https://godanddonaldtrump.com CHAPTER 3 AFTER THE ELECTION ★★★★★ IT WAS AS if all the air had suddenly been sucked out of the room. Hillary Clin- ton’s election night rally at the Javits Center in New York City was supposed to be a colossal event, a spectacle, a coronation ceremony for the first woman pres- ident of the United States. Supporters, many of whom arrived early and cele- brated throughout the day, were expecting to dance the night away, to celebrate with champagne as balloons and streamers cascaded down from high in the rafters. But the victory celebration never came that night. Something happened, something completely unexpected by the restless crowd, and as the evening wore on, it was becoming apparent that Hillary Clinton would not be moving to the White House. For the men and women on Clinton’s advisory team, the election had not gone as planned. The pollsters, once again, had missed it. States once thought to be secure Democratic territory were going for the Republican candidate, and the
brightly colored maps displayed on the TV screens around the convention hall were now mostly red. One state after another was being called for Trump, and while the East and West Coasts performed as expected, remaining solidly blue throughout the night, the rest of America was going the other way. The heartland was voting for the political outsider who promised to “make America great again.” The crowds inside and outside the hall had been nervous and impatient all evening, but they wanted to hear from the candidate. They needed reassurance. Surely they hadn’t lost, had they? But the candidate was nowhere to be seen, and by 11:00 p.m. the music had stopped, the house lights had gone out with a thump, and campaign officials could be seen scurrying away unceremoniously, taking refuge behind the enormous floor-to-ceiling curtains. When Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, addressed the bewildered stragglers, he tried to reassure them it wasn’t over.¹ But it was over, and it was becoming crystal clear that the media, the networks, the pundits, and all the talk- ing heads had gotten it wrong. The New York Times insisted that all its polling data confirmed that Clinton had the election in hand and her chances of winning
were between 70 and 99 percent.² None of the models compiled by analytics ex- perts showed the Democrats with less than 60 percent of the vote. But now every- one understood that the prognosticators had guessed wrong and Clinton had lost. Clinton did not come out that night. She wouldn’t officially concede the race until the next morning, but at 2:00 a.m. John Podesta said she would have a pub- lic statement the following day. “It’s been a long night,” he said, “and it’s been a long campaign, but . . . we can wait a little longer, can’t we? They’re still counting votes, and every vote should count. . . . So we’re not going to have anything more to say tonight.”³ Shortly before 3:00 a.m. New York time on November 9, and shortly after the television networks announced that the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin had gone for the Republican candidate, Donald Trump took the stage at the Hilton hotel. I stood there and took video of him walking out at 2:47 a.m. with his family, Gov. Mike Pence, and several close associates, including Reince Priebus. My cell phone battery died right before he made a short speech, so I wasn’t able to alert my team what was happening. But Trump took the stage and
gave a speech, which lasted only about fifteen minutes, in which he called for a time of healing and a new spirit of unity. He said Hillary Clinton had called him moments earlier. “She congratulated us,” he said. “It’s about us . . . on our victory. And I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign. She fought very hard. Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country. I mean that very sincerely. “Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division,” Trump said. “To all Republicans and Democrats and Independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people. It’s time. I pledge to every cit- izen of our land that I will be president for all Americans.”⁴ To say the crowd in the Hilton ballroom was jubilant would be an understatement. The mood was like Chicago Cubs fans after their first World Series victory in more than one hundred years! Judge Jeanine Pirro of Fox News was behind me, standing on one of the few chairs in the ballroom, whooping like a cowgirl. The Trump campaign team was ecstatic. Their diligence paid off, and their man had won. Cheers and chants broke out around the hall, at which point the
president-elect raised his hand and made a strong conciliatory appeal, saying, “For those who have chosen not to support me in the past—of which there were a few people—I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help.” Then he added that he would be announcing a series of new projects of “national growth and renewal,” and he said, “we will get along with all other nations willing to get along with us.” Regarding the ongoing immigration crisis, Trump said he would work for closer relationships with bordering nations. “We will seek common ground, not hostility,” he said. “Partnership, not conflict.” He also said, “America will no longer settle for anything less than the best. We must reclaim our coun- try’s destiny.”⁵ TWO VERY DIFFERENT STRATEGIES Shortly after delivering his victory speech, the president-elect, along with his fam- ily and close supporters, moved backstage where Paula White Cain, pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida, had been waiting. Then, with vice–president–elect Mike Pence and his family looking on, Paula began praying for the two men, asking for divine guidance, wisdom, and safety as they began
their momentous journey. There was no question, she said, that God had pre- pared the way. Christians all over the country had been in constant prayer for months, seeking divine intervention in the election. In the days leading up to the election, Paula and a group of Christian leaders were fasting and praying continuously for a favorable outcome. The founder of Focus on the Family and host of the radio program Family Talk, Dr. James Dob- son, told supporters that he believes Donald Trump actively seeks God’s guid- ance in his life. Many others had come to the same conclusion. Unlike the Clinton camp, which had been consumed by shock and dismay dur- ing the final hours of the election, thousands of Christian believers were confi- dent and enthusiastic about what they expected to happen. A small percentage of Never-Trump believers could never reconcile their beliefs with the candidate’s language and behavior, but the vast majority of evangelical and charismatic Chris- tians supported Trump’s candidacy and turned out in record numbers to help him secure the win. The candidate and his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, had been watch- ing the vote count from Trump Tower when the final tabulations were being
announced. Several of Trump’s key evangelical advisers were already at the hotel by that time, waiting with other team members for the victory celebration and the forthcoming victory speech. Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr., who had given the candidate a bully pulpit on at least two occasions, was on the phone with Trump when the candidate realized he was about to win. Trump said, “Jerry, I think they are going to call Pennsylvania.” Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were two of the states that could swing the balance and ensure that Republicans would win the White House. “The next thing I know,” Falwell said, “I’m getting texts from his son-in-law they were on their way over [to the hotel].”⁶ Pastor Robert Jeffress, who serves on Trump’s Faith Advisory Board, was in the Hilton ballroom watching as all this was taking place. We talked during the long hours as the election results trickled in from around the country, and he told me he had assured the candidate that the evangelical community would stand with him on Election Day. In a short time we would all find out how true his reas- surance actually proved to be. During the third and final presidential debate Trump had reaffirmed his com- mitment to appointing strong conservative jurists to the Supreme Court. That
statement struck home with a lot of Christian voters, and the promise that he would work to overturn Roe v. Wade influenced thousands who had been skep- tical to give Trump a chance. Jeffress told Trump that support from the evan- gelical community was growing daily. “He asked me how I thought the evan- gelical turnout would be,” Jeffress said. “I told him I thought it would be very strong.”⁷ As it turned out, the evangelical vote accounted for nearly a third of all the votes cast for Trump. His campaign gained the support of more than 80 percent of the white born-again Christians while Clinton received just 16 percent—the lowest number ever recorded for a Democratic presidential candidate.⁸ From the beginning Donald Trump understood the importance of the Christian vote. He courted evangelical support, spoke openly about his faith, accepted invitations to speak to the Christian media, and promised to stand strong for the issues that would bring Christians to the polls. It proved to be a winning strategy. But this strategy differed greatly from the one adopted by the Clinton cam- paign, which had essentially ignored the Christian electorate. The fact that so many evangelical Christians showed up and voted for Trump should not have
come as a surprise to anyone, according to pastor Darrell Scott. Evangelicals, he said, were overlooked by the other side. They were “derided, denigrated by the lib- eral Left.”⁹ As it turned out, Trump’s support from the evangelical community and the prayers of the faithful put his campaign over the top. In the final hours of the campaign, while Hillary Clinton remained secluded in her suite at the Peninsula Hotel, her fans and supporters at the Javits Center were left to find their way out in the dark. For several hours a pall hung over the crowds, but as news spread that Clinton had lost and Trump had won, disap- pointment turned to anger, and before long there were gangs of professional agitators pushing their way through the crowds outside the Javits Center, coaxing the most disappointed and vulnerable into a state of rage. The following day the world would see graphic images of a large effigy of Don- ald Trump’s head being set ablaze outside the Los Angeles City Hall.¹⁰ In New York thousands of protesters filled the streets of Manhattan carrying signs and waving flags and banners of all kinds. The televised images showed thousands of mostly young people marching down Fifth Avenue in front of Trump Tower yelling, “New York hates you!” “Not my president!” and a variety of unprintable
profanities. As the delirium began to spread, the throngs that included large num- bers of millennials, immigrants, and paid provocateurs continued to grow, even- tually stretching more than five city blocks. And the pictures were much the same in other urban centers. For days afterward there were dozens of anti-Trump demonstrations around the country. In Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, and other blue cities much the same occurred.¹¹ Violence and vandalism and shocking physical and verbal assaults came from the same people who were protesting against free speech on college campuses all over the country. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the crowd in New York was dominated by young people, many of whom had just voted in their first presidential election.¹² A TIME FOR CHANGE On the day after the election former House speaker Newt Gingrich appeared on the national Sean Hannity radio program in a celebratory mood. “You and I, along with millions of other Americans,” he said, “are just beginning one of the great adventures of our lifetime. The eight years of Donald Trump are going to be
among the most extraordinary, creative, inventive, and exciting periods in all of American political history, and will, I think, both move America back to being great again, dramatically drain the swamp in Washington, and move our systems into the twenty-first century to provide much, much better experiences for every American. My only point is, compared to all that, the little whiny, sniffling, nega- tive cowards who were Never-Trumpers are beneath our paying attention to them. Let them drift off into the ashbin of history while we go ahead and work with Don- ald Trump and with the House and Senate Republicans to create a dramatically new future.”¹³ Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders, who had lost the Democratic primary to Clinton, was calling for change as well. Speaking to a crowd of some four thousand liberal activists at the annual People’s Summit in Chicago, Sanders blasted the Demo- cratic Party for its manifest failures. The Vermont socialist was calling for a new progressive revolution. “Let us be very, very clear,” he said. “The current model and the current strategy of the Democratic Party is an absolute failure. . . . This is not my opinion, this is the facts. . . . Over the last nine years, Democrats have lost almost one thousand legislative seats in states all across this country.”¹⁴
Sanders pointed out that “in almost half of the states in America, the Demo- cratic Party has almost no political presence at all. Now if that’s not a failure, if that’s not a failed model, I don’t know what a failed model is.”¹⁵ Ironically, the revolutionary agenda Sanders was proposing is precisely the sort of agenda that drove millions of American voters to the polls to support Donald Trump. The anger and deceit the voters had witnessed over the past eight years repulsed a large segment of the middle class and drove even stalwart supporters of the pre- vious administration into the waiting arms of the Republicans. The Democratic Party may need fundamental change, but most American voters apparently be- lieve the Bernie Sanders model would prove to be a recipe for disaster. A hallmark of our American system of government has always been the peace- ful transition of power. That’s how it’s supposed to work. The voters have an opportunity every four years to select their leaders at the highest level. They have the same opportunity to choose local, regional, and state officials, and it is ex- pected that they will do so in a principled and honorable manner, as it has been done throughout the nation’s history. Unfortunately the leftward lurch of the gov- ernment in many parts of the country and the invasion of the culture by leftist
culture warriors the past fifty to sixty years has changed that for many Americans who are apparently convinced they have the right to undo “the will of the people” by public protest and violence. When their candidate lost the election, the mainstream media did not blame their flawed candidate, but they were quick to blame Trump’s victory on anything else—the electoral college, former FBI Director James Comey, or on Russian interference in the election process. Although the FBI has found no evidence of collusion and no inappropriate contact between the Trump campaign and Rus- sian officials, the media and the leftist activists are determined to resist, obstruct, and destroy the new president. The words resist and obstruct have become the bat- tle cry of anti-Trump activist networks in this country and abroad, and there may be no amount of reason that will shake their diabolical resolve. But the president is not without support, for a faithful army of prayer warriors surrounds him. A FAITHFUL DEFENSE In opposition to the rabble of protesters trying to deter or destroy the president stands a stout wall of defenders who meet together weekly in the nation’s capital
to study the Bible, pray, and seek God’s counsel for President Trump and his al- lies in the government. The meetings are known as the Trump Cabinet Bible Study, and most of the attendees are elected officials and cabinet officers who serve in the Trump administration, which has been called the most evangelical cabinet in history. All attendees have been handpicked by President Trump and Vice President Pence. According to a report by CBN News, Pence and eight cab- inet secretaries serve as sponsors of these meetings, which are often led by evan- gelical minister Ralph Drollinger, the founder of Capitol Ministries. In addition to the vice president, the list of sponsors includes some of the most influential people in the federal government, such as secretaries Betsy DeVos, Ben Carson, Sonny Perdue, Rick Perry, and Tom Price, and Attorney Gen- eral Jeff Sessions, along with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Although his schedule normally keeps him occupied at these times, the president is always welcome to join the meetings and receives a copy of Drollinger’s teaching each week. In addition to the cabinet-level Bible study, both the House of Representatives and the Senate hold Bible studies on a weekly basis, and participants are expected to actively take
part in the sessions and seek for ways to apply biblical principles to their work and every area of their lives.¹⁶ Former congresswoman Michele Bachmann has expressed support for the ef- forts of the Drollinger teams. “This is a strategic moment in our nation’s history,” she says. “Prior to [Capitol Ministries’] arrival, there was little in the way of min- istry that was intent on expositing God’s Word and making disciples amongst the members of both Houses.”¹⁷ In his endorsement on the group’s website Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona says, “The Member’s Bible Study Ralph Drollinger teaches on Capitol Hill gives mem- bers of Congress a core, theological foundation derived from an in-depth, exeget- ical analysis of Scripture itself by which to weigh and measure the critical policy issues and decisions they face in Congress. It is next to impossible to build or re- build any nation without this necessary component.”¹⁸ In addition to the Bible study groups meeting in the capitol, there are other ministry and government leaders meeting regularly and praying for the welfare of the nation under the new administration. Among them: Jerry Falwell Jr., Robert Jeffress, Jack Graham, Ben Carson, James Robison, Michele Bachmann, James Dobson, and many others.
In an interview on the Fox Business Network, Rev. Franklin Graham told host Lou Dobbs that he believes Donald Trump’s victory over his Democratic rival showed clear evidence of “the hand of God” on the election.¹⁹ Franklin Graham’s father, the evangelist Billy Graham, was asked to meet with and pray for every US president since World War II, from Truman to Obama.²⁰ Now Franklin Graham carries the torch and continues to seek God’s blessings for the nation and our new president. The power of faithful prayer in times of crisis and change cannot be overes- timated, and without question the Trump administration has inherited a nation in crisis. Being surrounded by faithful prayer warriors, and repeatedly expressing his own gratitude for the men and women who joined together to offer a faithful de- fense through intercessory prayer, President Trump must know there can be no doubt that God put His imprint on the election and showed His favor on the na- tion. “I think God intervened and put His hand on Donald Trump for some rea- son,” Graham told Dobbs. “It’s obvious that there was something behind this, and it was more than people understand. I just think it was God.”²¹