Donald Trump tries to explain provocative appeal to Christians

Donald Trump provokes wherever he can. Most recently in Florida: “Christians, go vote! You won’t have to do it anymore.” What does that mean? Not even Trump has a clear answer to that.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has attempted to take the wind out of his critics’ sails with a statement about the US election in four years. On Friday, he called on conservative Christians in Florida to vote for him on November 5, saying that this would only be necessary once. The campaign team of his political rival, Democrat Kamala Harris, interpreted this as an indication that he wants to “abolish democracy” if he returns to the White House.

When asked about this, Trump said in an interview with the sympathetic broadcaster “Fox News” that he was simply referring to the fact that the Christian voting group tends to have a low voter turnout and that he therefore wanted to mobilize them particularly this year. Trump had said on Friday: “Christians, go out and vote! Just this time. You won’t have to do it again.”

Even before she asked the former US president about it, “Fox News” presenter Laura Ingraham described the criticism from the Harris camp as one of many “ridiculous reasons” why Trump was being attacked. “It’s a pretty simple statement,” Trump then explained. He would “fix” the country and then no longer need the votes of this group of voters – so they would no longer have to vote in the future.

Trump left it unclear what exactly he meant by “fixing things” in this context. He simply said that he would no longer need these votes “because we will just have so much love.”

Kamala Harris wants to duel with Donald Trump

The Republican is known for the fact that his statements often leave room for interpretation and can be understood differently depending on one’s views. For example, Trump did not give a direct answer to the question on Fox News whether he would be willing to take part in a televised debate with Harris. He would “probably” face such a duel, Trump said. But there are also arguments for not doing so.

Harris has already agreed to a televised debate with Trump. However, the current US Vice President must first be nominated as candidate by her party. Trump and President Joe Biden had originally agreed to two debates, the second of which was to take place on September 10. Biden’s disastrous performance in the first televised debate on June 27 triggered the political avalanche that ultimately led to the Democrat’s withdrawal from the presidential campaign and paved the way for Harris.