Don, freed pastor pray

President Trump welcomed Andrew Brunson, the American pastor just released from a two-year imprisonment in Turkey, to the Oval Office on Saturday on a lighthearted note.

“From a Turkish prison to the White House in 24 hours. That’s not bad,” Trump said.

Brunson, with his wife and three children at his side, thanked the administration profusely.

“They fought for us, unusually so,” he said. “We’re very grateful.”

He prayed over Trump while members of the White House Cabinet and Congress looked on.

“Give him wisdom to lead this country into righteousness,” Brunson said as he laid a hand on Trump’s shoulder and the president bowed his head.

“Well, I need it more than anybody,” Trump said as the prayer concluded.

Brunson, 50, a Presbyterian pastor from North Carolina, led a tiny Christian congregation in the Turkish coastal city of Izmir for more than 20 years. He was imprisoned in 2016 in the wake of a thwarted coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The widespread crackdown that followed swept up an estimated 70,000 academics, minorities, dissidents, opposition leaders and foreigners.

Brunson was held on terrorism and espionage charges, becoming a rallying point among evangelicals back home as he insisted on his innocence.

When the president began tweeting about Brunson’s plight in April, evangelical voters took it as a sign of solidarity. Trump’s promise to protect religious freedom had earned him their strong backing in 2016.

Their loyalty toward him grew in July, when he announced tariffs and sanctions on Turkey to retaliate for Brunson’s detention.

For a key GOP voting bloc that could decide whether Congress remains in Republican control, the pastor’s release was seen as a promise kept — and Trump got all the credit.

“He’s doing a great job of leadership,” televangelist James Robison told Politico. “I love him so much I can hardly explain it.”