On Monday, Fox News host Laura Ingraham pressed former President Donald Trump over controversial remarks he made at a conservative Christian summit. Trump had told attendees that after November, they wouldn’t need to vote anymore.
Rather than mitigating the backlash, Trump’s explanations only fueled further confusion by asserting that Jewish voters who support Democrats might need to “have their heads examined.”
“Let me say what I mean by that. I had a tremendous crowd speaking to Christians. I mean, this was a crowd that liked me a lot. I think I’m at 97% or something, and they’re treated very badly by this administration. Okay, Catholics are treated unbelievably. They’re like persecuted,” Trump asserted.
He continued, “And if I might say, before I go into the other, Jewish people, if you’re Jewish and you vote for Biden or the Democrats, or Kamala, or whoever is going to run, I guess it’s going to be her, but if you voted for her or the Democrats, you should have your head examined, because nobody has ever been treated so badly. By this, this administration is destroying Israel, etc, etc.”
“So, with respect to, like, a statement like I made that statement is very simple,” Trump explained. “I said vote for me, you’re not going to have to do it ever again. It’s true, because we have to get the vote out. Christians are not known as a big voting group. This time vote. I’ll straighten out the country, you won’t have to vote anymore. I won’t need your vote. You can go back to not voting.”
“You meant you won’t have to vote for you because you have four years in office. Is that what you meant?” Ingraham asked.
When Trump did not directly answer by pivoting to “gun owners,” Ingraham pointed out that some liberals were interpreting his remarks as a potential signal that he might end elections if re-elected. Trump, seemingly caught off guard, claimed he was unaware of this interpretation and shifted the focus to his belief that Christians generally have low voter
“Christians do not vote well. They vote in very small percentages. Why, I don’t know. Maybe they’re disappointed in things that are happening,” Trump said. “I say, ‘You don’t vote. I’m saying go out, you must vote.’ But I said to the Christians in the room, thousands of them. I said typically, Christians do not vote.”
He added: “Don’t worry about the future. You have to vote on Nov. 5. After that you don’t have to worry about voting anymore. I don’t care, because we’re going to fix it. The country will be fixed … We won’t even need your vote anymore because, frankly, we will have such love.”
Trump addressed the Turning Point Action’s “Believers Summit” in Florida on Friday, urging Christians to support him for a second term against Vice President Kamala Harris. He concluded his speech by telling attendees to vote in November, promising that they wouldn’t need to vote again in the future.
“You won’t have to do it anymore… You have to get out and vote. In four years, you won’t have to vote again. We’ll have everything so well fixed that you won’t need to vote,” Trump said.
Some Democrats, including the Harris campaign, seized on these remarks, suggesting that Trump’s comments implied he might seek to abolish elections if re-elected. They also highlighted his previous statements about being a “dictator for one day” to enact significant changes in energy and immigration policies.
Watch the clip below:
