Former US president Donald Trump urged evangelical Christians to vote en mass for him in November, vowing to "aggressively" protect their religious freedom if he is elected.
The ex-leader, who rarely appears in church himself, has built a crucial base among the religious right, promising - and delivering – on some of their biggest priorities, including by appointing Supreme Court justices who helped overturn the federal right to abortion.
"The evangelicals and the Christians, they don't vote as much as they should," Mr Trump told hundreds of supporters at a Washington conference put on by the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a conservative advocacy group.
"They go to church every Sunday, but they don't vote," he said, adding in a half-joke that "in four years, you don't have to vote. Okay? In four years, don't vote. I don't care."
Mr Trump would be ineligible to run for president in 2028 because of term limits.
Evangelical voters were crucial for Mr Trump's 2016 victory and again in his failed 2020 campaign, when 84% of white evangelical Protestants voted for him, according to the Pew Research Centre.
Mr Trump promised to protect their interests, as he vowed to "aggressively defend religious freedom."
"We will protect Christians in our schools, in our military, in our government, in our workplaces, in our hospitals and in our public square," he told supporters.
He additionally promised to create "a new federal task force on fighting anti-Christian bias" that would investigate supposed "illegal discrimination, harassment, persecution" of US Christians.
Almost 49% of Americans believe that religion's influence is declining in the United States and that this is a bad thing, according to a Pew Research survey published in March.
The number of Americans identifying as Christian has dropped from nearly 90% in the 1990s to less than two-thirds of the population in 2022, mostly due to rising numbers of people who are not religiously affiliated.
For many white evangelical Christians - a conservative denomination that makes up about 14% of US voters - it is crucial that religion stays relevant in public life.
Mr Trump told the crowd that the political left wanted to "silence you, demoralise you, and they want to keep you out of politics."
"They don't want you to vote, that's why you have to vote," he said, adding "if you vote, no, we cannot lose."
Mr Trump will face his Democratic rival, President Joe Biden, in the first 2024 presidential debate on Thursday.
Meanwhile, at another rally in Philadelphia, the Republican presidential candidate told several thousand at Temple University, that if he was elected in November, he would give police "immunity" to do their jobs and "surge" federal resources to cities battling violence.
Mr Trump dismissed as "fake" FBI statistics that showed a continued drop in levels of violent crime and murder across the country in the first three months of 2024, and accused Democratic President Joe Biden of lying about the data.
"Under crooked Joe Biden the City of Brotherly Love is being ravaged by bloodshed and crime," Mr Trump said in an arena in an historically black neighbourhood, addressing an audience more diverse than a typical rally, but still largely white.
"Under the Trump administration we are going to bring law and order and safety back to our streets," he added.
