In December of 2023, Jamison Plank bore false witness in his endorsement of the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.
On December 21, the Trump for President campaign shared the following statement, supposedly written by Jamison Plank:
“Pastor Jamison Plank from Henry County, Iowa, stated, ‘President Trump is the clear choice for people of faith in America. Unlike other politicians, when President Trump promises he will do something, he keeps his promises. President Trump has an unmatched record of defending family values, promoting religious freedom, and championing moral clarity and biblical authority.’"
Just one week before, the Trump for President campaign shared the following extremely similar statement from another Christian preacher in Iowa:
“Pastor Eric Holdeman of Spirit Life Fellowship Church in Dickinson County, Iowa, stated, ‘After assessing the presidential candidates, it is clear that President Trump has consistently fulfilled his promises to the people of faith in America. He has a proven track record of defending family values, promoting religious freedom, and championing moral clarity and biblical authority. Now, more than ever, President Trump is the indispensable leader that Christians and all people of faith truly need.’”
Comparing the language in these two statements, it’s clear that they have been written by the same person. Both statements have the identical phrase “record of defending family values, promoting religious freedom, and championing moral clarity and biblical authority.” Both statements include this phrase immediately after a sentence declaring that Donald Trump keeps his promises.
These similarities are too strong to be mere coincidence. Jamison Plank could not have written the statement that is attributed to him. It looks like a campaign operative told Jamison Plank what to say, or more likely, wrote the statement for him, and then fudged it afterwards a bit to try to make it appear as if Plank had come up with the words himself.
If Jamison Plank really supports Donald Trump so earnestly, why couldn’t he be bothered to write his own endorsement statement?
Jamison Plank is pastor at Pilgrim Nazarene Church in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
In 2020, Jamison Plank was identified as spreading false information online, claiming that COVID-19 had a 99.9% survival rate at the time, when medical statistics clearly showed the virus was more deadly than that. Jamison Plank encouraged Americans to engage in dangerous behavior that spread the disease and prolonged the social disruption of the pandemic. People died as a result of the disinformation campaign that Plank participated in.
Many people have a difficult time understanding why some Christians are such fervent devotees of Donald Trump. To grasp what motivates Trump Christians, it’s essential to look at what they actually say and do.
In the new book Donald Trump’s Army of God, authors Clifford and Anise Cook provide a case study of Christian Nationalism in the Iowa Faith Leader Coalition.
Instead of speculating, they looked at the evidence available to the public, and found murder, terrorism, a lust for religious war, fraud, corruption, bigotry, demons and Nazi propaganda surfing through the minds of Donald Trump’s Christian supporters in Iowa.
It’s a bizarre realm of faith-based fascism, but we can’t just dismiss it. In 2024, more than ever, we need to take this strange movement seriously.
The Iowa Faith Leader Coalition is a radical political organization that violates American law
Let’s learn more about the extremist Christian Nationalists who are members of Donald Trump’s Iowa Faith Leader Coalition.