Donald Trump Saturday responded to the Muslim controversy and President Barack Obama by reading the five tweets he sent earlier in the day to cheering Christian evangelicals in Iowa before vowing to protect religious liberty should he win the White House next year.
"They wanted me to speak up in favor of the president," Trump explained to the 1,000 attendees to the Faith and Family Coalition's Fall Dinner in Des Moines before reading the Twitter messages. "Do you think he is going to speak up in favor of me? Why do I think he is not?"
Trump then read the first of the five tweets he sent early Saturday about the flap, which occurred Thursday at a campaign event in New Hampshire when a man said that he believed that Obama was Muslim: "Am I morally obligated to defend the president every time somebody says something bad or controversial about him? I don't think so!"
The walls inside the Paul Knapp Center on the Iowa State Fairgrounds thundered from the crowd's cheers.
"All right," Trump responded. "So that took care of that one."
After
reading the other messages, the billionaire developer then said, "That was the end of my tweeting for the day.
"This is the first time in my life that I've caused controversy by not saying something," he added. "I didn't say anything. By not saying something, which was sort of amazing."
Trump then said the media would have bashed him if he had admonished the New Hampshire man for his remark.
"If I would have challenged the man, the man who made the statement — maybe somewhat negative to the president — the media would have accused me of interfering with that man's right of free speech," he said.
Trump called it "a no-win situation."
In later remarks, Trump pledged to fight for religious liberty — and he showed the crowd his Bible and a confirmation picture. He is Presbyterian.
"I brought my Bible. See? I'm better than you thought," Trump said, holding up the book. "Actually, this was given to me by my mother.
"It was something I thought I would bring along today, because this is a group that fully understands the Bible and respects everything that it says," he continued. "I also brought my confirmation picture because nobody can believe it. Nobody believes this.
"Christians, that's all of us, need support in our country — and around the world. Their religious liberty is at stake. Obama has been absolutely horrible.
"I will protect," Trump added. "Believe me, I will protect, because we are not being protected.
"The first priority of my administration will be to preserve and protect our religious liberty. The First Amendment guarantees our right to practice our faith as we see fit — not just during the holy days, but all the time, always, wherever.
"We'll be fighting, because I think it's an important thing," he said.
Trump also took questions from Kayne Robinson, a longtime Iowa GOP operative and former National Rifle Association president, in which he slammed the Iran nuclear deal, while expressing strong support for Israel and the Second Amendment.
"Believe me, I will protect you," Trump reiterated as he ended his speech. "I will fight for you. Nobody will get you more.
"And I'm one of you. Just remember that."
The forum has been hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition, founded by conservative activist Ralph Reed, for 15 years.
Other GOP candidates speaking this year were Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ted Cruz of Texas; Govs. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Scott Walker of Wisconsin; former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum; and former Govs. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and George Pataki of New York.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.