Former President Donald Trump said he would launch a federal task force to fight anti-Christian bias in America upon re-election.
Trump referenced the removal of statues and renaming of institutions by social justice activists in recent years during his Thursday night speech at Right Side Broadcasting Network's 2024 National Religious Broadcasters Presidential Forum.
"Nobody will be touching the cross of Christ under the Trump administration, I swear to you that will never happen," he said. "When I return to the White House, I will once again aggressively defend religious liberty, just like I had for four years."
"We will protect God in our public square," Trump said, adding God was watching.
"Upon taking office, I will create a new federal task force on fighting anti-Christian bias," Trump said. "Its mission will be to investigate all forms of illegal discrimination, harassment, and persecution against Christians in America."
Trump, who referred to himself as a "very proud Christian," also stressed the importance of returning faith to American hearts and said he believed internal threats to the country were currently greater than external threats.
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"We can handle China, we can handle Russia," he said. "We can handle all of them if you have a smart leader, but the inside people are very dangerous."
The former president also stressed the need for "the hand of our Lord and the grace of almighty God" to achieve victory, noting law enforcement had been weaponized against conservatives and those of the Catholic faith.
"For all Americans, but especially for Christians, nothing is more important than to defeat this wicked system and to return to fair, equal, and impartial justice under the Constitutional rule of law," he continued, discussing Democrats' hostility to religion. "In the end, we do not answer to bureaucrats in Washington, we answer to God in heaven."
"We have to bring back our religion [and] we have to bring back Christianity in this country," Trump said while touting his 2017 Presidential Executive Order Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty, which put a halt to enforcement of the Johnson Amendment, a law that prevents religious institutions from endorsing political candidates.
The former president noted religious institutions were threatened and subjected to legal repercussions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Americans of faith are not a threat to the country. Americans of faith are the soul of our country," he said. "Remember, every communist regime throughout history has tried to stamp out the churches, just like every fascist regime has tried to co-opt them and control them, and in America, the radical left is trying to do both at the same time."
