--- title: National Prayer Breakfast: Donald Trump Transcript description: President Trump spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. canonical: https://time.com/4658012/donald-trump-national-prayer-breakfast-transcript/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-02T15:46:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:06:26.265Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read Trump's Remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast og:description: A full transcript. og:url: https://time.com/4658012/donald-trump-national-prayer-breakfast-transcript/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt123b54f658050a07/6988b87e7cdbac2c73d5702a/donald-trump-johnson-amendment.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: President Trump Attends National Prayer Breakfast og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Trump's Remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast twitter:description: A full transcript. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt123b54f658050a07/6988b87e7cdbac2c73d5702a/donald-trump-johnson-amendment.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read President Trump's Remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Feb 2, 2017 3:46 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast February 2, 2017 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast February 2, 2017 in Washington, DC.Win McNamee/;Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Feb 2, 2017 3:46 PM UTC President Trump spoke at the [National Prayer Breakfast](http://time.com/4658002/president-trump-prayer-breakfast-johnson-amendment/) in Washington, D.C., drawing attention for joking remarks that the audience should pray for [Arnold Schwarzenegger’s](http://time.com/4621431/new-celebrity-apprentice-premiere-ratings/) ratings on “The Apprentice.” The speech was Trump’s first at the annual religious gathering, though he joked that he would like “to be here seven more times with you.” He also pledged to repeal the [Johnson Amendment](http://time.com/4452309/trumps-evangelical-voters/), an IRS rule barring pastors from endorsing candidates from the pulpit. “I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution,” he said. Read Trump’s full remarks below. --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4658012/donald-trump-national-prayer-breakfast-transcript/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4658012/donald-trump-national-prayer-breakfast-transcript/"},"headline":"Read President Trump's Remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast","datePublished":"2017-02-02T15:46:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:06:26.265Z","description":"President Trump spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.","url":"https://time.com/4658012/donald-trump-national-prayer-breakfast-transcript/","keywords":["faith","White House","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt123b54f658050a07/6988b87e7cdbac2c73d5702a/donald-trump-johnson-amendment.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt123b54f658050a07/6988b87e7cdbac2c73d5702a/donald-trump-johnson-amendment.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Attends National Prayer Breakfast","caption":"U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast February 2, 2017 in Washington, DC.","creditText":"Win McNamee/;Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/faith/","name":"faith"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4658012/donald-trump-national-prayer-breakfast-transcript/","name":"Read President Trump's Remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast"}}]}] ```