Donald Trump Vows to 'Restore Faith to Its Proper Mantle' in America
WASHINGTON — Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told a gathering of conservative Christians on Friday that he will "restore faith to its proper mantle" in America if he is elected the next president of the United States in November.
The billionaire real estate mogul was the keynote speaker at the Faith & Freedom Coalition's 2016 Road to Majority Conference and assured values voters that he will do all he can to protect the rights of people of faith to live and raise their children in accordance with their religious beliefs.
As some conservative Christians remain hesitant to vote for Trump as the "lesser of two evils" in the general election, Trump stressed that unlike presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, he will protect and not infringe upon religious freedoms of Americans.
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"People who go to church, who work and work in religious charities and so forth and share their values, these are the foundations of our society," Trump argued. "We will restore respect for people of faith, who dutifully raise their children, follow our laws and rules and we have to really take care of them. We have to take care of our neighbors. Right now, our neighbors are not being taken care of. We have to restore the rule of law on our border, in our government."
Much of Trump's speech served as an attack on the former secretary of State. He argued that people shouldn't vote for Clinton because she is only beholden to her donors, such as the nation's largest abortion provider Planned Parenthood. Clinton was delivering a speech to Planned Parenthood around the same time.
Trump promised that he will only be beholden to the American people.
"Bottom line is that I will be working for you … Together, friends, we will chart new optimistic course for America. We will put America first," Trump said. "We will restore faith to its proper mantle in our society. That is what we have to do and we will do that soon. We will respect and defend Christian Americans — Christians."
"We will give parents control over their schools," he continued. "We will uphold the values our founders gave us, which we are not doing now. We will work together to rebuild and restore everyone, not a certain group, everyone, the whole country."
Trump also argued for the importance of defeating Clinton because of the major implications the 2016 election has on the Supreme Court.
As many suspect that the next president could be responsible for appointing as many as three Supreme Court justices, Trump highlighted his recently released Supreme Court short list. Trump told the crowd that all 11 judges on his list are pro-life.
"We want to uphold the sanctity and dignity of life [and] marriage and family as the building block of happiness and success," Trump said. "I know many, many successful people and the happiest people are people that have that great religious feel and that incredible marriage and children. That is more important than the money, folks, believe me. I know plenty of people with lots of money and they are not happy. "
Trump, who has previously called for a ban an all Muslim immigration into the United States, warned that Clinton wants to let as many as 500,000 refugees into the United States. As soon as Trump brought up the topic of immigration, his speech was interrupted by a group of protestors. The protesters chanted things like "Refugees are welcome here!" and "Stop Trump!"
The protesters were quickly escorted out of the conference hall by security.
"What is happening in our country is so sad. We are so divided," Trump said in response to the protesters. "It is such a shame. By the way, these are professional educators, folks."
While Trump spoke to Christian conservatives in Washington on Friday, Clinton was in D.C. on Friday to speak to the national conference of Planned Parenthood.
"I've been proud to stand with Planned Parenthood for a long time, and as president, I will always have your back," Clinton said at the event.
