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WASHINGTON, United States — US President Donald Trump accused the Democratic left of being "hardcore, godless communists" in a divisive, politicised speech on Friday full of falsehoods about his perceived foes as he addressed evangelicals at a right-wing Christian conference. Speaking in Washington after the success of three progressive candidates in New York's Democratic primary elections this week, Trump called left-wing ideology an "uncontrollable form of cancer" that will ensure America is "taken down".
"These are not social democrats. These are hardcore, godless communists," Trump said. "This is the most serious threat to our country since its existence."
At his 10th appearance at Road to Majority, an annual gathering of some 3,000 evangelicals from the Faith and Freedom Coalition in Washington, Trump attacked the "evil" and "incompetent" administration of his predecessor Joe Biden. He made the bizarre and false claim that Biden -- a devout, churchgoing Catholic -- had jailed Christians for praying and again reprised his baseless claims that his defeat to the veteran Democrat in 2020 was the result of a "rigged" election. Despite a career mired in legal and ethical scandals -- from alleged affairs to felony business fraud convictions and accusations that he abused his office in a bid to subvert the 2020 election -- the twice-divorced Trump remains popular with the evangelical right.
To many conservative Christians, the 80-year-old Republican leader is less a model of private virtue than a vehicle for political power.
Trump boasted of making it "official policy" that there are only two genders, touted the creation of a White House faith office and took credit for "saving Christians throughout the world" through military action in Nigeria and elsewhere.
He reprised a familiar false claim from his rallies about US elections being beset by fraud, pushed for the passage of a bill to introduce onerous new voting restrictions and railed against Republicans opposing the measure -- calling out Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski by name.
Trump accused the mainstream Democratic Party of becoming communist. He boasted that he "would be the greatest communist in history" but said it would lead to Americans living in squalor, railing against the leftists who "hate" America.
The grassroots Faith and Freedom Coalition has always treated Trump as a superstar.
The conference was being staged in the week of the four-year anniversary of the US Supreme Court ending the nationwide right to abortion, a topic on which Trump was conspicuously silent. The president has voiced disquiet about some of the more restrictive curbs being pushed in conservative states. He also sparked fury among some leaders on the Christian right when he blamed harsh restrictions on abortion for Republican underperformance in the 2022 midterm election -- and he refused to commit to a federal ban during the 2024 campaign.
