President Trump on Saturday hit Democrats over the Pledge of Allegiance, leaning deeper into the culture wars he hopes will elevate his reelection bid.
Trump took to Twitter to accuse Democrats of not uttering the word “God” in the pledge at this week’s Democratic National Convention. While the word was featured in the pledge at the convention every night for each of the four days, some of the speakers did not say it during the Muslim Delegates and Allies Assembly and the LGBTQ Caucus meeting, which were not part of the main programming, according to The Associated Press.
“The Democrats took the word GOD out of the Pledge of Allegiance at the Democrat National Convention. At first I thought they made a mistake, but it wasn’t. It was done on purpose. Remember Evangelical Christians, and ALL, this is where they are coming from-it’s done. Vote Nov 3!” Trump tweeted.
The Trump campaign doubled down, tweeting out a video compiling comments from meeting speakers who were critical of the government.
The controversy over the Pledge of Allegiance was sparked by a story on the Trump-friendly Christian Broadcasting Network that was then picked up by Fox News.
The tweet led to a flood of posts fact-checking the president, with users posting videos compiling all the times “under God” was said during the convention.
The Saturday morning tweet represents just the latest attempt by Trump to tap into hot-button issues he hopes will rile up his base and propel his reelection campaign as polls show him trailing former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic Party’s 2020 nominee, both nationally and in key swing states.
The president in speeches and online has highlighted various fronts of the culture wars to boost support among critical demographics such as evangelicals and suburbanites.
“We moved the capital of Israel to Jerusalem. That’s for the evangelicals,” he said this week.
Trump has also warned that Democratic policies will lead to a spike in crime in suburbs, citing ongoing protests in some cities over systemic racism, amid signals the GOP is shedding support in such areas after the president won the vote in suburbs in 2016.
“Why would Suburban Women vote for Biden and the Democrats when Democrat run cities are now rampant with crime (and they aren’t asking the Federal Government for help) which could easily spread to the suburbs, and they will reconstitute, on steroids, their low income suburbs plan!” Trump tweeted Saturday.
The remarks as of yet have failed to make a sizable dent in Biden’s polling lead.
Updated: 12:37 p.m.