godanddonaldtrump.com/ CHAPTER 9 WHAT TRUMP BELIEVES ★★★★★ WHEN THEN-CANDIDATE TRUMP began responding to his critics at all hours of the day and night on Twitter, he surprised and embarrassed a lot of his detractors, tweeting strongly worded comments no one had expected. He had already waged highly publicized verbal battles with Meryl Streep and other celebrities such as Rosie O’Donnell and Oprah Winfrey, but this would be an altogether different kind of war. With a level of technical savvy uncommon for a man of his generation, Trump was able to counterattack within minutes whenever his opponents made scur- rilous charges against him. This was something new, and it delighted his fans and the public at large, even as it infuriated the increasingly volatile resistance. Before long Trump was a serial tweeter, and he provided the media with some riv- eting sound bites. Not everyone, of course, was thrilled by this new development. Liberal news
organizations such as National Public Radio, the New York Times, and the polit- ical news company POLITICO compiled exhaustive catalogs of Trump’s tweets to show how insensitive, ignorant, and wrongheaded he could be. But they couldn’t ignore them, and they followed his tweets faithfully, hoping to catch him in some word or deed that would be his undoing.¹ Some of his comments and counterattacks were tactless and crude, that’s true, often attacking his detractors with salty schoolyard taunts. But Trump’s use of Twitter gave him a way around the mainstream media and his political opponents who had been getting free access to the media and were able to insult and de- mean him with impunity. Suddenly those same people were being held account- able in real time, and news hawks on both sides didn’t want to miss a word of it. Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz concluded in an online commentary that Trump’s use of Twitter had turned out to be “an incredibly valuable tool for him to reach his 31 million followers, amplified by endless media coverage.” That was as true during the run-up to the election as it is today, because Trump hasn’t slowed his Twitter storm since moving into the White House. At one point he had said there would have been “ZERO chance of winning WH” if he had relied on the
“Fake News” being churned out by the mainstream media. But his candid and unfiltered Twitter feeds helped turn the tables on his foes.² Columnist James Lewis notes in the American Thinker, an Internet publication, that Donald Trump is the only Republican president since Ronald Reagan to be able to bypass the hostile mainstream media to reach directly into the hearts of the American people. Lewis writes that “conservatives have been under constant assault ever since the 1970s, when the Boomer Left conducted its infamous ‘Long March Through the Institutions’ guided by Saul Alinsky’s little red book.”³ Alinsky, with whom Hillary Clinton had worked closely early in her career, re- ferred to the American middle class as “the enemy.”⁴ He preached a virulent form of sedition, more devious and dangerous than anything Machiavelli ever con- ceived. Leading Democrats, including Barack and Michelle Obama, Hillary Clin- ton, and Bernie Sanders, were students of Alinsky’s methods. They studied his Rules for Radicals and took his anarchist philosophy to heart. Yet despite the patently anti-American views of Alinsky and his acolytes in the administration, the media gave them all a pass. And Donald Trump was determined to overcome this.
So, you might ask, if this is what the president is going to be up against, how could he hope to wage a successful campaign against them? How could he pos- sibly succeed in what is clearly a spiritual battle of supernatural proportions? And more to the point, what does this president actually believe? TRUMP’S CONSERVATIVE AGENDA At least a partial answer to that question can be found in the planks of the 2016 Republican Party platform, which Donald Trump would affirm and approve. Be- fore the general election every four years delegates from every state and region of the country gather in a central location to declare what the party believes and to outline the issues they wish to pursue and defend when their candidate is elected. The platform committee of the Republican Party met from July 18–21, 2016, in Cleveland, Ohio, to hash out the major issues of the upcoming campaign. At- tempting to address the concerns of all 2,742 delegates would not be easy, but there was a broad sense of unity among them on what the delegation and their candidate believed. Under the chairmanship of Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the draft took a
strong traditionalist view of the family, child rearing, and human sexuality and re- ferred to pornography as “a public menace” that is especially harmful to children.⁵ It called for a strong military, greater supervision and accountability in the Veterans Administration, as well as a ban on women in combat. As the media were quick to announce, this platform was much more conservative than those of either the McCain or Romney campaigns—as if there was something wrong with that. The platform proposed that lawmakers look to religion as a guide when making weighty decisions affecting the well-being of the nation and stated that “man- made law must be consistent with our God-given natural rights.” It called for a restoration of devotionals and Bible reading in the schools because, as the Founding Fathers had argued, “a good understanding of the Bible” is “indis- pensable for the development of an educated citizenry.”⁶ In one section entitled “A Dangerous World,” the language followed Trump’s campaign remarks regarding the foreign policy failures of the previous adminis- tration. This included a reference to the failings of “the secretary of state”—who, in this case, was Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton. There were also planks
dealing with the need for fair-trade agreements between the United States and major trading partners, such as Canada, Mexico, the European Union, and China. And of course there was language calling for immigration reform, deportation of criminal aliens, and building a wall along the southern border. The basic prin- ciples supported by Donald Trump and the party platform can be summed up in a few bullet points: • Reduce government spending, but take steps to protect Social Security and Medicare. • Use the reach and influence of government to help create a strong business climate. • Repeal Obamacare, and develop a more practical and affordable alternative. • Appoint conservative jurists to the Supreme Court who will defend the Con- stitution. • Defund Planned Parenthood, and work to repeal Roe v. Wade.
• Grow the economy, and bring outsourced jobs and American overseas busi- nesses back home. • Cut or substantially reduce funding for the global-warming disaster. • Protect gun ownership as a constitutional right, but some assault weapons may require special consideration, such as a waiting period prior to purchase. • On immigration, deport undocumented individuals and criminal aliens. • Increase the size and authority of the Border Patrol, Immunization and Cus- toms Enforcement (ICE), and Homeland Security. • Place a freeze on green cards and certain kinds of visas. • Ban immigrants from certain Muslim-majority countries. • Build the wall on our southern border (with Trump adding that we will make Mexico pay for it). • Undo Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, and increase sanctions on
terror-sponsoring regimes. Regarding ISIS and Islamic terrorism—a term, as I’ve pointed out, Barack Obama refused to use—Trump keeps his position simple: “Wipe them off the face of the earth.”⁷ In addition, he believes that in combat situations where Amer- ican soldiers and innocent lives are at stake, waterboarding and other forms of ex- treme interrogation should be allowed.⁸ The lives of innocent civilians and our men and women in uniform are infinitely more precious than the comfort of ter- rorists. Trump has also said that military veterans deserve exceptional support during and after their service, and Veterans Affairs must be accountable for the quality of treatment given to soldiers.⁹ And finally, when asked by a CNN anchor what he would say to a married lesbian or a married gay man, Trump responded, “I really don’t say anything. . . . I’m for traditional marriage.”¹⁰ MY INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP I have interviewed a number of presidential candidates, governors, and other poli- ticians in my forty-five-year media career. But interviewing Donald Trump in the
midst of his unlikely campaign was markedly different. With Trump, what you see on television is not what you get behind the scenes. There was a humility about the Republican nominee we don’t see in the liberal media sound bites. He was still a straight shooter, but his sincerity was far more striking than I would have expected. I asked the kinds of questions I thought most of my readers would want to ask. His answers revealed a confident, determined man who is truly committed to making America great again through principles that honor God rather than defy Him. I am including here a transcript of that interview. STRANG: Evangelicals and Catholics have been under attack from the Obama administration for their pro-life convictions and for their desire to be left alone and not forced by the government to accept that which violates their biblical views on marriage. How can you reassure them that you will re- spect religious liberty? TRUMP: Religious liberty is the foundation. Without religious liberty you don’t have liberty. I feel that so strongly, and so many other people do, and plenty of politicians do, but they don’t express it. Religious liberty is
something that I cherish, and you will never be disappointed. STRANG: You have said that you would support repealing the Johnson Amendment so that churches and ministries could maintain tax exemption. How would you do that? TRUMP: I have started it already because I put it in the platform. You know, a lot of people didn’t even know what it was, and now a lot of the pastors and ministers have seen it and can’t even believe it. How did this happen in the first place? It’s shocking how they were able to take it away. So this is not something that was written from the beginning. This was something written by a strong politician; that’s all it is. It silences people we want to hear. They are afraid to talk about it because they could lose everything. One of the first things I would do, if I win, is lobby very strongly to have this terminated, and I will tell you something, it won’t be hard because your lobbyists are so powerful. Even Democrats can all approve it because it is bigger than men, bigger than women because of the numbers of people, and I’ll be able to get it done. I have absolute confidence that I’ll be able to get it
done. STRANG: As president, whom will you reach out to for spiritual counsel, and why? Do you feel the president needs God’s wisdom and guidance? TRUMP: I have many friends within the community. One of them who’s been so incredible is Franklin Graham—he’s been amazing, really terrific. So we’re close to Franklin. Pastor [Robert] Jeffress has been terrific. Paula White has been incredible. So many, so many. I really like to stay with people who have been loyal because they were here in the beginning when this was a very, very little, tiny flame, and they were here when everyone else was saying, “Well, you can’t beat seventeen [Repub- lican candidates].” The actual number was eighteen if you include Gilmore. How do you beat sixteen seasoned politicians? So they were there at the beginning. STRANG: You talked about the rough-and-tumble campaign against seven- teen candidates and so forth. Yet you have won over the evangelical vote. How has this whole process changed you spiritually?
TRUMP: Well, I can tell you I’ve always been spiritual, but I really appreciate the Evangelicals because they really support me. When somebody supports you, you feel pretty good about it, and I would go into a very evangelical state and people say, “Oh, gee, I won’t win that state.” I ended up winning in a landslide because I had tremendous support. Did you see the polls that peo- ple are leaving and supporting Trump over other people whom, in theory, they could have supported very easily? They didn’t. So I think the fact that I had the tremendous support from the Evangelicals meant a lot to me and will mean a lot to me in the future. STRANG: You’ve said that you supported Israel’s claim that Jerusalem is the capital. Many Evangelicals are very strong supporters of Israel. How would your policies toward Israel differ from your opponent’s? TRUMP: Well, for one thing, I support Israel. I don’t think Obama supports Israel. I think he’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to Israel. The Iran deal is a disaster for Israel, and I’m very supportive of Israel and have tremendous relationships in Israel and have a son-in-law who’s Jewish,
done.
STRANG: As president, whom will you reach out to for spiritual counsel, and why? Do you feel the president needs God’s wisdom and guidance?
TRUMP: I have many friends within the community. One of them who’s been so incredible is Franklin Graham—he’s been amazing, really terrific. So we’re close to Franklin. Pastor [Robert] Jeffress has been terrific. Paula White has been incredible. So many, so many.
I really like to stay with people who have been loyal because they were here in the beginning when this was a very, very little, tiny flame, and they were here when everyone else was saying, Well, you can’t beat seventeen [Republican candidates].
The actual number was eighteen if you include Gilmore. How do you beat sixteen seasoned politicians? So they were there at the beginning.
STRANG: You talked about the rough-and-tumble campaign against seventeen candidates and so forth. Yet you have won over the evangelical vote. How has this whole process changed you spiritually?
TRUMP: Well, I can tell you I’ve always been spiritual, but I really appreciate the Evangelicals because they really support me. When somebody supports you, you feel pretty good about it, and I would go into a very evangelical state and people say, Oh, gee, I won’t win that state.
I ended up winning in a landslide because I had tremendous support. Did you see the polls that people are leaving and supporting Trump over other people whom, in theory, they could have supported very easily? They didn’t. So I think the fact that I had the tremendous support from the Evangelicals meant a lot to me and will mean a lot to me in the future.
STRANG: You’ve said that you supported Israel’s claim that Jerusalem is the capital. Many Evangelicals are very strong supporters of Israel. How would your policies toward Israel differ from your opponent’s?
TRUMP: Well, for one thing, I support Israel. I don’t think Obama supports Israel. I think he’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to Israel. The Iran deal is a disaster for Israel, and I’m very supportive of Israel and have tremendous relationships in Israel and have a son-in-law who’s Jewish,
married to my daughter. I will be very strongly in favor of Israel. STRANG: In the Book of Deuteronomy it says to be kind to the stranger in the land. How would that scripture guide policy in your administration? TRUMP: Well, I think that’s good, but I think we have to be careful at the same time. We are allowing people to come into the country, and we don’t know anything about them. There is no paperwork; there’s no documen- tation. You see what’s going on in Germany, France, and many other places where they have an open-door policy, and it could go on here too. We’ve al- lowed thousands and thousands of people into our country, and we have no idea who they are. At the same time, we want to build safe havens, and we want to get the Gulf states to fund the money because it’s a tremendous amount of money. So we want to take care of people, but we can’t allow them in because we just don’t know who they are. You see what happened in San Bernardino; you see what happened in Orlando, right here; you see what happened with the World Trade Center. We can look all over to see what has happened in
France, Nice, Germany. We have enough problems. We can’t do that. STRANG: Many believe our nation was founded on Judeo-Christian values. In our secular society a lot of people now discount that influence. Do you believe that America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles? TRUMP: I think it was. I think when I look at football coaches who were fired because they held a prayer on the field, it’s absolutely terrible. I think it is ter- rible to see so many things happening that are different from what our coun- try used to be. So our religion is a very important part of me, and I also think it’s a very important part of the country. STRANG: What is the most important thing in your life? TRUMP: Well, you always have to say family. Family is the most important thing from that standpoint. Religion is very important, but I’m assuming you are not talking about religion or family, but those two things are very impor- tant. Belief is very important, but you would always have to put family as number one.
STRANG: You have a very strong bond with your children. What has been the secret of your having such a close relationship with your children and their obvious respect for you? TRUMP: I worked very hard when it came to my children, and one of the things I would tell them all the time is, “No drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes.” I have friends who have very smart children. But their children are hooked on drugs or alcohol. I added cigarettes because of the health thing. It’s just eas- ier if you don’t smoke. I was lucky enough not to smoke. I have friends that can’t get off, and they’re strong people, but if you’ve never started, it’s not a problem. That’s a big factor, the fact that they’re not hooked, but you never know; it’s a fragile world, so who knows what happened. STRANG: Give us some advice as we tell your story. Talk to our readers like you’re encouraging the crowd, except in front of the church. TRUMP: Well, I’m going to do a great job. I’m going to get the job done. I’m going to do a great job for religion and for Evangelicals. I am going to do a great job, and that’s why we got a standing ovation from the pastors who
don’t give much for standing ovations because they’ve heard a lot of people speak, so that was a great honor, but I will do a great job. I will get the job done, and I’ll get it done properly, and it will be a great thing for the Evangel- icals. FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS After that interview I understood that Donald Trump believes America remains a great country even though we’ve drifted away from the clear vision of the founders. He possesses an undeniable faith in America, and I realized that a big reason for that is his lifelong faith in God. The week before Florida’s Super Tuesday on March 15, 2016, my dear friend Frank Amedia told me he was meditating on all these things prior to the election and “seeking the Lord’s instructions” concerning whether or not Donald Trump was the man God had chosen as our leader. As he was praying, Frank felt the Lord speak to him and realized he was being given what Charismatics call “a prophetic word.” Since he was participating in a rally the next day, he believed the Lord would give him an opportunity to give it to the candidate. But that didn’t
happen. Trump was whisked off to his next campaign stop before Frank could hand him the written “word.” He was disappointed but kept believing that if the Lord wanted Trump to receive the message, a way would open up. The next day Trump’s campaign called to say Trump had canceled a planned trip to Florida and would deliver his final speech before Super Tuesday in Frank’s hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, and Frank was asked to open the rally as he had done before. “You can imagine my awe of the wonder and fear of the Lord as I realized that almighty God had intervened to change the schedule so that the word could be delivered,” Frank told me in an interview for this book. This time he texted Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s national campaign manager at the time, and told him he had good news that he needed to put into the hands of Trump. So Lewandowski arranged to meet Frank offstage during the rally. As Trump took the stage, Frank handed Lewandowski two envelopes—one with his own name on it and one with Donald Trump’s name, with the words: “Please open and read this on your way home to Palm Beach when you are alone and quiet.” I know this to be true because Frank told me at the time, emphasizing that it should be kept confidential until after the election. Here’s what the word said:
“Mr. Trump, you will surely win the Republican nomination. That is a foregone conclusion even as the Lord has spoken.” Mind you, this was before Super Tues- day. “And Sir,” the word continued, “if you humble yourself before the Lord, not man, but before the Lord, you shall become the next president of the United States. Mr. President, what will make this a great nation again, is if we make God great again in our nation.” Then Frank cited Zechariah 4:6 (KJV), which says, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” Did Trump read the word in the quietness of his own airplane? We may never know, but Frank believes he did because a shift took place shortly after that. Months later when the Access Hollywood tapes came out and many felt Trump’s chances of winning were lost, Frank said he knew God used that message to humble the man who once said he’d never done anything for which he needed to ask forgiveness. A surprising episode that was briefly discussed on the Biography Channel’s hour-long documentary about the life of Donald Trump related that a helicopter crash on October 10, 1989, took the lives of three of Trump’s senior executives. Alan Greenberg, a banker with BearStearns and a Trump associate at the time,
said, “He also talks a lot about fate. I think that he was supposed to go on that trip and he didn’t at the last minute, for whatever reason. So I think he appre- ciated how lucky he was. He also, of course, appreciated how unfortunate it was for those people and their families. But he was shaken by it.”¹¹ Hearing about that event, my first thought was that this tragic accident in 1989 was a warning to Donald Trump at a time when everything around him was falling apart. His casinos, one of his hotels, his marriage to Ivana, and other things were crashing all around him, and the chaos would last well into the 1990s.¹² Those tragedies were surely a wake-up call, reminding Mr. Trump that he was mortal, but it was also clear that he had been miraculously spared. Today I believe that event was also part of God’s plan, not only to wake him up but also to prepare Donald Trump for the momentous task he would be given at a later time as pres- ident of the United States. I’m convinced the policies we see unfolding now, both here and abroad, are a working out of President Trump’s belief that he has been put here at this time for a special purpose. But more important than simply fulfilling a list of campaign pledges, he understands that the United States of America is a unique and a
uniquely privileged nation. Our national motto proclaims, “In God We Trust,” which first appeared in 1864 on a two-cent coin and has appeared on every coin and every piece of our currency since 1964. Our founders never hesitated to af- firm their belief that God brought us to this continent for a reason, and I believe that’s why this president made the spiritual interests of the American people such a major focus of his campaign. Trump’s campaign literature said “Putting America first means special interests no longer get to sell out our country for their own personal gain. It means we no longer enter multinational agreements that surrender our sovereignty. It means we no longer funnel billions of American dollars to countries that hate us. It means we no longer let just anyone pour over our border.”¹³ Strong language, but the president made no apologies for those words. He believes in America, and he believes that God has a purpose and a plan for America. The boldness of Trump’s message was something that appealed to actor Stephen Baldwin, the brother of the outspoken Hollywood actor who has carica- tured Trump on Saturday Night Live. Unlike his brother, Baldwin supports Donald Trump because he believes Trump is honest and he’s unafraid to say what he
believes, regardless of the consequences. Even though Trump fired him on Cele- brity Apprentice in 2013, Baldwin believes Trump’s war on political correctness is good for the country. Politicians are so afraid they may offend some minority, he says, they refuse to speak about issues that need to be debated. “I honestly really think voters and Americans are looking at this guy saying it’s refreshing to hear somebody not be a wuss, not be a politician and really say what they think.”¹⁴ In February 2017 the president said what he meant to a joint session of Con- gress, repeating the general theme of his Ohio speech. He said, “My job is not to represent the world. My job is to represent the United States of America.”¹⁵ Dur- ing the hour-long address the president outlined policy issues he had talked about throughout the campaign. He spoke about revising our policies on global trade in order to give greater support and leverage to American companies. He asked for Congress to deal with the problems of illegal immigration and pass legislation to build the wall on our southern border. “We’ve defended the borders of other nations,” he said, “while leaving our own borders wide open for anyone to cross.” And he called on Congress to repeal Obamacare, which had be- come an unsustainable drain on the economy. He spoke about defeating “radical
Islamic terrorism” and rebuilding the military, and he is taking that message abroad.¹⁶ Trump said he wanted to begin his presidency with a series of one-on-one con- versations with world leaders, particularly heads of state in Europe and the Mid- dle East. He wanted to solidify relations with America’s allies and clarify the prior- ities of US foreign policy. When he made his first international diplomatic tour to those nations, from May 19–27, 2017, he chose to make his first three stops at the capitals of the world’s three great religions. Not only are these some of the most volatile hot spots in the world today, but they are the birthplace of the three Abra- hamic religions. His first stop was the Muslim summit in Saudi Arabia, where the president was greeted by leaders from fifty Muslim countries and applauded for his statements about Iran—the world’s number one supporter of Islamic terrorism. On the sec- ond leg of the tour Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, and the following day he made the short trip to Bethlehem, where he spoke with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.¹⁷ Trump has said on numerous occasions that the US Embassy ought to be in
the capital city of Jerusalem rather than Tel Aviv, but that conversation would not happen on this trip. He did, however, make a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City, where Jesus was crucified, and went to the Western Wall, where he prayed and placed a written prayer in a crack of the wall, as described in chapter 7.¹⁸ From there the entourage flew to Vatican City for an audience with Pope Fran- cis. While there his wife, Melania, spoke about her own Catholic faith and re- ceived a papal blessing.¹⁹ In Brussels Trump attended a NATO summit and made a visit to the European Union headquarters, and he met the newly elected French president, Emmanuel Macron. From there they flew south to Sicily, where the president attended the G7 summit, and then wrapped up the trip with a speech and warm personal greetings from both Donald and Melania Trump for the Amer- ican and allied military personnel serving at Signoella air base.²⁰ We know for sure as we look at the life of this man that he is an extraordinary and remarkably capable individual. He hardly sleeps. His aides can barely keep up with him. He has never smoked, he doesn’t drink alcohol, and he has never used drugs. He is driven to achieve great things, to build great buildings, and he
is determined to make America great again. These are not small ambitions, and he is not a small man by any measure. He towers over almost everyone, and he is the center of attention whenever he enters the room. But in person, as I learned during my interview with him, he is kind and gentle and genuinely interested in what people have to say. He even offered to get me a bottle of water as we were beginning the interview. I discovered that Donald Trump is not the overwhelming personality we’ve seen on the evening news. Yes, he’s passionate, he’s outspoken, and he’s a dy- namic achiever, but he is also smart, sincere, and a man of faith. We’ve examined how that came to be and how he has stood up to the storm of controversy that surrounds him. Now let’s look at what he calls American values and how he has articulated his political priorities.