Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump compared himself on Monday to Ronald Reagan and said that he would be a much better candidate for evangelical Christians than 2016 rival Ted Cruz - an apparent move to pull the Texas senator's base to his camp of supporters.
"Well, number one, and there are lots of ways of looking at it, but beyond all else, Ronald Reagan wasn’t a totally - he didn’t read the Bible every day, seven days a week. But, he was a great president. And he was a great president for Christianity," Trump told CBN News' "The Brody File" on Monday when asked how he would appeal to evangelicals and still differentiate himself from Cruz.
He added: "And frankly, I would say that I would be a far better leader. I will be much stronger on borders. I will be much stronger in protecting the evangelicals. I’ll be much, much stronger in protecting our country. And I think I’ll be a much better person for evangelicals but also for everybody else."
Earlier in the day, Trump spoke to 13,000 people at Liberty University, the evangelical Christian college founded by Jerry Falwell, where he pitched himself as a protector of Christianity and evangelical Christians, in particular. “We’re going to go right through the whole group, and I think we can do something really special. And we’re going to protect Christianity. And I can say that. I don’t have to be politically correct. We’re going to protect it,“ Trump said, according to Yahoo! News. “I hear this is a major theme right here."
Jerry Fallwell Jr., appeared to give his blessing to Trump, although the university cannot, by law, endorse candidates. "Donald Trump is a breath of fresh air," Falwell said, according to CNN, adding, "the American public is finally ready to elect a candidate who is not a career politician but rather who has succeeded in real life."
For his part, Cruz, who has held the support of evangelical Christians, hit Trump over his new-found conservatism. "I'm pretty sure that Ronald Reagan didn't write checks and support Democratic politicians," Cruz told reporters in New Hampshire, according to Politico.
