EXCLUSIVE: Trump hosts Amish in historic Oval Office visit

The Washington Times ^ | Sunday, December 22, 2019 | S.A. Miller

[Zhang Fei]

President Trump began the holiday break by hosting an Amish delegation in the Oval Office, the first time members of the reclusive community have received that honor.

They might be an odd pairing — the brash and extravagant billionaire president and the humble Amish — but they enjoy a kinship in their Christian faith and work ethic, the Amish visitors told The Washington Times.

“He is a common man just like me and everybody else — very common, very friendly. He called us friends when we walked in there,” said Levi Miller, 56, an Amish farmer from Ohio. “It gets people excited that we have somebody in there who is not afraid to talk about Jesus Christ.”

Mr. Miller was among four Amish businessmen from Ohio who sat down for an exclusive interview with The Times following their Oval Office visit Friday, where they also met Vice President Mike Pence, acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and other top White House officials.

The Amish men described themselves as strong supporters of Mr. Trump and each denounced the House Democrats’ impeachment of the president as a waste of taxpayer money.

“We read the newspaper and it is just ‘impeachment this’ and ‘impeachment that.’ It’s a lot of hogwash,” said Ben Hostetler, 51, a woodworker. “What they are blaming Trump for is what they did themselves.”

The Amish businessmen credit Mr. Trump with fostering a robust economy, protecting religious freedom and adhering to conservative values.

Mr. Miller said the Amish experience the good economic times that Mr. Trump has ushered in, and many will back him in 2020.

“What we see happening at home. Everybody is upbeat. The stock market, everything is up — the economy, the jobs are available,” he said.

[Gideon7]

No photographs of course.

[lodi90]

At first glance I read title as being an article related to Justin Amash. Time to get my eyes checked. Ha ha.

[hoosiermama]

Sure are! Horse posts at the local grocery store. They restored my roof a while back. Yacob, Levi, Yohan, and Marvin! (They always introduce Marvin last and chuckled. ). Great guys and you paid their mama not them.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I wonder why Mr. Smucker didn’t choose a delegation of Amish from the many Pennsylvania colonies?

[grey_whiskers]

Amish Paradise

[ProtectOurFreedom]

What a fantastic article! Thanks for posting. The last few paragraphs are particularly wonderful...

“His [President Trump's] faith is changing. It is so much easier, it might sound a little bit rude, but it is so much easier to pray for a government that is doing something in the right direction,” Joe Hostetler, a 56-year-old cabinet maker, said. They said Mr. Trump’s businessman ways, something to which they could relate, was what the country had long needed in the White House. It is the same sentiment expressed by many of the voters who backed Mr. Trump in 2016.

“From a business standpoint, he’s doing a wonderful job. That’s what we’ve needed for how many years. How long did the United States need a businessman in there to run the country, to get it going in the direction that we are taking now?” said Eli Hostetler, 60, a grain farmer and chicken grower.

Eli and Ben Hostetler are brothers.

The Amish men said they respected that Mr. Trump was a man of his word, echoing the president’s campaign slogan of “promises made, promises kept. We, especially in our community, look up to somebody when they say something they are going to do, and it is going to happen,” said Joe Hostetler.

[BTerclinger]

This is what I got when I searched "Amish visit Trump at the White House" on Bing:

Reminds me of a great old joke.

A secular Jewish woman boards a Greyhound bus and sees the only open seat left is next to a man all dressed in black, including the big black hat, with a long beard.

She looks around to make sure there is no other seat, makes a point of displaying her unhappiness and then sits down next to the man.

Finally she can contain herself no longer, and blurts out "I have to tell you, as I am a modern Jew. you disgust me. You live in the past, you dress in the past, you treat women terribly, I just find you Orthodox jews to be such an embarrassment."

The man waits to make sure she is finished, and then calmly replies, "Madam, I am sorry for your misunderstanding, but I am Amish."

The woman is ecstatic, and says "Oh, I am sorry, I LOVE you people, the way you maintain your traditions!"

[KittyKares]

What a feel-good story.

[hoosiermama]

Agree. Really choked up reading that but when I read the last paragraph about the guy from my neighborhood who really practices the verse that hangs over the family fireplace, the tears flowed.

“If my people will humble themselves and pray.....”

Our president chose wisely.

[Stosh]

Not a criticism (I respect the heck out of the Amish), but how did they get to DC? Are they allowed to ride on buses, trains and airplanes (and just not own them)? I think in the movie “Witness” the female lead and her movie son arrived in Philly by train, but that’s a movie, not reality, so I am curious about the ground rules.

[Stosh]

And kudos to Trump for having them come by. As an added bonus, those lousy jerk weeds who’ve been trying to drive a wedge between the evangelicals and DJT have to be going absolutely apespit when the read the laudatory things religious people as decent and sincere as those visitors had to say about our President.

[hoosiermama]

Here they ride to work in large vans that they hire to transport the work crews. One of the furniture companies that hired them used to send out vans to pick them up and take them home. They have phones in the barns, if the Bishop allows it.

[TChad]

https://amishamerica.com/can-amish-ride-in-cars/

[Freedom56v2]

“...The stock market, everything is up...”

---

Stock Market? Amish? Who knew ;)

[TChad]

This article would never have appeared in the Washington Post.

Thank you, Washington Times.

[Gene Eric]

lol... took 19 posts to call them out!

[EVO X]

The Mennonites drive the Amish around when they need to travel longer distances in my area..

[Stosh]

Thank you (and others) for your kind replies - the Amish are an interesting people.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

27. Those are Jerusalem Amish, Old City folk. Not much on barn-raising but great at demolition work. Just call “Joshua and Tribe City Demolition Company and Trumpet Band”.

[wastedyears]

I think Al might have something to say about it.