Trump accuses DNC of removing 'under God' from Pledge of Allegiance in an attempt to woo evangelical votebank
President Donald Trump criticized Democrats on Twitter for supposedly removing the words 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance during the Democratic National Convention (DNC).
Trump wrote on Saturday, August 22, “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!”
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2020
But the president’s claim was untrue. In fact, this claim was already making the rounds of the rumor mill before Trump spoke about it. According to a Politifact fact-check from August 21, former U.S. senatorial candidate Peggy Hubbard, who lost Illinois’ Republican primary election in March, in an August 20 Facebook post, said, “The DNC omitted ‘one nation under God’ from the Pledge of Allegiance.”
Hubbard’s post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.
The Politifact report added that some Democratic caucus members omitted “one nation under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance during DNC meetings. But the line was not excluded from any of the convention’s primetime televised spots. On the first night of the DNC, participants reportedly sang the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ instead of saying the Pledge of Allegiance. On the second, third, and fourth nights, “under God” was included in the pledge.
Some conservative news outlets reported that during the live-streamed Muslim Delegates Assembly on August 18, one participant omitted “under God” from the Pledge. A delegate at an August 18 LGBTQ Caucus meeting also abstained from saying it.
The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by Francis Bellamy. It originally read: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." In 1923, the words, "the Flag of the United States of America" were added. The words "under God" were added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 under President Dwight Eisenhower. In June 1954, "under God" was officially incorporated into the Pledge by a Joint Resolution of Congress which amended the Flag Code of 1942.
It now reads, "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Trump’s tweet is being seen as an attempt to woo the evangelical vote bank. Trump received 75.6 percent of the white evangelical vote in 2016. According to the Pew Research Center, Trump’s approval rating has dropped among a wide range of religious groups, including white evangelical Protestants, noting that they still remained strongly supportive of the President.
The report said that in June, roughly seven-in-ten white evangelical Protestants (72 percent) said they approved of the way Trump is handling his job. That is a six percentage point drop from 78 percent recorded in April. the same report said that the share of white evangelicals who say they “very strongly” approve of Trump’s performance stood at 59 percent, down eight points from 67 percent in April.