At Donald Trump’s Q&A session in Virginia yesterday with the Retired American Warriors PAC, the bounty of lowlights surpassed even his embrace of the Christian coach who couldn’t stop proselytizing on the job.

I’ve assembled them into the short video below, while the full event can be viewed here.

On this day we were blessed with (in chronological order):

Trump speaking of himself more than once in the royal third person.

Incoherent rambling about how all branches of the military are “going away.”

Incomprehensible babbling about how we should be “doing things” with nukes.

A weird reference to the time “3 noon.”

On ISIS, a convenient answer as to why he keeps refusing to explain what he’d do differently from Hillary Clinton and President Obama , other than ranting that everything they do is wrong: “I don’t really want to tell you… the last thing you want to do is give notice to the enemy.”

and , other than ranting that everything they do is wrong: “I don’t really want to tell you… the last thing you want to do is give notice to the enemy.” Lots more sniffling. Either Trump has an undisclosed respiratory impairment, Howard Dean was onto something, or Trump’s allies are also in on the “defective mic” conspiracy.

was onto something, or Trump’s allies are also in on the “defective mic” conspiracy. A suggestion that he may remove women from combat, fight transgender rights, and push back against other changes he considers “political correctness.” He also may step up profiling and ominous “other things.” These were in response to Col. Don Bartholomew , who asked:

The U.S. military has long been successful because of its warrior ethos that’s part of its DNA, but under this admin that ethos has been under attack, in some cases undermined, by the forces of political correctness… women in combat, transgender rights, and other issues… Deployability, readiness, and morale are all adversely affected… Trump replied: Well, we’re going to get away from political correctness, we’re going to have to do that. Like, the whole concept of profiling. You know, I mentioned the other day “profiling.” Everyone goes “Oh, profiling, profiling, profiling!” Well, profiling in Israel, they’re doing it well, and we may have to do that, and we may have to do other things… Some of the things that they’re asking you to do and be politically correct about are ridiculous.

, who asked: Next was retired chaplain Ron Crews , head of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, who complained that “the Obama Administration has deliberately set out to take the Christian religion out of the military.” Trump sympathized enthusiastically: Have we ever had a time like this, seriously? Has there ever been a thing like what’s going on?… It’s very unfair what they’re doing to religion in this country. Right, Donald, there’s never been a time like this. There’s never, ever been religious persecution more terrible than this, not ever.

, head of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, who complained that “the Obama Administration has deliberately set out to take the Christian religion out of the military.” Next came the high school football coach who repeatedly ignored his school’s instructions to stop coercing his entire team, Christian or not, to pray before games. They finally had to suspend him to protect the students’ religious rights, and now he’s suing the District. We’ve posted about this already, but it’s worth noting again what Trump said about the situation:

So you’re not allowed to pray before a football game. I thought it was horrible… absolutely outrageous… I think it’s very, very sad and outrageous… It’s amazing, the church and religion has lost tremendous power… By all means, let’s widen the religious divide in America by giving further power to the already powerful religious majority and taking even more away from non-Christians.

Staff Sgt. Chad Robichaux, head of the Mighty Oaks Warrior Program, next asked:

There are a number of faith-based programs outside the DoD and the VA that are continuing to be successful in stopping suicide and divorce rates. Spiritual fitness works on these types of problems. The government is not taking advantage of these programs and services… Will you take steps to restore the historic role of our chaplains and the importance of spiritual fitness and spiritualization programs? Robichaux asked Trump if he would fund these programs. Trump replied, “Yes, I would. Look, we need that so badly.” Here, as with the coach, Trump called it a matter of “religious liberty.” Religious liberty in Trump World means the freedom of the majority to impose their faith on less powerful religious minorities. While military personnel are free to participate in and express religious beliefs, they simply should not evangelize while acting in an official role to personnel who may not feel free to decline.

It was an entire event dedicated to the small government proponent ironically promising to increase government-imposed religion on those without the power to resist.



