Yesterday, President Trump walked into the Rose Garden and addressed the nation, with the sound of tear-gas canisters filling the air in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House. I’m writing from notes, and the quotes are not exact. But here is a summary of what President Trump said:

• My first and highest duty is to defend the American people.

• I am sickened by George Floyd’s death.

• I am an ally of all peaceful people.

• What we are seeing is a crime against God.

• We must have security, not anarchy.

• I am mobilizing all federal resources.

• I recommended to every governor that they call up their state National Guard so that we dominate the streets.

• If they will not do so, I will take action.

• I will protect the capital of the United States of America.

• I am deploying thousands of forces in our capital to stop the rioting.

• America is founded on the rule of law.

• Where there is no order, there is no liberty.

• Our greatest days are ahead.

As the president was delivering these remarks, law-enforcement officials from multiple agencies were moving unruly crowds back from the line they had formed on the other side of Lafayette Park. A curfew supposedly began at 7:00 PM.

At the end of his remarks the president said, “I am taking no questions. I am now going to a very sacred place.” President Trump then walked across the street from the White House grounds to St. John’s Church, which was attacked during the weekend rioting.

The president was joined by top administration officials, including Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Trump stood outside the church and held up a Bible. They are already mocking it at CNN and MSNBC.

But President Trump knows what millions of Americans have forgotten or have never been taught. When our founders went to Constitution Hall, the main idea that they put in our founding documents came from the Torah (the Old Testament) and the New Testament.

That is where they found the idea that liberty comes from the God of Abraham. That is where they found that we are all brothers and sisters made in the image of God. And because we are made in the image of God, we have dignity, value, and worth.

That is what the president asserted in yesterday’s dramatic 35 minutes. This not only magnifies the historic choice facing the country in the years ahead, it magnifies the stark choice that is before us in literally five months.

In my view, the next five months will determine whether we will be the last generation in America that is truly free.

Today, I have been invited, along with others, to join the president at the John Paul II Chapel at Catholic University. There, President Trump will outline his commitment to the right of every human being, wherever they live, to seek and worship God as their heart leads them.

Again, my friends, I urge you to pray for the president’s safety and for his family. Pray for our country. Pray for the president’s remarks today. Our country is in danger now as it has rarely ever been.

God bless you, and thank you for supporting my work in Washington, DC.