A longtime spiritual adviser to disgraced, one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump is now trashing him, remarking that the ex-president “like a little elementary schoolchild” and that his preoccupation with childish spats keeps him from being able to focus on any real goals.
The Washington Post reports that James Robison, the president of the Christian group Life Outreach International, made his comments at the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL), a right-wing political group that focuses on social issues.
Several minutes into his speech, Robison brought up Trump, recalling how the then-presidential nominee had courted his endorsement. In Robison’s retelling, Republican Ben Carson had told Trump that Robison would only endorse him if they spoke for an hour. Trump protested, saying he didn’t speak to anyone for more than 15 minutes.
The two ended up speaking for an hour and a half, Robison said.
After that, “the man started calling me on his cellphone, and then he started asking me to call him,” Robison said Wednesday, referring to Trump. He claimed that for five years Trump “took every single call I made,” sometimes two or three a day. Robison said that on those calls he would preach to Trump, who reportedly marveled that Robison never wanted anything in return. Trump, however, didn’t necessarily take Robison’s advice.
“He heard, [but] he didn’t always heed.”
The crowd grew quiet, The Post notes, as Robison began slamming the failed former president.
“‘Sir, you act like a little elementary schoolchild and you shoot yourself in the foot every morning you get up and open your mouth! The more you keep your mouth closed, the more successful you’re gonna be!’”
Robison added that Trump wants to divide people, which needs to end:
“It’s time for us to get together and pray and stop trying to destroy each other, and I make that loud and clearly heard to Mr. Trump! We’ve got to quit amputating each other, slicing each other, and come together in supernatural unity that Jesus Christ prayed for!”
Other evangelical Christians have also been highly critical of Trump in recent months. Mike Evans, a former member of the evangelical advisory board, writing earlier this month:
“Donald Trump can’t save America. He can’t even save himself. He used us to win the White House. We had to close our mouths and eyes when he said things that horrified us. I cannot do that anymore.”
Trump formally announced he is running again in 2024 on Tuesday evening at Mar-a-Lago. It remains to be seen if anyone other than the most rabid MAGA faithful are interested in seeing him in the White House again.
