Trump’s Mormon outreach has been an endless 'comedy of errors'
During the final weeks of his 2024 presidential campaign, GOP nominee Donald Trump has ramped up his outreach to Mormons.
The Latter-Day Saints for Trump website debuted on October 7, and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has been a staunch Trump supporter — although Utah's other GOP U.S. senator, Mitt Romney (a Mormon), has been a vocal critic of the former president.
But according to The Atlantic's McKay Coppins, the "Mormons for Trump" effort has been a "comedy of errors."
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The website, according to Coppins, got off to a rocky start when it featured an image of Church of Latter-Day Saints President Russell M. Nelson — and had to remove it because they didn't have his permission to use the photo.
"A few days later, users on X discovered a page on the Trump-campaign website selling Mormon-branded merch — including Latter-Day Saints for Trump coffee mugs ($25) and koozies (two for $15)," Coppins explains. "When people pointed out that Mormons somewhat famously don't drink coffee or alcohol, the campaign hastily rebranded the merch, and a social-media pile-on ensued."
The Trump campaign's Mormon outreach, according to Coppins, has shown an "odd indifference to Latter-Day Saint religious practice."
"A canvassing event in Nevada, for example, was held the same weekend as General Conference, a semiannual series of Church broadcasts in which senior leaders deliver sermons and spiritual counsel," Coppins explains. "The timing was a 'challenge,' admitted the Utah GOP chair, who helped organize the event. And when Trump held a rally in Prescott, Arizona, with an array of MAGA-Mormon luminaries — including Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and the right-wing media personality Glenn Beck — it took place on a Sunday, which Latter-day Saints traditionally set apart for worship, service, and rest, not political events."
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Rob Taber, national director of Latter-Day Saints for Harris-Walz, slammed the "sheer incompetence" of Latter-Day Saints for Trump.
Taber told The Atlantic, "They're used to being able to count on the LDS vote to be the door-knockers and the foot soldiers of the Republican Party. Actually having to engage in persuasion is a little bit new to them."
Read The Atlantic's full report at this link (subscription required).
