Trump's Response to Woman Asking About His 'Faith' Raises Questions

Former President Donald Trump's response to a woman's question about his personal religious faith has raised eyebrows and questions for many observers.

Trump, who is currently running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in a bid to retake the White House, has frequently claimed during his political career that he practices some version of Christianity, though he has been criticized by some for only giving vague details about his personal faith. As recently as 2020, he claimed in a written statement to identify as a "non-denominational Christian." As a child, he was confirmed as a Presbyterian.

Religious conservatives have, by and large, embraced Trump, despite the frequent vagueness of his comments about his faith. Others have argued that his behavior over the years, including his numerous divorces and extramarital affairs, has made him a poor figurehead for religious individuals to rally behind. Outside of his base of supporters, an overall poll of Americans from the Pew Research Center found in 2020 that a majority doubted Trump's faith to one degree or another.

Similar questions were raised about Trump's faith on Tuesday, during a campaign town hall stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. During the appearance, a woman asked the former president how his faith has grown since leaving the White House and who has mentored him in that faith. In answering the woman, the former president appeared to dodge the actual question altogether.

"You know, I've seen so much heartache and turmoil," Trump said. "I was a developer and I did other things and, you know, I had a wonderful life before all this stuff. I didn't know what a grand jury was. I didn't know what a subpoena—what is a subpoena? I had a wonderful life."

He continued, shifting the topic to his decision to run for president: "I couldn't be more glad. I am so happy I did it because I've made America great, we can do it again. Right now, we are not a great country. We are not a great country. But I've gotten to know, because of this, evangelicals. I mean, I know so many people and they feel so good about themselves and their family and they base it on religion. I had never had that kind of an experience where I got to know so many. And Franklin Graham and Paula White."

A clip of Trump's answer began to circulate across social media on Friday night when it was shared by Acyn, a prolific Twitter user known for sharing an extensive number of news clips to the platform. Many reactions expressed confusion or mockery of Trump for his seeming failure to directly answer the question.

"Um... how was that an answer?" lawyer Bradley P. Moss tweeted.

"I wonder if this woman even noticed that he came nowhere close to even touching on what the question was about, let alone the fact that not a damn word of this made sense?" another user added.

"This is a pretty entertaining answer," reporter Helen Kennedy wrote. "She didn't look impressed."

"In other words, the answer is nobody and nothing, and he is so uncomfortable having to fake knowing anything about Christianity that he is going to just talk a little b******t until the next question," former federal prosecutor Ron Filipkowski tweeted.

Across the wave of responses, few to no reactions to the clip of Trump shared by Acyn appeared to be positive or defensive in nature. Nevertheless, reports indicate that the former president retains strong support from the religious right, especially Evangelical Christians, over 75 percent of whom voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, Reuters reported. Opponents are now looking to chip away at that support heading into the first primary states of 2024 like Iowa and South Carolina.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's office via email for comment.