Ben Carson Endorsement, Christian Themes Lead Trump Event in Iowa

Former President Donald Trump holds an African American History Month listening session attended by nominee to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Ben Carson (right), Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison Omarosa Manigault (left) and other officials in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on Feb. 1, 2017. Michael Reynolds - Pool/Getty Images

Before former President Donald Trump took the stage for a campaign event at the Sioux City Orpheum in Iowa on Oct. 29, Dr. Ben Carson, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, had a big announcement for the crowd.

The softspoken brain surgeon endorsed President Trump in his bid to return to the White House, to cheers and applause.

“They’re trying to throw God out of our country,” said Dr. Carson, who was a candidate for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination before leading HUD during the Trump administration.

Dr. Carson wasn’t the only speaker who invoked Christian themes at the “Commit to Caucus” event, the former president’s latest stop in Iowa ahead of its Jan. 15 Republican presidential caucus.

An email blast from the campaign after President Trump spoke touted Dr. Carson’s endorsement, as well as endorsements from “over 100 Iowa faith leaders”: pastors, ministry leaders, elders, and others throughout the key early state.

Dr. Ben Carson, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in Virginia on Dec. 7, 2021. York Du/The Epoch Times

Faith could tip the scales in the Hawkeye State. In some recent Iowa GOP caucuses, candidates who cultivated a conservative, religious image, such as former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, have won.

However, all of that was before the Trump presidency scrambled many of the formulas for U.S. politics.

With former Vice President Mike Pence having halted his campaign, President Trump no longer faces a competitor who some imagined would draw the votes of religious conservatives in Iowa. Yet against the backdrop of a hot war in the Holy Land, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley are both bidding for evangelical voters who support Israel more strongly than almost anyone.

Iowa state Sen. Lynn Evans, a Republican, began his remarks by quoting Ephesians 6:12: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities.”

“The only way we do this is with God’s help and God’s blessing,” said Matt Whitaker, who served as acting U.S. attorney general during the Trump administration.

Acting Attorney General Matthew G. Whitaker gives brief remarks to state and local law enforcement on efforts to combat violent crime and the opioid crisis at the U.S. Courthouse Annex in Des Moines, Iowa, on Nov. 14, 2018. Steve Pope/Getty Images

President Trump, during his remarks, drew attention to the day of the week.

“We can go a little longer today ‘cause it’s a Sunday,” he said. “God said we can take some extra time, because it’s a Sunday.”

Courting the Evangelicals

Indeed, the former commander-in-chief seemed particularly relaxed at the Orpheum, an ornate space first built for vaudeville performances.

President Trump balanced talk of war, peace, and the eternal with earthy, irreverent humor—a feat that few can manage under the easiest circumstances and even fewer while successfully courting the evangelical bloc that can make or break Republican candidates.

He criticized President Joe Biden’s foreign policy, focusing on what he described as an “inept withdrawal” from Afghanistan, and also riffed on the Biden administration’s plans for electrifying the military fleet.

“You obliterate something, but you do it in an environmentally friendly way,” President Trump said, drawing laughter.

He went on to argue that electric vehicles increase U.S. reliance on China and still don’t stay charged long enough to be practical in many settings.

President Trump leaned on his record of having kept the United States out of war as president.

“Under the Trump administration, I kept America safe, I kept Israel safe, and I kept the world safe,” he said before being drowned out by applause and chants of “USA!”

President Trump also praised the leader of Hungary, Viktor Orban, for keeping illegal immigrants out at a time when the United States and many other European countries face a flood of migrants and asylum-seekers, many of whom are entering illegally.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban holds a press conference after the parliamentary election in Budapest, Hungary, on April 6, 2022. Bernadett Szabo/Reuters

While the former president’s record on vaccines, protective masks, and other facets of COVID-19 may look like a vulnerability, he vowed that “I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate.”

From the bowels of the Orpheum, a heckler posed a tough question for President Trump, who has maintained that the 2020 election was rigged against him. He asked how the president could stop cheating in the 2024 election in light of that past outcome.

The heckler was escorted to the door, and the show went on.