--- 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: 2026-10-07T07:15:30.100Z 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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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### 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. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=6a9d5528-717f-4f06-aa78-f9f593882613&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Trump Speaks at National Prayer Breakfast [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump Speaks at National Prayer Breakfast](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7ztVvkDt.m3u8) (1:40)  _Published 2017-02-02. President Trump spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., drawing attention for joking remarks that the audience should pray for Arnold Schwarzenegger's ratings on "The Apprentice."_ by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Feb 2, 2017 3:46 PM UTC 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. --- > “” --- ## Transcript We had tremendous success on The Apprentice, and when I ran for president, I had to leave the show. That's when I knew for sure I was doing it, and they hired a big, big movie star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to take my place, and we know how that turned out. The ratings went right down the tubes. It's been a total disaster, and Mark will never, ever bet against Trump again. And I wanna just pray for Arnold if we can for those ratings, okay? When you hear about the tough phone calls I'm having, don't worry about it. Just don't worry about it. They're tough. We have to be tough. It's time we're gonna be a little tough folks. We're taken advantage of by every other nation in the world virtually. It's not gonna happen anymore. Freedom if religion is a sacred right, but it also, right, under threat all around us, and the world is under serious, serious Threat in so many different ways, and I've never seen it, so much and so openly as since I took the position of president. The world is in trouble. but we're gonna straighten it out. Thank you as well to Senate Chaplain Barry Black for his moving words, and I don't know, Chaplain, whether that's an appointed position. Is that an appointed position? I don't even know if you're Democrat or if you're Republican, but I'm appointing you for another year. To Hell with it. We want people to love us and to love our values, not to hate use and to hate our values. ```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":"2026-10-07T07:15:30.100Z","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"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Trump Speaks at National Prayer Breakfast","description":"President Trump spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., drawing attention for joking remarks that the audience should pray for Arnold Schwarzenegger's ratings on \"The Apprentice.\"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/7ztVvkDt/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-02-02T16:30:33.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7ztVvkDt.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4658012/donald-trump-national-prayer-breakfast-transcript/","duration":"PT1M40S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4658012/donald-trump-national-prayer-breakfast-transcript/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```