With funny, warm & strongly pro-Israel speech, Trump wins over 4,000 Evangelical media leaders at NRB

NASHVILLE — Facing bad weather as he flew to Nashville from Palm Beach, former U.S. President Donald J. Trump was at least an hour late for his keynote address Thursday night at the National Religious Broadcasters convention.

But when he and his large Secret Service detail finally arrived, Trump delivered.

It was not a fiery speech.

It was certainly not a MAGA rally.

Rather, Trump was warm and conversational with the 4,000 Christian media professionals who came to listen to him, as well the largest number of Israeli government officials, Israeli journalists and media influencers, and American Orthodox Jews to ever attend an NRB convention, according to a senior NRB executive who spoke to ALL ISRAEL NEWS.

TRUMP TOUTS POLICY TRIUMPHS — WARNS OF DISASTER ON US-MEXICAN BORDER

Speaking from a prepared text projected onto a Teleprompter — but often and happily going off script — the former president talked about the many and significant policy victories that he’d delivered for Evangelicals and Catholics during his four years in office.

Such victories, Trump said, included:

• Putting three pro-life, Constitutional originalist, and highly qualified Justices on the Supreme Court.

• Overturning the abominable 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion on demand in all 50 states.

• Building hundreds of miles of border wall and other measures that dramatically reduced the number of illegal aliens pouring into the U.S. via Mexico.

“We had the most secure border in U.S. history, and now we have the worst border in the history of the world,” Trump said.

“There has never been a border so bad as this or so dangerous,” he added.

“As soon as I take the oath of office I will terminate every open borders policy of the Biden administration and we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.“

The crowd erupted with sustained applause and cheers.

Throughout the one hour and 14-minute speech, Trump was funny — and classically acerbic about his political enemies whom, he joked, indicted him every time he simply flew over a blue state.

TRUMP SPENT MORE TIME DISCUSSING ISRAEL THAN ANY OTHER TOPIC

Time after time, Trump received standing ovations. Some of the strongest applause and cheers came when Trump spoke about all that he and his administration did to strengthen the U.S.-Israel alliance.

Indeed, it was a remarkably robust pro-Israel speech.

Trump’s discussion of his pro-Israel policies — including moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights as sovereign Israeli territory, brokering the Abraham Accords between Israel and four Arab nations, and getting tough with the terrorist regime in Iran — amounted to the longest section of his address.

On no other topic did he spend more time than Israel.

As it happened, I was seated next to Anat Sultan-Dadon, Israel’s Consul General based in Atlanta.

She and her advisors were clapping and cheering with each and every mention of Trump’s pro-Israel positions.

But there was more.

FRIEDMAN PRAISES TRUMP AS MOST PRO-ISRAEL U.S. PRESIDENT IN HISTORY

The former president then surprised everyone in the middle of his remarks by calling up to the stage his long-time friend and Orthodox Jewish lawyer, David Friedman, who served all four years as the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

Trump gave Friedman several minutes to talk about the significance and impact of his administration’s policies in Israel and the broader Middle East.

“Mr. President, you were the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the Oval Office — by far,” Friedman began, going on to explain his reasons.

TRUMP: I WILL THROW HAMAS SUPPORTERS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY

If that weren’t enough, Trump vowed to get tough on pro-Hamas forces inside the United States.

After he is re-elected president, he said, “We'll terminate the visas of all of Hamas sympathizers, and we'll get them off our college campuses, out of our cities, and get them the hell out of our country, if that's okay with you.”

The NRB audience roared with applause.

TRUMP: WE MUST STOP IRAN FROM GETTING NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Trump explained how important it was for him to rip up the so-called “Iran Nuclear Deal” that had been brokered in 2015 by Barack Obama and Joe Biden and impose his “maximum pressure” economic sanctions on Tehran.

Not only did his policies slow down Tehran’s bid to build an arsenal of nuclear weapons, Trump said, but they also cut off cash for Iran to give to its terrorist proxy forces.

“They had no money for Hamas,” Trump said because of the sanctions.

“They had no money for Hezbollah. They had no money for anything.”

“They [Iran’s leaders] were totally broke and we could have made any deal we wanted,”

Trump said he wanted to negotiate a much tougher and stricter and more advantageous agreement with the mullahs in Iran that would have protected both American and Israeli interests.

But, he added, President Biden abandoned this approach and thus squandered all of the gains and leverage that could have put Iran right where we want them.

Few issues in 2024 are more important than the Iran nuclear and terror threat, Trump insisted.

“You cannot let them have a nuclear weapon.”

TRUMP: ABRAHAM ACCORDS - ‘ONE OF THE GREATEST THINGS DONE FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST’

“We did the Abraham Accords,” Trump says. “It's one of the greatest things ever done for peace in the Middle East. But the Biden administration didn't take advantage of it, and they didn't take advantage of the weakness at that time of Iran.”

“So when I got out [of the White House], Iran went about selling oil at levels they've never hit before. China went back to buying. India went back to buying. France went. They all went back to buying. Everybody was buying.”

“And now Iran has $235 billion” in foreign currency reserves, Trump said.

“They made it over the last three years, $235 billion. Iran is a very rich country right now. And what a shame.”

“We could have negotiated any deal. We don't want to hurt anybody, but we just don't want him to have a nuclear weapon. Because when they have a nuclear weapon, very bad things are going to happen and they're very close to having that. Now, that would have been had the election not been rigged, we would have had a deal with Iran within one week after that election.”

“I kept my promise, recognized Israel's eternal capital,” Trump told the audience to strong applause. “That was a big thing.”