania. The state may potentially go to either Republicans or Democrats.
Moreover, at an earlier event on Saturday in Washington organised by the Faith and Freedom Coalition, the former president urged churchgoers to go to the polls for him one last time in November. He stated:
Christians go to church, but they don’t vote that much. You know the power you have if you would vote. You gotta get out and vote. Just this time. In four years you don’t have to vote, OK? In four years don’t vote, I don’t care. (…) We will protect Christians in our schools, in our military, in our government, in our workplaces, in our hospitals and in our public square.
By saying “just this time” he means that in case of re-election he will not be able to run for the presidency again in 2028 due to term limits. According to the Pew Research Center, evangelical voters played a crucial role in Trump’s 2016 victory as well as his failed 2020 campaign, when 84 per cent of white evangelical Protestants voted for him.
The former president reiterated his position that abortion restrictions are to go to the voters in each individual state. Republicans risk electoral defeat if they take too hard a stance on abortion rights, according to Donald Trump. He claimed:
We’ve gotten abortion out of the federal government and back to the states. The people will decide, and that’s the way it should be. Like Ronald Reagan, I believe in exceptions for the life of the mother – rape and incest … You have to go with your heart. You have to also remember you have to get elected.
