Trump criticizes evangelical leaders for not backing his 2024 presidential bid

  evangelical leaders who have withheld public support for his campaign, were the latest in a series of bewildering remarks he’s made about one of the most critical voting blocs in a Republican primary. 

“Nobody has ever done more for Right to Life than Donald Trump. I put three Supreme Court justices, who all voted, and they got something that they’ve been fighting for 64 years, for many, many years,’” Trump told Brody, referring to the Supreme Court’s overturning of federal abortion rights in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision last summer. 

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“There’s great disloyalty in the world of politics and that’s a sign of disloyalty,” Trump continued, bemoaning evangelical leaders who have declined to support his latest campaign. 

Earlier this month, Trump also criticized abortion opponents for losing “large numbers of voters” in the 2022 midterm elections, “especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother.” The comments on his Truth Social platform drew sharp retorts from several prominent religious conservatives and anti-abortion activists, including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America president Marjorie Dannenfelser, who, in a thinly veiled critique of Trump, criticized Republicans who have advocated for an “Ostrich Strategy” on abortion, preferring to ignore the issue than elevate it in critical elections.

Trump reaffirmed this sentiment in his interview with Brody, admitting that he advised 2022 GOP gubernatorial candidates Doug Mastriano of Pennsylvania and Tudor Dixon of Michigan that they would face a tougher path to victory for refusing to support exceptions for abortion restrictions, such as when the life of the mother is at risk. Both candidates eventually lost their respective races. As CNN has previously reported, Trump spent much of the midterm cycle privately griping to aides and allies that the overturning of Roe v. Wade damaged Republicans by elevating the issue and drawing attention away from more favorable topics such as inflation and crime. 

Trump’s recent complaints about evangelicals and abortion opponents have baffled allies and advisers who recognize the crucial role both groups play in the conservative ecosystem and their sway in presidential primaries – a dynamic the former president is seemingly well aware of. In 2016, Trump’s chief reason for tapping Mike Pence, the self-described “devout evangelical” and then-Indiana governor, to be his running mate was to shore up support among religious conservatives who remained deeply skeptical of his own brash political brand. That same mission could prove more challenging in a crowded 2024 primary as Trump works to convince primary voters he is both the most electable and most committed to advancing their causes in a second administration.