DES MOINES, Iowa — A different kind of political speech is taking center stage at the rallies of former President Donald Trump: the opening prayer.
The invocations have become their own political call to action, sometimes punctuated with applause lines and partisan language, invoking the same falsehoods and vindictiveness that Trump himself spreads.
At a December rally in Coralville, Iowa, the Rev. Joel Tenney spoke ahead of Trump, telling the several hundred supporters gathered that he wanted to talk to them “as a pastor.”
“We have witnessed a sitting president weaponize the entire legal system to try and steal an election and imprison his leading opponent, Donald Trump, despite committing no crime,” he said.
“We must re-elect President Trump for the third time,” Tenney said, echoing Trump’s “big lie” rhetoric. He then said that the upcoming election “is part of a spiritual battle” with “demonic forces at play.”
His voice trembling at times like a tent revival preacher behind a Trump-emblazoned podium, he continued: “When Donald Trump becomes the 47th President of the United States, there will be retribution against all those who have promoted evil in this country.”
Then Tenney prayed.
“God, I pray that, Lord, you would help us to re-elect President Donald Trump and restore America to its greatness,” he said.
The invocations are providing a unique insight into the evangelical world’s acceptance of Trump’s conspiracy theories, along with the embrace of his nationalism and promises of retribution.
Celebrity pastors, such as Paula White and Kenneth Copeland, who preach the “prosperity gospel,” have long stood by Trump’s side, giving him early credibility in their corner of Christianity. Now, the pastors taking the political stage across the country are most often local pastors with more immediate followings — further proof that Trump’s reach goes well beyond the television megachurches and into local congregations that were once more skeptical of a somewhat vulgar New York real estate tycoon and casino owner.
New Hampshire state Rep. Paul Terry, a retired minister for an evangelical Presbyterian denomination, led the invocation at Trump’s late December rally in Durham, telling the more than 4,000 voters in attendance that they “have been lied to, deceived and seduced.”
“With every passing day, we slip farther and farther into George Orwell’s tyrannical dystopia,” he said from the stage, continuing: “Every day, we are burdened by those who have asserted illegitimate authority and unconstitutional lawlessness over us.”
Barney Bornhoft, a pastor, prayed at the beginning of an Ankeny, Iowa, rally in December for “a hedge of protection” around Trump, while offering something of a midprayer commentary: “I don’t believe we have any idea the pressure that he’s under,” calling the cases against the former president “ridiculous.”
In July, another pastor, Jimmy Morales, hosted a Trump rally at his own church, Fervent Calvary, in Las Vegas.
“This is the most amazing thing that’s ever happened at this church — other than you giving your life to the Lord,” he told the crowd.
“We pray, Lord, that we wouldn’t be woke, but we’d be awake,” Morales prayed.
The prayers also illustrate the comfort that many evangelical Christians now appear to have with the incongruous relationship between their faith, which traditionally teaches forgiveness, love and humility, and a candidate who insults opponents, curses from the podium and boasts in ways inconsistent with a model of humble leadership typically taught in evangelical churches.
From the same podium, and just minutes apart, it’s not uncommon to hear prayers and then put-downs.
Before Trump’s appearance in Fort Dodge, Iowa, in November, Baptist minister Patrick Wiedemeier, who supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign in 2016, led the audience in prayer, likening Trump’s presence to the second coming of Jesus Christ: “There’s great excitement in this place, Lord. And rightfully so. But this is just a taste of what’s coming when you send your son as king of kings and he sets things right.”
When Trump took the stage 90 minutes later, his remarks were hardly a taste of evangelical Christianity, which emphasizes a merciful, loving and long-suffering God.
“How does he hold up that fat, ugly face?” the former president asked rhetorically about Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who has been one of his political archenemies in Congress. Trump then complimented Communist President Xi Jinping of China, who, he said, “runs” his population “with an iron hand,” before calling President Joe Biden “a stupid person,” making an unfounded claim that the president is on medication that wears off during public appearances.
The former president then pontificated on his own controversial behavior: “Now, there may be some people that don’t like my attitude, but my attitude is what gets us there.”
Bornhoft and Tenney said that the person who asked them to pray was Jackson Lane, the Trump campaign’s Iowa director of faith outreach, and that he did not put any restrictions on their prayers or make any requests about what he was to say.
Lane did not return a request for comment, and the Trump campaign declined to comment.
Over the last eight years, Trump has effectively recreated the Republican Party in his own image, and there is evidence that a sizable share of the evangelical church has also molded under Trump.
In 2016, Trump garnered just 22% of Iowa’s evangelical vote, according to caucus entrance polling. In the latest NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll, 51% of likely Iowa evangelical caucusgoers said that they are backing Trump for the GOP’s 2024 nomination.
Trump’s behavior, once a bug, is now often a feature of pastors’ own words from the stages that they share with the former president.
Two of the ministers spoke with NBC News about their invocations.
Bornhoft admitted that “in one sense” it is awkward for a minister to take the same podium as Trump but added: “Part of who he is on stage kept us out of war years ago, kept us with a border that was closed.”
“There’s been a lot of presidents behind the scenes who curse, who do a lot of different things,” Bornhoft said. “I hate to say it this way, but the office at times requires it.”
Tenney, the minister who insisted the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, said he was “led by the spirit of God to say what I said.” When NBC News asked him about evidence pointing to the integrity of the 2020 election, he demurred.
“There is a view that is promulgated among the left and the left news media,” he said. “But I hold to a different view, completely and entirely, and that is that there was election interference and the election was not a free and fair election.”
Tenney believes that Trump is a “born again” Christian, but doesn’t believe that Biden, a lifelong Catholic, is a Christian because of his support for abortion rights.
“You can’t be a Democrat and be a Christian,” he said.
Tenney, 27, said he is working to get other faith leaders to support Trump as well. But his full-time profession is “preaching the gospel” as an international Pentecostal evangelist.
“Trump is getting with the pastors of this nation, talking with them, talking with their congregations,” he said. “And that’s a good thing, because having TV preachers and evangelists around you is not a good thing, especially when they believe in a prosperity gospel.”
He said God revealed to him in March 2020 that Trump would win the election, but not serve his second term. He described the revelation as “a very strong impression that comes out of nowhere” during a prayer.
“The election was stolen, but God allowed for that to happen,” he said.
In 2024, Tenney continues to pray that God will return Trump to the White House. And aside from his prayers, he’s doing his part as a caucus captain for the former president.
“Does God want Trump to be president? Time will tell,” he said. “But we want him to be president.”
