During the 2016 GOP primary, Donald Trump referred to Iowa evangelicals who supported Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R) as “so-called Christians” and “pieces of shit.”
The Atlantic staff reporter Tim Alberta detailed in his upcoming book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, the fallout after Trump left an event at Liberty University after he infamously mispronounced ‘Second Corinthians’ as “Two Corinthians” while trying to follow the advice of Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.
“The laughter and ridicule were embarrassing enough for Trump,” Alberta writes, according to The Guardian which obtained a copy of the book ahead of its December 5 release.
“But the news of Perkins endorsing Ted Cruz, just a few days later, sent him into a spiral,” Alberta continued. “He began to speculate that there was a conspiracy among powerful evangelicals to deny him the GOP nomination. When Cruz’s allies began using the ‘Two Corinthians’ line to attack him in the final days before the Iowa caucuses, Trump told one Iowa Republican official, ‘You know, these so-called Christians hanging around with Ted are some real pieces of shit.’”
The news comes days after Bob Vander Plaats, an influential evangelical leader in Iowa endorsed Ron DeSantis in the GOP primary.
“I don’t think America is going to elect [Trump] president again,” Vander Plaats told Fox News. “I think America would be well served to have a choice, and I really believe Ron DeSantis should be that guy. And I think Iowa is tailor-made for him to win this.”
Evangelicals are a key voting bloc in Iowa. 55% of Republican primary voters described themselves as “devoutly religious.”
However, Trump continues to hold a massive lead over his rivals despite facing 91 criminal charges, including 34 for alleged hush-money payments to a porn star he cheated on his third wife with, and has been found liable for sexual abuse.
