Christian-nation political operative David Lane hosted a conference call with Newt Gingrich this afternoon to tout President Trump’s accomplishments and to urge the pastors in Lane’s American Renewal Network to pray for Trump, speak out on his behalf publicly, and urge members of Congress to pass a big tax cut this fall. A big tax cut, said Gingrich, will spark an economic boom that will help conservatives win election in 2018 and 2020.
Lane has for years organized gatherings designed to introduce conservative pastors to Republican politicians and to motivate pastors to mobilize their churches politically and to run for office themselves. Shortly after the Republican convention, Trump attended one of Lane’s events in Florida. Last summer, the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody reported that Lane had raised nearly $10 million for a massive get out the vote effort in evangelical congregations. Lane predicted that Trump could be one of the four greatest presidents in American history.
Introducing Gingrich on today’s call, Lane praised his role in the conservative movement and said that he had been praying for Newt, by name, seven days a week for more than 20 years. (Last July, before Trump picked Mike Pence as his running mate, Lane had declared that Gingrich would be Trump’s “Dream Veep.”)
Gingrich returned the favor, praising Lane for having made a “huge difference” in getting America “starting to turn in the right direction.” Gingrich said that the country has started to turn the corner in what right-wing pundit Dennis Prager has described as America’s second civil war, a “cultural civil war.”
Trump, said Gingrich, is a “remarkably powerful but complex person” who is still learning on the job and has both real weaknesses and enormous strengths, as he complained that the media doesn’t want to cover his strengths. Trump, said Gingrich, is committed to stopping the Left, breaking up political correctness, and advocating for the kind of future we want for our children and grandchildren.
Gingrich praised Trump for having been “just remarkable” on judgeships, saying that the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court should make everyone feel better about the country. He said Trump “has had more judges approved than Barack Obama had at this point”—so much for all the Trump administration’s whining about obstruction—and said Trump’s judges understand the importance of the Judeo-Christian tradition in defining America and are young enough that they’ll be around for a long time.
Gingrich said Trump is facing opponents, including the media, who “deeply, deeply” want him to fail and who want to make conservative values “illegal.”
Lane closed by asking God for mercy for “what we have allowed in a nation founded for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith” and asking Him to bring about “revival” and a “spiritual resurrection of America.”
Early in the call, Lane gave a plug for Gingrich’s book, “Understanding Trump” (with foreword by Eric Trump). In June, the Guardian’s review of Gingrich’s book described it as “hagiography” that “proceeds from a set of facts that should be practically unrecognizable to anyone who’s seen Trump speak or breathe or, most of all, govern.”
