President Trump took some time before golfing on Saturday morning to tweet an easily provable falsity, lying about the Democrats and God.
In a tweet that as of this writing has not been deleted, the president spread a falsehood to his millions of followers that claims Democrats removed the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance during their presidential convention last week. Trump is lying. “Under God” was included in the pledge all four nights of the event.
“The Democrats took the word GOD out of the Pledge of Allegiance at the Democrat National Convention. At first, I thought they made a mistake, but it wasn’t. It was done on purpose. Remember Evangelical Christians, and ALL, this is where they are coming from-it’s done. Vote Nov 3!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
The Democrats took the word GOD out of the Pledge of Allegiance at the Democrat National Convention. At first I thought they made a mistake, but it wasn’t. It was done on purpose. Remember Evangelical Christians, and ALL, this is where they are coming from-it’s done. Vote Nov 3!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2020
Trump: “Democrats took God out of the pledge” at the convention. They said it every night https://t.co/htSpU2lvmT pic.twitter.com/8RCGq4g8WU
— Peter Wade 🤦♂️ (@brooklynmutt) August 22, 2020
Trump lying about God or religion while attacking Democrats is not new. Earlier this month Trump made absurd comments about Joe Biden, saying the practicing Catholic Democratic nominee is “against God.” Trump also said that if Biden were elected he’d “hurt the Bible” and “hurt God.” Whatever that means.
Trump often expresses confidence in having evangelicals on his side, as they were in 2016, come November. So, why he feels the need to lie about something that is demonstrably false might be found in the most recent polling results.
According to a Pew Research poll conducted last month, the president’s job approval rating has dropped among many religious groups, including white evangelical Protestants. The polling agency goes on to say that although Trump still has a 72 percent job approval rating from white evangelicals, that number has dropped six percentage points since April—a worrisome turn of events for a candidate who knows that if he wins, his margin for victory, as was the case during the last cycle, will likely be small.
