WASHINGTON (WASHINGTON POST) - White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told a Christian television station on Wednesday (Jan 30) that God "wanted Donald Trump to become president" so he could support "a lot of the things that people of faith really care about".

The early, abbreviated transcript provided by the conservative evangelical station CBN - Christian Broadcasting Network - didn't include specifics from Ms Sanders. However, a devoted segment of Trump's base has said they consider his drawbacks worth getting a president who picked two Supreme Court justices believed to oppose abortion and who regularly speaks about their priorities.

On Monday, Mr Trump lauded state-level proposed legislation meant to bring more teaching of the Christian Bible in public schools.

"From a spiritual perspective... does it kind of blow your mind that someone like Donald Trump, who is sitting in the Oval Office, I know you can list the accomplishments, but at the same time just from a spiritual perspective there are a lot of Christians who believe that for such a time as this..." asked Mr David Brody of CBN, trailing off, according to the transcript.

Ms Sanders replied: "I think God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times and I think that he wanted Donald Trump to become president, and that's why he's there and I think he has done a tremendous job in supporting a lot of the things that people of faith really care about."

The interview, which was to air later on Wednesday US time, was on CBN's show Faith Nation.

Much of CBN's audience are white evangelicals, Mr Trump's most fervent supporters. In a new Washington Post-ABC poll, Republicans and white evangelical Protestants were the only segments of the US population in which a majority said they would "definitely" support the president in 2020.

Fifty-six per cent of all Americans said they would definitely not support Mr Trump if he was the GOP nominee again, the poll found.