Originally Published: April 1, 2024 10:32 a.m.

Donald Trump's late February speech to the annual National Religious Broadcasters' convention received a short-lived spurt of media attention, largely for its menacing pledges to protect Christians from supposed persecution by a "wicked system" and the "radical" left. But it would be a mistake to consign this speech to one-day-on-the-campaign trail status. Despite some assessments of the speech as "rambling," "wild," and "incoherent," it actually lays out a cogent, comprehensible narrative — for evangelicals. 

As the presidential campaign heats up, his seemingly bizarre oratory is a critical window into how the Trump campaign plans to maintain and mobilize his core base of white evangelicals, and potentially peel off more Black and Latino evangelicals along the way.

The NRB's yearly convention is the premier gathering of Christian talk show hosts and influencers celebrating its mission of promoting "Christian broadcasters' right to communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world." The 80-year-old organization, with over 1,100 members and a robust presence in Washington, represents the local and national Christian media landscape, from televangelists, radio sermonizers, podcasters, and social media influencers. NRB claims that 141 million Americans listen to or watch religious broadcasting at least once a month, on more than 4,000 Christian television and radio stations across the country. In his speech, Trump praised the talk show hosts as "brave independent Christian journalists," and "pastors, podcasters, producers, and patriots" who are doing "an incredible thing for humanity." The NRB speech gave Trump's megaphone a ripple effect to others with smaller, but cumulatively powerful megaphones of their own.

While much of the coverage of the speech focused on his promises to end supposed anti-Christian persecution, Trump had been sounding those themes for months before the NRB speech, ratcheting up his attacks on Biden and the "radical left" as his own legal perils accumulated. The full speech, with characteristic digressions, incomprehensible improvisations, and outrageous lies on matters of both great and minimal importance, reveals how what outsiders see as Trump's deficits are seen by evangelicals as heroism and even divine inspiration. 

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