Nearly six-hundred Iowa evangelical Christians rose with enthusiastic ovations when their president was praised Saturday night during the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s fundraiser in Des Moines. Steve Scheffler is the organization’s president.

Scheffler said the people he was “the most disgusted” and “angry with” were Republican senators who have openly questioned Trump’s conservative credentials.

Iowa G-O-P chairman Jeff Kaufmann told the crowd he had a “crystal clear” message.

Congressman Steve King spent part of last week sending warning flares on Twitter after Trump met with the top two Democrats in congress about President Obama’s program that protected young immigrants from deportation. King did not mention immigration or say Trump’s name during his remarks.

“We just elected a president and things are working along with some degree of significant success and some degree of frustration,” King said. However, King did Tweet a picture of the event’s organizer and note that Scheffler “triggered a standing ovation” by mentioning Trump’s name. Iowa’s two Republican U.S. senators spoke at the Saturday night event, too. Senator Chuck Grassley used most of his time on stage to talk about political philosophy and the inspiration for his own governing strategy. Senator Joni Ernst mentioned a few issues, like Trump’s roll-back of the “Waters of the U.S.” rule that was unpopular with farmers.

Oklahoma Senator James Lankford was the event’s keynote speaker. Lankford was a youth pastor for 22 years and he began by talking about leading a Christian youth camp for 15 years before his election to congress. “Learning how to deal with thousands of juveniles did prepare me better than you would think,” Lankford said, to laughter and applause. Lankford spent much of his speech, though, urging the crowd of Christians to work “locally and individually” rather than relying upon government to address every societal ill.

(Radio Iowa)