Sarah Sanders says God 'wanted' Trump to become president, praises 'tremendous' support of Christians
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said she believes God wanted Donald Trump to become president and praised the “tremendous job” he has done supporting the Christian community.
"I think God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times and I think that He wanted Donald Trump to become president, and that's why he's there," Sanders told David Brody and Jennifer Wishon of the Christian Broadcasting Network.
"I think he has done a tremendous job in supporting a lot of the things that people of faith really care about," Sanders added, calling President Trump “the most conservative president that we've ever had.”
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"You look at the judicial nominations alone, I think that will be one of the greatest legacies that the president has after his eight years in office is how he has completely remade the judiciary and started to stop this activist court that we've started to see over the last eight years. There's a reason evangelicals are sticking with the president, and that's because he's delivered on all the things he said he would do."
When asked about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling Trump's proposed wall along the U.S. southern border "immoral," Sanders told CBN it’s “very hard at this point to even take a lecture from Democrats on what is moral and what isn't.”
“People who are willing to allow legislation to pass supporting late-term abortion,” she explained. “The idea that they would take out ‘so help me God’ in the platform that House Democrats have raised this week.”
She continued: “But the idea that protecting the people of your country, which is the fundamental duty of being president of the United States would in some way be immoral is a ridiculous charge and something that I think probably, I would think Speaker Pelosi may even regret making that comment because she's seen how ridiculous that sounds and how the evidence is so contrary to that comment."
During the interview, Sanders also weighed in on the reported anti-Semitic views held by two freshman Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, calling it “outrageous” that Democrats haven’t condemned their comments.
"Anytime somebody who's not even associated with the president says something, the first thing is will you condemn? Will you say that this is terrible?" she asked. "Where's the leadership on the Democrats' side to call this out? It is unbelievable that this is going totally unchecked, totally off the radar of most of the mainstream media."
Sanders also emphasized that Trump's recent announcement that he would withdraw the U.S. military from Syria would not endanger Christians in the area.
"Look, the president's made clear that we support Christians, that we support the Kurds," Sanders said, adding that Trump has "made that clear to Turkey."
“We've supported the safe zones that are going to be very important, and the idea that the president is just stepping away and ignoring any potential problem doesn't understand the fundamental decision that he's made,” she said.
The belief that Trump's election was the result of divine intervention has been touted by others in the faith community, with some comparing the president to a modern-day King David — an imperfect man chosen by God to lead a nation.
Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham and head of the charity Samaritan’s Purse, previously told The Washington Post, “I could sense going across the country that God was going to do something this year. And I believe that at this election, God showed up.”
Paula White, a Florida pastor and spiritual adviser to Trump, earlier said the president was “raised up” by God: “Because God says that He raises up and places all people in places of authority it is God who raises up a king. It is God that sets one down,” she explained.
A recent Washington Post-ABC poll found that Republicans and white evangelical Protestants were the only groups in which a majority said they would “definitely” support the president in 2020. Similarly, the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll shows that 66 percent of white evangelical Christians approve of the job Trump is doing as president.
