From boos to cheers

WASHINGTON—A year ago, Donald Trump was booed off the stage at the annual Values Voter Summit, but this time around, the mostly evangelical audience roared its approval.

“All across the nation a lot of people said, ‘I wonder if Donald will get the evangelicals?’ Let me tell you, I got the evangelicals,” Trump said at the Family Research Council–sponsored event this afternoon. “Our nation today is so divided. … It will be our faith in God and each other that will lead us back to unity.”

At the 2015 event, when voters still had a host of Republican presidential candidates to choose from, Trump finished fifth in a straw poll, as most evangelicals had little appetite for the bombastic businessman. Now, just two months before Election Day, the 3,000 in attendance rose to their feet to cheer November’s alternative to Hillary Clinton as he left the podium to the appropriate strains of The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

Shirley Baldwin, who traveled cross-country from La Verne, Calif., told me she never liked Trump and was one of those who booed him a year ago.

“Trump was my 17th choice for president,” she said. “But we’re down to two candidates, and we know what we’ll get with Hillary Clinton. At least Trump has the chance to be moldable.”

First and foremost, Baldwin said, she is a “never-Clinton” person and will begrudgingly vote for Trump because there’s no alternative to keep the Democratic nominee out of the White House.

And Trump knows this.

The Republican nominee didn’t have to do much to win over today’s audience. He received extended applause by simply proclaiming, “Hillary Clinton is unfit for president.”

Trump opened his 45-minute speech denouncing the media and what he considers to be an assault on religious liberty: the Johnson Amendment. He said one of the first things he will do if elected president is repeal the 1954 amendment to the tax code so that pastors can openly endorse political candidates from the pulpit.

“The Johnson Amendment has blocked our pastors and ministers and others from speaking their minds from their own pulpits,” Trump said. “All religious leaders should be able to freely express their thoughts and feelings.”

Throughout today’s lineup of speakers—which ranged from current and former politicians, to faith leaders and conservative pundits—a consistent theme was apparent: Trump may not be the candidate evangelicals wanted, but they better show up to vote for him anyway.

Many speakers bemoaned poor evangelical voter turnout in 2012, noting that if Christians had showed up in large numbers at the polls, President Barack Obama never would have won reelection.

Former U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., told those in attendance that it is not a moral choice to vote for neither Clinton nor Trump, saying that one of the two will be the next president, and not voting or voting for a third-party candidate would only help Clinton win.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus put it a different way, saying that if voters needed a reason to vote for Trump, “Let me give you two words: Supreme Court.”

Trump told the crowd the next president will get to decide the high court’s future through what could be several appointments and he’s committed to selecting good jurists.

“This will determine whether or not we remain a constitutional republic, frankly,” Trump said. “I have pledged to appoint judges who uphold the Constitution, to protect your religious liberty, and apply the law as written.”

During his time on stage, Trump gave few specific policy proposals, deciding to stick with his usual talking points. He said he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, secure the U.S. southern border, and stop Syrian refugees from coming into the country: “This is going to be potentially a catastrophe for our country. It’s from within. This could be the all-time great Trojan horse.”

Trump later criticized Clinton for telling the media this week she will not to put boots on the ground in Syria to defeat ISIS. He said it’s one thing to be cautious about sending in ground forces, but it’s foolish to broadcast her military tactics.

“You know, I hate to say this because we have a lot of evangelicals in this room, but maybe we shouldn’t be so honest when it comes to military strategy,” Trump said.