A video has emerged of a group of women praying over and touching US President Donald Trump during an unexpected appearance at their event in his Trump-branded Washington DC hotel on Wednesday.
The footage shows Trump surrounded by the group of about a dozen women with their heads bowed in prayer and their arms out, near or touching his shoulders.
"Holy Father, we thank you so much for this evening. We thank you for this man of God. We thank you for his courage of standing up when others would rather stay seated", a woman leading the prayer says as other women in the video cry out in agreement.
"Father, we ask you that you protect him," the prayer-leader intones, continuing, "that you to lift him up, that you give him strength and know that he must be tired at times. And we just pray that you give him power like none other. We love him, we hold him up, and we thank you, Amen".
The group were unaware that Trump would visit their reception, according to Rachel Faulkner Brown, an anti-abortion activist and Atlanta-based spokeswoman for Be Still Ministries, who was in attendance.
Brown posted to Instagram about Trump's visit and made reference to the impromptu prayer.
The White House press office schedule for Wednesday said the president was at his branded hotel to deliver "remarks at a Fundraising Committee Reception", the Daily Mail reports.
After arriving at the Trump hotel, the president spoke from a podium displaying the Trump Hotels brand, not the official presidential seal, a breach of presidential protocol, according to reports.
Trump thanked supporters and mentioned evangelical Christian preacher Paula White - appointed by the president as his personal spiritual adviser - by name.
White boasted of her decades-long friendship with Trump, quipping that she and her family were hoping to pray together for "four more years".
"This is a longtime relationship, this is not a political relationship, this is a genuine family relationship that I love to tell about the man who's now leading the free world as president of the United States", she said according to the Daily Mail.
Hand-picked by Trump, White joined the White House in October 2019, serving as his adviser to the Faith and Opportunity Initiative and overseeing outreach to Christian evangelical groups.
Trump's appearance with the evangelical Christian media celebrities and his faith adviser comes as he pursues evangelical Christian voters in his campaign for reelection.
Trump is the first sitting president to attend a the anti-abortion group March for Life and has vocally praised his own record as being supportive of Christian evangelism and several other religions.
