Steve Strang's Interview with Trump

1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,880
Welcome to the Strang Report with Steve Strang on the Charisma Podcast Network.

2
00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:14,400
This episode was produced to discuss and address issues within our nation and around the world

3
00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:19,440
from a Christian worldview.

4
00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:24,080
Hello I'm Steve Strang and welcome to this very special edition of the Strang Report.

5
00:00:24,080 --> 00:00:30,720
Today I'm interviewing the man I believe will be the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump.

6
00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:35,200
This was a scoop for us. We're going to publish the interview in Charisma Magazine,

7
00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:40,880
but we're giving it to our podcast listeners first. I have in the studio with me Dr. Steve Green

8
00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:46,720
who went with me to the interview and we're going to talk about kind of the behind-the-scenes things

9
00:00:46,720 --> 00:00:57,600
and you're going to want to stay tuned to hear this interview with Donald Trump after this word from our sponsor.

10
00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:01,840
Today's episode is brought to you by the Evangelical Christian Credit Union.

11
00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:07,040
What you believe matters and what you value matters, so where you bank should matter too.

12
00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:13,280
At ECCU, every dollar you spend or save is supporting ministry like loans to churches

13
00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:19,760
and banking services for missionaries. Ask yourself, what does your current bank do with your money?

14
00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:24,080
If you don't know the answer or you don't like the answer, it might be time for a change.

15
00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:32,880
Visit www.eccu.org to see ECCU's competitive checking, savings, credit cards and auto loans.

16
00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:44,800
That's eccu.org or call 1-800-634-ECCU to learn more about how your money can build ministry.

17
00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:50,560
Welcome back and welcome to Dr. Steve Green. You do your own podcast. You're well known to our listeners

18
00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:54,480
and I'm glad to have you here and I was glad to have you with me on the interview and I thought it

19
00:01:54,480 --> 00:02:00,080
would just be interesting as we set this up that we tell our listeners a little bit about what happened

20
00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:04,720
and our own feelings about it. Well thank you Steve. It was really great for me to be with such a big

21
00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:08,960
deal guy like you to be able to get into an interview with Donald Trump. I mean we went into

22
00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:13,520
that interview for our listeners. We had a private interview with Donald Trump and the only people in

23
00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:16,960
the room with us are these four great big old guys that were standing in the corners they're

24
00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:22,960
about eight foot tall and seven foot wide shoulders and it was an experience just to watch them watch

25
00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:28,720
us and of course I watched Donald Trump as Steve was interviewing him and it was just an amazing

26
00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:35,440
experience to see how gentle and kind and listening Donald Trump was. He was not that aggressive

27
00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:40,240
take the podium and screaming everybody. He was listening to Steve's questions and I thought he

28
00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:45,680
gave thoughtful answers. He did and I've had the privilege of interviewing three U.S. presidents

29
00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:50,800
George H.W. Bush. I actually met with him at the White House. It was a group setting then I

30
00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:56,240
interviewed George W. Bush with six other Christian journalists. It was a little bit more like a

31
00:02:56,240 --> 00:03:00,880
press conference except that we were around the table in one of these historic rooms in the White

32
00:03:00,880 --> 00:03:05,360
House. I was so nervous I didn't even remember the name of the room and we each could ask one

33
00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:10,720
question and then I was able to interview Barack Obama. Wait a minute what's your question we all

34
00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:14,880
want to know what was the one question you asked you remember. Well I had a whole list of questions

35
00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:20,080
and we all had to kind of jump in a little bit like a press conference and I remember thinking

36
00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:24,880
that person just asked my question. That person just asked my question. That hurts. And you know

37
00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:30,000
I would have to go back and pull that out of the archives to see what question I did ask because

38
00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:34,880
our story that we did about it was about the whole interview and what was going on at the time.

39
00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:40,320
But I very clearly remember this that before I asked the question I said Mr. President I want

40
00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:45,680
you to know that I pray for you every day and he stopped and he said I really appreciate that. He

41
00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:49,840
said when I work the rope line you know which is where there's a rope and there's the public and

42
00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:54,720
they shake hands. He said people are saying that to me more and more and he said I really appreciate

43
00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:59,840
that. And then I went on a great memory and asked my question which I admit I can't remember right

44
00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:06,080
now. But contrast to that to my interview with Barack Obama where it was a group setting with

45
00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:11,200
probably about 40 Christian leaders not everyone got to ask a question. I jumped in and I asked him

46
00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:16,320
the only difficult question of the day and I very clearly remember it. I said Mr. President the group

47
00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:22,080
of people that I write for are very conservative Christians and almost everyone is against abortion.

48
00:04:22,080 --> 00:04:28,080
So how do I explain to them your position on abortion? And he gave me kind of his answer

49
00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:33,760
that I read in his book. Really? He said that abortion is never preferred. We need to try to

50
00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:38,960
avoid abortion and we need to take care of the children that are born and blah blah blah.

51
00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:45,920
However I was never invited again to any meetings with Barack Obama. That's right. And contrast

52
00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:50,960
that to our interview with Donald Trump which we started in June to try to get this interview.

53
00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:57,440
We decided that we should write about the campaign as we have on every campaign since 1984. We've

54
00:04:57,440 --> 00:05:03,600
written about them. I was able to get a very short phone interview with John McCain. The John

55
00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:08,560
McCain people did not even really reach out to the Christian community very much. It was not an

56
00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:12,960
interview really worth talking about. For some reason they felt some obligation to give us a

57
00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:17,680
few minutes on the telephone. With this one I told them that we would go anywhere. We would submit

58
00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:22,720
our questions in advance and so forth. I was expecting to have to go up to New York and interview him.

59
00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:27,280
I thought I'd really do it at Trump Towers. We were told fairly early that they would grant an

60
00:05:27,280 --> 00:05:32,480
interview but then we could never nail them down on when. And then they suggested that we interview

61
00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:37,840
Mike Pence which we want to do after he was selected as a running mate. But we said we've

62
00:05:37,840 --> 00:05:42,320
got to have an interview with Donald Trump if we're going to put his picture on the cover of

63
00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:47,680
Christmas magazine. Which we are. And in October we're going to print a slightly edited version

64
00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:52,480
of this interview that our listeners are going to hear in just a minute. Now we edited it not

65
00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:58,160
to change any meaning but to just clean it up and there were some redundancies where he would make

66
00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:03,760
the same statement twice and we took that out. In fact today I was actually working on that so

67
00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:09,760
it was fresh in my mind. But we had 10 minutes. It was here in Orlando. He spoke to a group of about

68
00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:15,360
500 pastors and they arranged two interviews afterwards. CBN had an interview before us.

69
00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:21,120
Then they left and then as you just said we had him to ourselves. He was remarkably gracious.

70
00:06:21,120 --> 00:06:26,480
He seemed to listen. He showed respect. He went to get himself a bottle of water I guess. And he

71
00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:31,040
asked me if I wanted something which you don't expect with the stereotype of Donald Trump.

72
00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:35,120
And he asked me if I wanted to take a picture with him. That's right. Us. All of us did this

73
00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:40,160
together. That's amazing. He never felt too busy. I never at any time in the interview thought he

74
00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:43,840
was trying to truncate to get you out of the room. He's actually once said okay if you're

75
00:06:43,840 --> 00:06:50,240
finished I'm in. He was fine with it. He wanted to talk to you. I had a very nice podcast recorder

76
00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:54,720
and I must have been nervous although in a way I wasn't nervous but you know I was

77
00:06:54,720 --> 00:07:01,520
preoccupied about my questions. You have to push a couple of buttons and I pushed all but the last

78
00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:07,920
one and found that my recording did not happen. However we made a backup recording and we made

79
00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:14,080
a little video. All guys do backup plans. We forget stuff. I have learned to do backup plans

80
00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:20,400
and so what you're going to hear is the interview on an iPhone. It's not as good a quality but you

81
00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:25,760
can listen to it and we're going to play it for you now unedited. And then afterwards Dr. Steve

82
00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:30,720
Green and I will talk about a little bit more behind the scenes things with what happened with

83
00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:34,720
Donald Trump and how we're going to use it. Enjoy this interview. I think you'll find that Steve

84
00:07:34,720 --> 00:07:40,240
did a great job with his questions and listen to the calm that our future president is giving

85
00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:44,640
in his answers to Steve String. You're going to enjoy this. So first question is evangelicals

86
00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:49,440
and Catholics have been under attack from the Obama administration for their pro-life convictions

87
00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:54,720
and desire to be left alone to enforce government acceptance of that which violates their biblical

88
00:07:54,720 --> 00:08:01,040
views on marriage. How can you reassure them that you will respect religious liberty for them? Well

89
00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:06,000
I think that you know I even mentioned in my speech that religious liberty is is the foundation

90
00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:14,880
without religious liberty you don't have liberty and I feel that so strong and so many other people

91
00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:20,160
do except they don't express it and plenty of politicians do but they don't express it. So

92
00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:27,200
religious liberty is something that I find that I cherish and you will never be disappointed.

93
00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:33,120
And when you met with evangelical leaders of course I wrote this report to you. Right.

94
00:08:33,840 --> 00:08:38,560
You said that you would support repealing the Johnson and then so churches and ministries

95
00:08:38,560 --> 00:08:43,600
can maintain tax exemption. That's right. Without giving us a freedoms. How will you do it? Well

96
00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:49,200
I'll start it very early on. I'm actually starting it if you wanted to. I started it already because

97
00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:53,280
I put it in the platform. You know it's in the platform. A lot of people didn't even know what

98
00:08:53,280 --> 00:09:01,600
it was and that I put it in the platform and now a lot of the pastors and ministers have seen it

99
00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:07,040
and they can't even believe it because how this happened in the first place is shocking how they

100
00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:11,840
were able to take it away. So it's not something that was written from the beginning and you know

101
00:09:11,840 --> 00:09:16,400
this is something that was written by a very strong politician. That's all it is. But it makes

102
00:09:16,400 --> 00:09:21,840
it silences great people. It silences people that we want to hear. They're afraid to open

103
00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:27,200
their they're afraid to talk about anybody because they can lose everything. You know can lose everything

104
00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:35,600
with this. And we will I will do if I win one of the first things I will do is lobby very strongly

105
00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:43,680
to have this terminated and I will tell you something it won't be hard because your lobby is

106
00:09:43,680 --> 00:09:49,920
so powerful. So even Democrats are going to approve it because this is bigger than men

107
00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:54,720
bigger than women in terms of numbers of people. So I'll be able to get it done. I have absolute

108
00:09:54,720 --> 00:10:00,320
confidence that I'll be able to get it done. You've been lied for the very strong bond with your adult

109
00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:05,360
children. Why does it spend the secret that you have such a close relationship with your children

110
00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:10,560
and they're very obvious respect for you? Well I worked very hard when it came to my children

111
00:10:10,560 --> 00:10:17,040
and one of the things that I would tell them all the time is no drugs very important no cigarettes.

112
00:10:17,040 --> 00:10:21,760
I also tell them no cigarettes but no drugs no alcohol no cigarettes and I would say that to

113
00:10:21,760 --> 00:10:29,120
a point where they would go you know every time I did go out or see them and say no drugs no alcohol

114
00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:34,080
no cigarettes. And you know I have friends I have very small children but their children are hooked

115
00:10:34,080 --> 00:10:38,800
on drugs or they hooked on alcohol. I had cigarettes because of the health fat because it's just

116
00:10:38,800 --> 00:10:42,880
easier if you don't smoke. I was lucky enough not to smoke if I did smoke I mean I have friends

117
00:10:42,880 --> 00:10:47,920
I can't get off and they're strong people. But if you've never started it's not a problem. Same

118
00:10:47,920 --> 00:10:52,480
thing with drugs same thing with alcohol if you've never started it's not a problem. And that's a

119
00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:59,760
big fact I mean the fact that they're not hooked and you know hopefully right and you never know

120
00:10:59,760 --> 00:11:08,080
what's a fragile world so who knows what happens but I would always talk about drugs alcohol and

121
00:11:08,080 --> 00:11:13,760
to a lesser extent cigarettes. As president who will you reach out to for spiritual counsel and

122
00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:20,960
why do you feel that president meet God's wisdom and guidance? Well I have many I have so many

123
00:11:20,960 --> 00:11:29,120
friends including Paula White who's here but I have many friends within the community and some

124
00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:35,520
of the people who are in there today but one of them who's been so incredible is Franklin Graham.

125
00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:41,440
Franklin Graham has been I mean he's been amazing he's been really terrific.

126
00:11:43,120 --> 00:11:49,760
Silver close to Franklin Pastor Jeffers has been terrific. Paula White has been incredible.

127
00:11:51,040 --> 00:11:58,800
So many so many and I will I really like to stay with people that have been so loyal because they

128
00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:06,800
were here at the beginning where this was a very very little tiny flame and they were here when

129
00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:12,160
everyone was saying well you can't be actually 70 because actually the real level was 18 originally

130
00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:20,080
off the record if you include Gilmore. If you include Gilmore but you know how do you beat 16

131
00:12:20,080 --> 00:12:26,160
seasoned politicians because there were 17 total but how do you beat 16 seasoned politicians and

132
00:12:26,160 --> 00:12:31,840
in the case of Ben Carson who's a terrific guy who endorsed us and Carly but how do you beat

133
00:12:32,400 --> 00:12:37,680
you know these tremendously talented people and so they were there at the beginning I guess

134
00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:42,880
something nice about people that were there at the beginning. You've already said these

135
00:12:42,880 --> 00:12:48,480
support Israel's claims of Jerusalem as a capital. Yes many evangelical Christians are very strong

136
00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:55,040
supporters of Israel. How will your policies toward Israel differ from your opponent? Well for

137
00:12:55,040 --> 00:13:01,040
one thing I support Israel. I don't think I think I don't think Obama supports Israel. I think it's

138
00:13:01,040 --> 00:13:07,520
the worst thing that's ever happened to Israel. The Iran deal is a disaster for Israel and I'm

139
00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:14,000
very supportive of Israel. I have tremendous friendships in Israel. I have a son-in-law who's

140
00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:27,600
Jewish and a daughter. I have a daughter who's Jewish so I will be very strongly in favor of Israel.

141
00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:34,560
In the book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament it says to be kind to the stranger in the land.

142
00:13:34,560 --> 00:13:39,760
How would that scripture guide your policy and immigration? Well I think that's good but we

143
00:13:39,760 --> 00:13:45,120
have to be careful at the same time. We're allowing people to come into the country. We don't know

144
00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:49,760
anything about them. There's no paperwork. There's no documentation. You see what's going on in

145
00:13:49,760 --> 00:13:56,320
Germany and France and many other places where they had an open door policy essentially and it's

146
00:13:56,320 --> 00:14:00,880
going to go on here too. I mean we've allowed thousands and thousands of people into a country

147
00:14:00,880 --> 00:14:06,160
who have no idea who they are. At the same time we want to build safe havens. We want to build safe

148
00:14:06,160 --> 00:14:13,440
havens and we're going to get the Gulf States to fund that money because it's a tremendous amount

149
00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:19,440
of money and this country doesn't have it. So we want to take care of people but we can't allow them

150
00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:23,280
in because we just don't know. You see what happened in Saint Bernardino. You see what happened in

151
00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:30,400
Orlando right here. You see what happened with the World Trade Center. We can look at all over

152
00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:37,120
the world and look at what's going on in France, Nice, Germany. We just can't. We have enough

153
00:14:37,120 --> 00:14:43,840
problems so we can't do that. You know you talked about the rough and tumble campaign, the 17

154
00:14:43,840 --> 00:14:50,000
candidates and so forth and you have went over the evangelical vote and you've changed a lot.

155
00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:57,040
How has this whole process affected you spiritually? Well I can tell you I've always been spiritual but

156
00:14:57,040 --> 00:15:03,280
I really appreciate evangelicals because they really supported me. You know when somebody

157
00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:10,320
supports you you feel pretty good about and I'd go into a very evangelical state and people would

158
00:15:10,320 --> 00:15:15,200
say oh gee I won't win that state and I ended up winning in a landslide because I had tremendous

159
00:15:15,200 --> 00:15:19,120
support. You see the polls where people are leading they supported Trump over other people that

160
00:15:19,120 --> 00:15:27,760
in theory they could have supported very easily and they didn't. So I think the fact that I had that

161
00:15:27,760 --> 00:15:32,000
tremendous support from the evangelicals meant a lot to me and it will mean a lot to me in the future.

162
00:15:32,720 --> 00:15:37,600
You know before you spoke they had a speaker talking about Judeo-Christian values in the

163
00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:43,600
founding of the nation and so forth. In our secular society a lot of people discount that.

164
00:15:44,240 --> 00:15:47,440
Do you believe that America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles?

165
00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:55,360
Yeah I think it was. I think to a large extent when I look at football coaches being fired

166
00:15:55,360 --> 00:16:02,400
because they held a prayer on the field like yesterday I think it's absolutely terrible.

167
00:16:03,280 --> 00:16:09,040
I think it's a terrible thing. I see so many things happening that are so different from what

168
00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:17,200
our country used to be. So now religion is a very important part of me and it's also I think it's

169
00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:22,640
a very important part of our country. Final question what is the most important thing in your life?

170
00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:32,000
Well you know you always have to say family. It's family is the most important thing from that

171
00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:37,680
standpoint. Religion is very important but I assume you're not talking about religion or family

172
00:16:38,320 --> 00:16:42,800
but you know those two things are very important. Belief is very important.

173
00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:47,840
But you would always have to put family number one.

174
00:16:50,320 --> 00:16:58,240
And then give us some advice as we tell your story and persuade people like you're encouraging

175
00:16:58,240 --> 00:17:04,240
that crowd except instead of a church you know we'll be speaking to hundreds of thousands and

176
00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:09,680
several millions. Well I'm going to get the job done. I'm going to do a great job for religion

177
00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:15,280
and for the evangelicals. I'm going to do a great job and that's why we got a standing ovation from

178
00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:20,160
pastors who don't give much of standing ovation. Just to state if a lot of people speak.

179
00:17:21,840 --> 00:17:26,000
So that was a great honor but I will do a great job. I will get the job done

180
00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:31,760
and I'll get it done properly and there will be a great thing for the evangelicals.

181
00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:39,360
Well I hope you enjoyed that interview. You know actually I have put the video of it

182
00:17:39,360 --> 00:17:44,480
that was on Facebook live on our website. It's already been out. It's been very interesting

183
00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:50,160
to read the comments. We decided to put it on a podcast to get the word out and it is an exclusive

184
00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:54,720
for us and we're going to be very glad to have it in print where it's a little more permanent

185
00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:59,760
and I want the readers to see it in our October issue where it's part of a package.

186
00:17:59,760 --> 00:18:05,360
We have several other articles that we're putting together to make the case for how Donald Trump

187
00:18:05,360 --> 00:18:10,800
should be the next president of the United States. I interviewed Ted Cruz on my podcast

188
00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:15,680
before the very first primary and I endorsed him for president. He was my first choice

189
00:18:15,680 --> 00:18:19,760
but the very day he dropped out of the race I switched over to Donald Trump and I'll admit

190
00:18:19,760 --> 00:18:25,280
that I've really warmed up to him as I've gotten to know him. He seems to be interested in Christian

191
00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:30,320
things. Christian principles are important to him. He says he's going to support as you just heard

192
00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:35,040
religious liberty. He's going to try to repeal what's called the Johnson amendment. I think that

193
00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:41,120
is significant. I know of no other president or even political candidate that has said that he would

194
00:18:41,120 --> 00:18:47,040
get rid of this which is really gagging ministers and churches from being involved in the political

195
00:18:47,040 --> 00:18:53,040
process. Actually Matt Staver the head of the Liberty Council who of course is an attorney

196
00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:59,600
says that no church has lost their tax except status except one who lost it for one day where

197
00:18:59,600 --> 00:19:06,160
they really did something pretty grievous and what it is is that a church itself cannot endorse

198
00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:12,960
but a pastor can endorse himself. He can say I'm your shepherd. I try to help you get through life

199
00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:17,680
and make right decisions and wrong decisions. I'm going to share with you what I'm going to do as a

200
00:19:17,680 --> 00:19:24,080
private citizen to vote my convictions and you can make your own decisions but I'm going to support

201
00:19:24,080 --> 00:19:29,920
this candidate or that candidate. That is perfectly legal but a lot of pastors don't know that and they

202
00:19:29,920 --> 00:19:34,720
just say oh we need to stay away from it entirely. In fact right after the interview as you know I

203
00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:39,760
came back to our office where we had a meet and greet for a Christian leader in our area. It was

204
00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:44,080
already planned and I was concerned I was going to have to leave it but I came back and I was

205
00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:48,560
talking about it and how I was endorsing Donald Trump and so forth and one of the ministers said

206
00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:54,000
oh you are so bold to speak about politics and I said well first of all we don't have a 501

207
00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:59,280
C3 ministry even though we consider what we do in ministry. We pay lots of taxes. We pay lots of

208
00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:04,960
taxes and I consider it paying rent to live in America. You know I'm very philosophical about

209
00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:10,560
it but I've endorsed someone for president every year since 1984 and we've spoken up about a lot

210
00:20:10,560 --> 00:20:16,240
of political things over the years but yet this pastor who is at reception in my own headquarters

211
00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:21,280
talking at a private setting with no other media there. We weren't recording it. I thought that somehow

212
00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:25,600
I was stepping into territory that I shouldn't have so I think that just goes to show you the

213
00:20:25,600 --> 00:20:30,800
mindset that too many ministers and pastors have. A lot of fear for the government. I want to add

214
00:20:30,800 --> 00:20:35,600
one thing to your comments before we run out of time and that's how he spoke of his children.

215
00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:41,040
You know I've always said that I would rather see a man's children than his resume. I can learn so

216
00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:45,520
much about the parent by the quality of the children and of course many of us have watched his

217
00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:51,600
children and have seen such amazing work out of them. We respect him. You asked him that question

218
00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:55,920
about what were the things he said to his children. What did he expect and you heard his answers and

219
00:20:55,920 --> 00:21:00,560
when he focused on the things that they shouldn't do they sounded like middle America. You know get

220
00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:06,160
home on time. Don't smoke. Don't drink. Don't take drugs and he just repeated it over and over again.

221
00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:12,080
He said they got sick hearing it. I said it so much. I respect a man who cared so much about his

222
00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:16,720
family that he set rules that children of means like that of the wealth that they grew up with

223
00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:21,840
could have been in all those things and frequently are. So I have amazing respect for him and I know

224
00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:26,560
he picks good leaders. I've been supporting of him right from the beginning because I know

225
00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:31,120
that he'll select good people and we'll have a good administration. Well I'll say one more thing

226
00:21:31,120 --> 00:21:35,840
before we wrap this up. You know I put some things about Donald Trump on my own Facebook page and I

227
00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:41,200
go in and I look at people's comments and this one lady posted a column that she wrote on the

228
00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:47,040
Huffington Post and so I clicked on it and I read it and she said you know the Bible says that you

229
00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:51,920
need to be kind and soft spoken and this and that and this and that and Donald Trump is anything but

230
00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:55,920
that and she went on and on and actually she made some pretty good points about what Christians

231
00:21:55,920 --> 00:22:01,440
should do and not do but I replied to her and I said you know what what you say is true but I said

232
00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:07,280
you're picking a speck out of Donald Trump's eye and I didn't even say a log. I said a forest

233
00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:13,120
out of Hillary Clinton's eye starting with where she stands on the issues. How can you ignore that?

234
00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:18,960
You can't ignore it and then on top of it is the lying about the emails, the whole mess in

235
00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:26,080
Benghazi. I don't even know how to articulate her own foundation. I mean just in the news today

236
00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:31,840
is that the foundation if she's elected president will quit taking donations from foreign governments

237
00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:37,360
and from corporations. I mean that's admitting that is a conflict of interest or has the appearance

238
00:22:37,360 --> 00:22:42,240
of the conflict of interest and it's been happening again and again and again even though she was

239
00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:47,440
questioned about this before she became secretary of state and gave assurances that this would not

240
00:22:47,440 --> 00:22:52,880
happen but it's happened and it's not only speculation but there's proof with some of these

241
00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:58,640
emails that have come out and so I think that people need to not just go based on personality.

242
00:22:58,640 --> 00:23:02,880
You know we all had an opinion of Donald Trump before he ever ran for office. You know we saw

243
00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:09,440
him on reality TV. He was in the news all the time. They called him the Donald, remember? Yes.

244
00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:14,800
You know he makes his money in casinos. I mean we could go right down the list but God has used

245
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:21,120
other people to be change agents at critical times in history and I dare say that most of the people

246
00:23:21,120 --> 00:23:26,800
listening to this podcast and reading our magazine believe that we are in dire, dire straits and not

247
00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:32,160
only that but if Hillary Clinton is elected it's going to get worse and I believe that God has raised

248
00:23:32,160 --> 00:23:39,280
up a man who is strong enough to stand against the tide and to try to at least change some things

249
00:23:39,280 --> 00:23:44,720
in the right direction. This is an extremely important election and I encourage people not

250
00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:51,280
only to vote but help us get out the vote and to forward this podcast to people and encourage people

251
00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:55,360
to read the stuff that is on our website. Of course there's a lot of other good stuff too.

252
00:23:55,360 --> 00:24:00,720
We're just trying to do our best to get out the word and after looking at all the issues and

253
00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:05,040
examining things and interviewing Donald Trump himself we have come to the conclusion that

254
00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:10,240
this is the right thing to do. We are not a part of his campaign. Nobody's paid us anything.

255
00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:15,520
Nobody's twisted our arm to do anything. We're doing it because we believe it deeply and I hope

256
00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:20,160
that people will take this to heart and I hope that we're able to influence Christians to go out

257
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:26,000
and vote. You know there's reason to believe that Mitt Romney would have won had the Christian vote

258
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:31,760
gone to the polls but a lot of people were so uncomfortable voting for a Mormon. A Mormon who

259
00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:38,320
believes in family values and on a lot of the issues agrees with us but he's a Mormon and I

260
00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:44,000
don't approve of Mormonism any more than any other Christian does but if he had been president I

261
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:48,320
doubt that a lot of the things that have happened in the last four years would have happened and

262
00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:54,480
we have to just believe that this is an important election especially in the swing states Christians

263
00:24:54,480 --> 00:25:01,520
have to go to the polls and influence their family and friends. We all have a circle of influence

264
00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:07,360
and if we would all influence our circle of influence at the grassroots level I believe

265
00:25:07,360 --> 00:25:13,200
that Donald Trump will be the next president the 45th president of the United States. Whatever you do

266
00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:19,280
would you pray before you go ask the Lord to guide you to give you direction to give you leadership

267
00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:24,160
of the Holy Spirit as you vote. Steve said the most important thing we can all do is just get

268
00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:29,360
out the vote. Tell your neighbors shake the dog shake the trees shake something but let's all get

269
00:25:29,360 --> 00:25:34,080
out there and vote. Well said and with that we'll close and I'll thank you for listening today to

270
00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:38,720
this edition of the Strang Report on the Charisma Podcast Network. God bless you all.

271
00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:47,360
Thank you for listening to the Strang Report with Steve Strang. To read more from Steve visit his

272
00:25:47,360 --> 00:25:55,440
blog The Strang Report on CharismaMag.com again it's The Strang Report on CharismaMag.com.

273
00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:03,040
This has been a production of the Charisma Podcast Network. Steve and Joyce Strang are the

274
00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:09,680
founders and owners of CPM. Dr. Steve Green is the executive producer of the Charisma Podcast Network.

275
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:16,000
We intend to honor God with every podcast and remain thankful to our advertisers and supporters

276
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:33,680
who make these podcasts possible.