As he tries to lock up a victory in the 2024 Iowa caucus, a new book is bringing to light statements previously made by former President Donald Trump trashing the Hawkeye state’s evangelicals.

According to The Guardian — which obtained a copy of the upcoming book The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism by Tim Alberta — Trump bashed Iowa evangelicals in the throes of the 2016 Republican primary while he was battling Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). The comments came during the fallout from the former president’s infamous gaffe when he referred to a Bible verse from “two Corinthians.”

Alberta writes that Trump “began to speculate that there was a conspiracy among powerful evangelicals to deny him the GOP nomination. When Cruz’s allies began using the ‘Two Corinthians’ line to attack him in the final days before the Iowa caucuses, Trump told one Iowa Republican official, ‘You know, these so-called Christians hanging around with Ted are some real pieces of shit.’”

According to Alberta, Trump went on to “use even more colorful language to describe the evangelical community” in the years that followed.

Earlier this week, influential Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats announced he is endorsing Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) in the caucus. Still, despite losing the key endorsement from Vander Plaats as well as Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-IA) — who is also backing DeSantis — recent polling shows Trump maintaining a wide lead in the caucus. Much of the polling shows Trump’s lead is now over 25 points over DeSantis and former Gov. Nikki Haley.

The post Trump Trashed Iowa Evangelicals as ‘So-Called Christians’ and ‘Real Pieces of Sh*t’: New Book first appeared on Mediaite.

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