“Spiritual success” is a more accurate measure for the United States
than wealth, according to likely billionaire President Donald Trump in
remarks Feb. 2 at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.
“America is a nation of believers,” Trump said. “In towns across the
land, we see what we so easily forget: The quality of our lives is not
defined by our material success but by our spiritual success. I speak
that as someone who has had great material success and who knows many
people who have had great material success. … Some of them are very
miserable, miserable people.”
Compared to people who have money but no happiness, the people who
have no money but happiness “are the successful people, let me tell
you,” Trump said at the 65th annual breakfast, attended by 3,000
politicians, religious leaders and dignitaries, including King Abdullah
of Jordan.
Trump spoke about having gone to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware the
previous day for the return of the remains of William “Ryan” Owens, a
Navy SEAL killed in a firefight with al-Qaida in Yemen. “Greater love
has no man than that a man lay down his life for his friends,” the
president said. “We will never forget the men and women who wear the
uniform, believe me.”
Freedom is not “a gift of government” but “a gift of God,” Trump
added. “It was the great Thomas Jefferson who said that the God who gave
us life gave us liberty.” But the nation’s 45th president questioned
whether “the liberties of the nation will be secure if we remove the
conviction that these liberties are the gift of God.”
“That is why I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson
Amendment, and allow our religious representatives to speak freely
without fear and without retribution,” Trump said.
The amendment,
attached by then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson to a 1954 bill, bans federally
recognized nonprofits from making political endorsements. “Freedom of
religion is a sacred right, but it is a right under threat all round
us,” said the president.
In his speech, Trump alluded to the executive memorandum he issued
Jan. 27 that bans refugees hailing from seven majority-Muslim countries —
Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia — for 90 days. His
action suspends the entire U.S. refugee resettlement program for 120
days.
“Our nation has the most generous immigration system in the world.
But there are those who would exploit that generosity,” he said.
“We want people to come into our nation but we want people to love us
and to love our values, not to hate us and hate our values. We will be a
safe country, we will be a free country, where people can practice
their beliefs without fear of hostility and without fear of violence.”
Trump’s remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast lasted one minute longer than his 18-minute presidential inaugural speech.
“Five words that never fail to touch my heart,” Trump said at the
breakfast, are “I am praying for you.” “I hear it so often” ‘I am
praying for you, Mr. President.'”
He lauded the keynote address given by the Rev. Barry Black, a
Seventh-day Adventist who is chaplain of the Senate. The speech was so
good, he told Rev. Black, “I’m going to appoint you for another year,
the hell with it.” Chaplains are appointed by their respective house of
Congress.
Trump also talked about how he “had to leave” his job hosting “The
Celebrity Apprentice” after he announced his presidential bid. “They
hired a big, big movie star, Arnold Schwarzenegger to take my place, and
we know how that turned out: The ratings went right down the tubes, it
was a disaster. Pray for Arnold, if we can, for those ratings.”