Trump's spiritual adviser says 'all Satanic pregnancies should miscarry'

Florida televangelist claims sermon was 'taken out of context' for 'political gain'

Donald Trump's spiritual adviser says her rapturous sermon calling on Jesus Christ to "command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry" has been "taken out of context" after it was widely shared and derided on social media.

In her breathless 5 January speech, Paula White prays "that anything conceived in satanic wombs, that it will miscarry, it will not be able to carry forth any plans of destruction, any plan of harm" while cursing "demonic manipulation" and "strange winds" that have been sent to hurt the church" as well as the US and Mr Trump.

The Florida televangelist claims she was using a metaphor, not literally calling for pregnant women to suffer miscarriages, despite the specific and violent imagery.

On Twitter, she said that she was invoking a verse from Ephesians, in which "we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Anything that has been conceived by demonic plans, for it to be cancelled and not prevail in your life."

The King James' Bible verse from Ephesians 6:12 says: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Its preceding verse calls worshippers to wear the "whole armour of God" to withstand the "wiles of the devil".

Ms White said: "Let's be clear what is really going on... this is a disingenuous attempt to use words out of context for political gain. I will just keep praying!"

As reported by the Washington Post, Andre Gagne, a theological professor at Concordia University, cited a similar metaphor from Nigerian evangelist DK Olukoya, suggesting that Ms White is "commanding that Satan's plans be aborted".

Roughly 10 to 20 per cent of pregnancies end in miscarriages.

Ms White was appointed to the White House in 2019 as a religious advisor under the Office of Public Liaison. She has loomed throughout the president's attempts to woo the evangelical crowd, and she ultimately helped the then-candidate meet with conservative Christian leaders and was later selected to speak at the president's inauguration in 2017.

Her sermon was criticised on social media days after the March for Life in Washington DC, where thousands of anti-abortion activists from the Christian right effectively endorsed the president's re-election in their annual push to overturn the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v Wade, which enshrined the legal right to an abortion.

Mr Trump is the first sitting president to attend the event, during which he told the crowd that "unborn children have never had a stronger defender in the White House".