‘Spiritual success’ is what really matters, says Donald Trump

“Spiritual success” is a more accurate measure for the United States than wealth, according to likely billionaire President Donald Trump in remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington yesterday.

“America is a nation of believers,” Trump said. “In towns across the land, we see what we so easily forget: The quality of our lives is not defined by our material success but by our spiritual success. I speak that as someone who has had great material success and who knows many people who have had great material success … Some of them are very miserable, miserable people.”

Compared to people who have money but no happiness, the people who have no money but happiness “are the successful people, let me tell you,” Trump said at the 65th annual breakfast, attended by 3,000 politicians, religious leaders and dignitaries, including King Abdullah of Jordan.

 The president also promised to 'destroy' the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits charities and churches from political campaigning

Trump spoke about having gone to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware the previous day for the return of the remains of William “Ryan” Owens, a Navy SEAL killed in a firefight with al-Qaida in Yemen. “Greater love has no man than that a man lay down his life for his friends,” the president said. “We will never forget the men and women who wear the uniform, believe me.”

Freedom is not “a gift of government” but “a gift of God,” Trump added. “It was the great Thomas Jefferson who said that the God who gave us life gave us liberty.” But the nation’s 45th president questioned whether “the liberties of the nation will be secure if we remove the conviction that these liberties are the gift of God.”

                                                                                                                        

                                                                                         Catholic News Service