Kevin Tracy
PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
2022-10-17
Understanding the Appeal of Trump to Evangelicals
KEVIN TRACY: Thank you for coming. We've received several questions this week about former-President Trump's appeal to conservative evangelical Christians. We have a couple conservative evangelicals on the KTracy.com staff, but they never fully jumped on the Trump bandwagon. In 2015 and 2016 when this started, all of us were somewhat stumped. Of the 2016 candidates, Mike Huckabee should have been the obvious choice but we think his decision not to run in 2012 to pursue his television career likely caused him to miss his window of opportunity. Of the remaining candidates who we think would have held the line on social issues, Rick Santorum was Catholic, Marco Rubio was Catholic, Ted Cruz just comes across as a backstabber, and Ben Carson sounded like he was high on Xanax every time he spoke.
Donald Trump had a couple things going for him. First, even though he was riddled with gaffes that should have proved he was faking his Christian-faith for political reasons, there were several leaders in the evangelical community who endorsed Trump for their own financial or personal gain. For example, it was revealed that Trump's personal lawyer did some shady stuff to protect Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife in exchange for an endorsement from Liberty University. The other thing Trump had going for him was that, with the help of these endorsers and their advisors, Trump was able to say all the right things on policy matters. Given Trump's personal behavior even during the election, no objective observer critical of the evangelical endorsements would have thought Trump was serious.
I still don't believe Donald Trump is pro-marriage, pro-life, or even a conservative. Donald Trump is pro-Donald Trump. When the media turned hard against him and the left became deranged at the very mention of his name, I think they forced Trump to run hard to the right to maximize the turnout among these voters. Even after he became President, his only chance at winning re-election was rallying these voters because the media was doing a complete hit job on him and everything his administration did; so he governed for the right.
This gets us to the MODERN appeal of Donald Trump to evangelicals and conservatives and of all non-Libertarian backgrounds (and even some of them). Donald Trump actually kept his primary campaign promises.
George W. Bush ran even in the 2000 Primary as a "compassionate conservative." He generally governed as a conservative, but when it came to Supreme Court nominees, he vowed there would "be no litmus test." Christian conservatives generally went along with it because "at least they aren't Democrats" and I think we trusted George W. Bush to secretly nominate conservatives and the "no litmus test" rhetoric was just political rhetoric. Then, Chief Justice Roberts saved Obamacare. Republicans have long held Ronald Reagan as the conservative standard by which we judge all Republican Presidents. One of his nominees, Justice Kennedy, was the swing vote that legalized homosexual marriages in the country. Conservatives, and especially evangelical conservatives, were tired of being paid lip service in these primaries and taking one loss after another in Congress, the Supreme Court, and in the White House when Republicans are actually in charge.
Donald Trump, however insincere he may be, delivered victories that conservatives thought they would never see. The Supreme Court in 2022 actually voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, despite Chief Justice Roberts again voting against the conservative position. Even those of us conservatives who think Donald Trump is a deplorable human being know this never would have happened without Donald Trump backing Justice Kavanaugh when nobody else would, and picking two other truly conservative justices without using George W. Bush's stupid litmus test.
I don't like admitting when I'm wrong, but Trump probably did a better job as the leader of the Executive Branch of our Federal Government than any other 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012, or 2016 Republican candidate would have done.
Okay, questions.
QUESTION: You seem to really dislike Trump for liking his job performance so much.
KEVIN TRACY: Yeah, that's accurate. Look, if Trump was actually a conservative, he would be able to communicate why his decisions were good for the country. The problem is that he can't, so instead of him promoting the conservative movement and conservative leaders, he's promoting the cult of Donald Trump. According to him, his policies are good for the country because he's Donald Trump and he knows best. That's borderline fascism at worst. At best, it's a cult that will die with Donald Trump and leave the GOP without leadership, direction, or ideology when this is over.
QUESTION: Would you still vote for Trump?
KEVIN TRACY: In the general election, yes. In the primary, no. Indiana is pretty late in the primary time line, so it will probably be decided before I get to vote. However, if it's still lingering, shy of Liz Cheney being the only other remaining candidate, I can't imagine casting a primary vote for Trump.
QUESTION: So do you give a pass to evangelicals for supporting Trump now?
KEVIN TRACY: No. Look, everyone complains about the hierarchy in the Catholic Church, but they're even more blinded by their own hierarchy than they accuse Catholics of being. The Catholic hierarchy at least holds itself accountable and avoids these political squabbles. I want to stress that I don't think Trump is the Antichrist, but Donald Trump demonstrated for us all just how easily some Christians will be fooled by the Antichrist when he does present himself.
QUESTION: So you're comparing Donald Trump to the Antichrist?
KEVIN TRACY: Donald Trump isn't nearly smart enough to be compared to the Antichrist.
QUESTION: If Trump is so deplorable, why would you vote for him in the General Election?
KEVIN TRACY: Have you been to a grocery store or gas station lately? I don't know how much that liberal news network you work for is paying you, but without ad revenue, I can't afford these skyrocketing prices on everything, and neither can most Americans.
QUESTION: You said earlier this month that you're only doing one press conference a month. What changed?
KEVIN TRACY: I think Rachel or I said that we would target one a month, but we may do more. Anyway, Rachel and I noticed an unusually large number of questions and e-mails coming in about Trump and evangelicals, so we thought it would be prudent to discuss the topic now instead of making everyone wait until next month when the topic may be out of people's minds.
QUESTION: Do you think a second term for Donald Trump would be as successful for conservatives as his first?
KEVIN TRACY: That's a great question and I don't know. After he's done running for his last election, I don't think he needs voters anymore. Instead, he's doing to do what's necessary to get what he wants from the Republicans in Congress; which might make a second term slightly more moderate. However, for him to get anything he wants in the last half of his term, he'll need to make sure his voters come out and support Republican candidates in the midterm elections. Of course, he may just be interested in legacy repair at that point, so he may be running the Presidency further to the left than any of us expect. It's really hard to figure out because Trump isn't governed by his belief in a particular ideology or faith in anything but himself.
