Besides providing commentary for a heavyweight boxing match on the 20th anniversary of 9\/11, former President Donald Trump hailed founders of the controversial Unification Church in a virtual speech at a conference hosted by the\u00a0religious group.<\/p>\n
Trump commended the aim of the \u201cRally for Hope\u201d to reunite North and South Korea.\u00a0And he praised \u201ctremendous person\u201d Hak Ja Han Moon, billionaire widow of the late church founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon, for her \u201cincredible work on behalf of peace all over the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
What the Moons \u201chave achieved on the peninsula is just amazing,\u201d Trump went on. \u201cIn just a few decades, the inspiration that they have caused for the entire planet is unbelievable, and I congratulate you again and again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump also hailed the \u201cincredible story\u201d of the Unification Church, whose followers are often called \u201cMoonies.\u201d Church members, who consider that term offensive, refer to themselves as Unificationists.<\/p>\n
Rev. Moon\u00a0\u2014 who considered himself the messiah, as does his widow \u2014 notoriously arranged mass marriages for church members who were strangers to each other. Some 20,000 couples were married in a single ceremony in 2010.\u00a0Former church members\u00a0tell stories of the organization\u2019s mind manipulation.<\/p>\n
Trump made no appearances at events memorializing Saturday\u2019s 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n
Trump also squeezed in plenty of praise for himself in his speech, falsely boasting that he brought to heel North Korea \u2014 birthplace of the Moons.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking back today, it\u2019s easy to forget how dangerous the situation was when I was elected,\u201d Trump said. \u201cMissiles were flying, nuclear weapons were being tested, and powerful threats were being issued every single day. … Under my leadership, the United States adopted a policy of unprecedented strength doing more than any prior administration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jim Stewartson of the anti-disinformation organization The Thinkin Project, expressed concern that Trump was dangerously lending credibility to the Unification Church, which he characterized as a \u201cviolent christofascist cult\u201d backed by right-wing Republicans.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s \u201chard to overstate how deeply harmful and deceptive this is,\u201d Stewartson warned on Twitter. The conference was \u201cpitched by a who\u2019s who of establishment extremists as some sort of peace mission to unify Korea. In reality it\u2019s dangerous propaganda whitewashing a dangerous cult.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Rally of Hope in May featured speeches from former Vice President\u00a0Mike Pence\u00a0and Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.\u00a0Previous rallies have included former vice presidents\u00a0Dick Cheney and Dan Quayle, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Trump\u2019s religious adviser, televangelist Paula White.<\/p>\n
Trump apparently has a long history with the Moons. He claimed in 1991 that he tried to sell Mar a Lago to Rev. Moon.<\/p>\n
Hyung Jin \u201cSean\u201d Moon, the Moons\u2019 son, campaigned for Trump and was\u00a0 reportedly present at the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection with other Unification Church members who chanted \u201cdecertify.\u201d\u00a0He heads a \u201cSanctuary Church\u201d whose religious ceremonies include AR-15s, Vice News reported earlier this year.<\/p>\n