Former President Donald Trump said Monday that America “needs religion,” likening it to “the glue that holds” the country together.
Trump’s comment came during an interview with preacher Paula White at the National Faith Summit in Atlanta, Georgia.
Trump contended that there is a parallel between the problems facing the country and the decline of religion in the United States over the past quarter to half a century.
“If you take a look at the anger, the problems that we have, and a lot of it is that it’s less based on religion now than it was 25 years ago and 50 years ago,” he told White. “I mean, we were a really, people would say, a Christian and really religious — even other faiths — country.”
“And that seems to be heading in the wrong direction. And I think as that goes down, I think that our country goes down. I really do,” he added. “I think this is a country that needs religion. It’s like the glue that holds it together, and we don’t … have that.”
Trump said that religious Americans “are the most important people, and I’m not sure you even realize it.”
“They’re trying to hurt you. They’re trying to stymie you, this new administration, this new radical left group of people, and it’s not so new. It’s been around for a while,” Trump said. “And they are people that are not nice people.”
He then made a direct appeal to Catholics, whom he said the radical left is “persecuting. “
“When you see what’s going on with the FBI and the Catholic Church, I say, ‘What is happening.’ And you know, the expression is that you’re next because … everybody’s next with this group,” Trump added.
Notably, a leaked FBI memo out of the Richmond, Virginia, field office in 2023 said there was a growing “interest” in “radical-traditionalist Catholic” ideology among violent extremists.
He also recounted the formation of his faith during his childhood.
Trump is emerging as the candidate of religion as his campaign is uniting Christians, Jews, and Muslims in a remarkable way.
One need look no further than the shift away from Democrats and toward the GOP among Arab and Muslim-dense communities in traditionally deep-blue Wayne County, Michigan, where attitudes around Trump have softened and severe frustrations with the Biden-Harris administration have arisen over the conflict in the Middle East.
One Islamic faith leader in Dearborn, Michigan, told reporters last week that Trump aligns more closely to the Bible, Torah, and Quran than Harris does.
“So the reason I lean towards Mr. Trump because I found him closer to the Bible, and Torah, and the Quran because I support peace, no war,” Imam Husham Al-Husainy said. “We should stop the war, whether in Europe or in Middle East. And I believe in justice evenly between all the children of Ibrahim [Abraham].”
