Donald Trump gave a speech at the Faith and Freedom Coalition 2019 Road to Majority Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. today before he departed for the G20 Summit in Japan. In the midst of bragging about his administration’s big push towards conservative policies and protections for religious Americans, Trump fell back on his popular “joke” about wanting to become a dictator over the US.
Donald kicked things off by claiming that the “shameful attempt to oppress religious believers ended the day I took the oath of office.”
“We’re saying Merry Christmas again,” he continued, perpetuating the lie that Americans were somehow unable to use the popular holiday phrase before his presidency.
He then went on to “explain” that his administration has moved to no longer enforce the  Johnson Amendment, which prohibits churches and pastors from partaking in political campaigning, lest they lose their tax-exempt status.
Donald then stated that the amendment will remain unenforced “unless they speak against me, in which case I’ll bring it back.” Quickly adding that he’s “only kidding.”
Of course, Trump has not undone the law like he tends to claim, but rather simply told the Treasury Department that they’re now allowed to enforce it al their own discretion — which opens up the possibility of Trump and his administration literally being able to only punish the churches or organizations that speak ill of him.
“Our great clergy is now able to speak without fear of retribution, and I’m very proud of that. I said I was going to do that, I’m very proud of it. They can speak — unless they speak against me, in which case we’ll bring it back,” the president stated to a round of laughter from the audience. Because, sure, dictatorship is funny. “We’ll bring back that Johnson amendment so fast.”
“I’m only kidding, I’m only kidding, they’re gonna take it seriously,” the president continued with a gesture towards the press. “They’re gonna go out — ‘We have breaking news.’ They’re gonna say ‘see I told you, he wants to be a dictator, I told you that!'”
I don’t know about you, but I don’t find his “jokes” funny. Terrifying is more like it.
You can watch the clip here:
Trump tells some jokes about wanting to become a dictator pic.twitter.com/kDcWm99au7
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 26, 2019
Featured image via DC Tribune GalleryÂ
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