During an Evangelicals for Trump rally at the King Jesus International Ministry in Miami, President Donald Trump employed his usual MAGA rally tactics of lies, propaganda and childish name calling.
The self-proclaimed devoutly Christian crowd cheered loudly as he called his political opponents names and provided alternative facts.
One target for Trump was former South Bend, Indiana mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.
The President told his Evangelical worshippers—whose leaders declared Trump the "chosen one" and "King of the Jews"—"We have God on our side" which the God later disputed on Twitter.
Trump added:
"The extreme left is trying to replace religion with government and replace God with socialism."
Then Trump—who never associated himself with Christianity nor attended church prior to courting Evangelical voters during his 2016 campaign—targeted Pete Buttigieg as a fake Christian. The Indiana mayor has written about his lifelong, well documented connection to his Christian faith.
The President—using one of the many puerile nicknames he creates for political opponents—said:
"And I see Alfred E Neuman comes out and he's trying to pretend he's very religious. Alfred E. Neuman you know who that is, right?"
Uncertain anyone would get his 1970s pop culture reference, the 73 year-old President clarified.
"Buttigieg, you go 'boot' and then 'edge, edge,' because nobody can pronounce his name so they call him 'Mayor Pete'."
Then babbled a bit in his signature speaking style.
"Now Mayor Pete I hope he does great. Boot-edge-edge."
Trump finally added his expert assessment on the devotion of another Christian to their faith, saying of Buttigieg:
"Now all of a sudden he's become extremely religious, this happened about two weeks ago."
Buttigieg responded initially on Twitter to just the President's claims about Republicans who support Trump holding sole dominion over God, Christ and Christianity.
Mayor Pete stated simply:
"God does not belong to a political party."
The Democratic presidential candidate when asked previously about Trump's insults expressed genuine concern for a man who engaged in the unsophisticated taunts of primary schoolchildren. Unlike some of his fellow candidates, Buttigieg refrained from lashing out on Twitter in response to the President's bait.
However when pressed to comment on Trump's specific claim that the 37 year-old Democrat was newly Christian just to run for President, Mayor Pete provided a quick quip.
He first stated:
"I'm not sure why the President's taken an interest in my faith journey, but certainly I would be happy to discuss it with him."
He ended saying:
"I'm pretty sure I've been a believer longer than he's been a Republican."
Watch Buttigieg's response here:
People were feeling the burn.
As of Tuesday, January 7, 2020, the presidential election is 300 days away.
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The biblical philosophy study book Trump Lies And Evangelical Christians: Lost Moral and Ethics Authority-A Study of Sin, Sanctification, and Holiness is available here.
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