by Sharon Rondeau
(Mar. 21, 2023) — As The Post & Email reported Monday night, 45th President of the United States Donald J. Trump was a guest on a “Pastors for Trump” national prayer meeting hosted by the organization’s founder, Jackson Lahmeyer.
Lahmeyer asked listeners to distribute the link to the livestream in light of Trump’s reported possible impending arrest at the hands of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Tuesday.
After appearances by longtime Trump supporter and acquaintance Roger Stone as well as Trump’s first national-security advisor, Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn (Ret), Trump joined the broadcast by phone but encountered technical difficulties from the outset.
Several minutes ensued wherein Lahmeyer apparently was unable to hear any of his guests, Stone began speaking, urging any protesters Tuesday to demonstrate “peacefully” and “legally.”
Trump had called for “protest” after announcing on his TruthSocial account late last week that Bragg’s office had “leaked” its intention to have him arrested over a payment made in 2016 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels through his then-personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
Cohen recently spent three years in prison resulting from convictions on perjury and other charges and testified to the grand jury currently hearing from witnesses in the “case” against Trump.
Just before 8:00 PM, the broadcast went dark and was replaced by an undated video of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis giving an address to an unidentified group of people. Other unrelated videos followed, and it appeared, at least to this writer, that the call would not resume that evening.
However, as posted Tuesday morning by Trump’s spokeswoman, Liz Harrington, Trump at some point was able to rejoin the broadcast, whose co-host asked what he would like to see Lahmeyer and others pray for “for you as a man and the soon-to-be 47th President of the United States.”
In response, Trump said, “The best thing you can do for me is to pray for our country and the safety of our country, because as I just said, the danger that we are in now, I think, is greater than any danger we’ve ever had. We have no leader; we are not a respected country by these other very hostile countries, in some cases, very hostile; and I think the greatest thing that I can ask for is a prayer for our country, for our safety, and we have to get through this period of time. This has been a horrible period of time for the United States of America. Leadership has taken us in many, many bad directions, and we’re a failing nation…”
Trump did, however, indicate that the nation might again see “success.”
Part of the broadcast is here, during which some interference can still be heard as Trump spoke. His remarks as posted by Harrington can be heard on her TruthSocial and Twitter accounts.
According to Fox News Tuesday morning, the grand jury is not yet finished hearing from witnesses. “An indictment and arraignment” are not anticipated until “next week,” Gillian Turner reported during the 9:00 a.m. hour while sitting in for Dana Perino.