Donald Trump tripped over himself on Monday as he attempted to quote from the Bible to connect with the crowd of students at one of the most prominent Christian universities in the country.
“Two Corinthians, 3:17, that’s the whole ballgame,” Trump said, drawing laughter from the crowd of students at Liberty University, who knew Trump was attempting to refer to “Second Corinthians.”
Trump was still able to draw applause from the crowd by reading the Bible verse: “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
Keenly aware of his evangelical audience, Trump emphasized the need to defend Christianity, which he said is “under siege.”
And the crowd of 10,000 — overwhelmingly Liberty University students who are required to attend the university’s tri-weekly convocations — responded with applause as Trump called for Christians to “band together.”
“We’re going to protect Christianity, I don’t have to be politically correct,” Trump said. “We’ve got to protect because bad things are happening. Very bad things are happening.”
The Corinthians flub wasn’t the only part that rubbed students the wrong way.
Trump’s use of the word “hell” in reference to the U.S. conflicts in the Middle East (wanting to “knock the hell out of” ISIS, or “we don’t know what the hell we’re doing”) sparked reactions on Yik Yak, the anonymous commenting website, in the region.
“Mr. Trump, I¹m afraid you need to put a quarter in the swear jar,” one commenter in the region posted.
According to “The Liberty Way,” the student code of conduct, any “obscene, profane or abusive language is punished with Reprimands and fines.”
