UPDATE: Trump Says Republicans 'Have to Get it Right' in 2016

Updated at 7 p.m

Billionaire Donald Trump told evangelical Christians gathered in Ames that Republicans "have to get it right" in selecting a 2016 presidential nominee or the country "could be in real or permanent trouble."

Speaking at Saturday's Family Leadership Summit, Trump said he believes that former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton will be the Democrats' nominee.

"It will be a tougher race than the last," Trump said. "Somebody is going to have to emerge who is really smart … the Republicans have to get it right. If they don’t find the right person – and I mean the right person – they are going to get drubbed in the 2016 election and that’s not a good thing. 

"This country has to be brought back from the edge," Trump continued. "There’s a point at which it’s going to be too late, and the Republicans have to get very tough and very smart, and they have to do it fast."

China is already poised to become the top economic world superpower in 2016, something he said was "unthinkable" 20 years ago. That underscores the need for Republicans to nominate and candidate who can "make America great again."

"They should surpass us," Trump said. "Whoever is president in 2016, you better move fast because you don’t want that to happen.”

Trump said Republicans botched the 2012 election, even after political operative Karl Rove spent more than $400 million in ads for GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

“I don’t know what the hell happened in his campaign," Trump said. "That was an election that couldn’t have been lost.”

Trump didn't speak about whether he still has presidential aspirations, which he said he only really considered once. The crowd didn't warm to the real estate magnate and entertainer until he publicly supported the values they support.

"I am a conservative Republican, I am pro life, I support traditional marriage and the second amendment 100 percent," he said.

He spoke for less than 30 minutes, hammering on what he called President Obama's failed economic policies and a false economy that he claims puts actual unemployment closer to 15 to 17 percent.

Trump also addressed the need for "smart and methodical" immigration reform that must start with securing the nation's borders."

Democrats have grabbed ahold of the issue, he said, but throwing open the borders could have a negative effect, even if a minority candidate like Florida's Marco Rubio are leading the party.

"Do what's right," he said, "but be careful because it could be a death wish for the Republican Party."

Updated at 5:30 p.m.:

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told Iowa evangelical Christians gathering in Ames today that they need to start a grassroots "Reagan Revolution" type movement so their grandchildren don't have to ask, "What was it like to live in America when it was free?"

He touched on conservative Republican themes such as immigration, fiscal restraint and abortion, but shied away from the issue of same-sex marriage, a lightning rod issue for the Republican party, which is seeing an erosion of support among young voters because of stands on social issues.

The firebrand senator borrowed a play from Democrats playbook, saying that "as conservatives, we are and should be the ones who champion the little guy to achieve the American dream."

He also called for the defunding of Obamacare, putting the onus on grassroots Americans to demand a change that he says is hurting America's small, main street businesses. 

Cruz, wearing his trademark Texas cowboy boots, warmed up the crowd for billionaire Donald Trump, who will speak in a few moments. He brought the crowd to its feet when he called for the abolition of the IRS. The only way that will happen, he said, is if "Americans stand up and demand it."

Updated at 4:30 p.m.:

Pastor Ted Cruz just left the stage at a half-full Stephens Auditorium on the Iowa State University campus, where conservative Christians are gathering for one of the first events of the 2016 presidential election cycle.

Cruz urged Christians to protect their guns and to go back to their pastors and encourage them to become politically involved in politics. The Family Leader, the Urbandale-based organization sponsoring the Family Leadership Summit, has launched the "Lead or Get Out of the Way" initiative in pursuit of "God's design for the family."

There's a break in the action right now in preparation for the day's final session, when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump will speak.

Earlier, Patch reported:

In early caucus state Iowa, the race to the White House really never ends. Eight months after President Barack Obama began his second term, political posturing has already begun here.

A parade of state and national politicians and celebrities – including 2012 Iowa Caucus winner and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and billionaire Donald Trump – are in Iowa mingling with the so-called “God squad” at the second annual Iowa Family Leadership Summit in Ames.

Thousands of Christian conservatives are expected to fill Stephens Auditorium on the Iowa State University campus at the summit, sponsored by The Family Leader, a conservative Urbandale-based organization whose greatest political success was a 2010 campaign ousting three Iowa Supreme Court justices up for retention after a unanimous 2008 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.

Also scheduled to speak between now and 7 p.m. are U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, U.S. Rep. Steve King, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, actor Stephen Baldwin and representatives from the National Organization for Marriage and Citizens United.

Trump, the headliner, speaks in the session that starts at 5 p.m.

Family Leader Losing its Political Clout?

Neither Trump, Santorum nor Cruz has officially declared his candidacy for the 2016 GOP presidential candidacy, but gatherings like the Family Leadership Summit are stops along the trail for candidates courting the evangelical vote.

In Iowa, The Family Leader has been something of a kingmaker in Iowa, anointing candidates like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2008 and Santorum in 2012.

But that might not matter in this election cycle as leaders within the Iowa Republican Party work to reduce conservative Christians’ sway.

Branstad has said the longtime Iowa Straw Poll has “outlived its usefulness” because it’s a party fund-raiser that favors fringe candidates who can’t muster enough support to cross the finish line nationally.

For example, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who won in 2011 and then suspended her campaign the day after finishing dead last the Iowa Caucuses among candidates actively campaigning in the state.

“Scary” Gop Alienating Young Voters

The dust on Obama’s second inauguration had barely settled when GOP operatives were meeting with state party leaders urging the GOP to change course on same-sex marriage. And in another sign of the cultural war taking place inside the Republican Party, a 2012 election “autopsy” sharply warned the GOP to stop nominating “scary” and “out of touch” candidates or risk driving more young voters away.

One Iowa, the state’s largest LGBT advocacy group, has several representatives at the summit, bankrolled in part by the National Organization for Marriage, an organization the Iowa ethics board recently voted to investigate for violations of state laws in judicial retention campaigns

One Iowa Executive Director Donna Red Wing said in a statement that she is appealing to the organization and its founder, three-time Iowa GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats, to stop “using loving, committed gay and lesbian couples and their families to create a political wedge in Iowa.”

Red Wing said all three keynote speakers have anti-family agendas regarding gay couples.

“During his presidential campaign, Rick Santorum repeatedly denigrated LGBT families and in 2012, he stated that all same-sex marriages would be 'invalid' if he were elected president,” she said in the statement. “Senator Ted Cruz claims that marriage equality will lead to pastors being forced to marry gay and lesbian couples against their will, despite the fact that marriage rulings like Iowa's Varnum v. Brien actually strengthen religious liberty by stating that no denomination need marry gay or lesbian couples if contrary to its religious doctrines?”

And, she said, “As for Donald Trump –is he really setting the example that Mr. Vander Plaats would like to see in Iowa families?”

Even The Family Leader acknowledges that Trump is an unlikely keynote speaker, a three-times divorced man whose values don’t seem to align with The Family Leader “at first blush.”

In an interview with conservative radio host Steve Deace, Trump said that he is pro-life “and a Presbyterian – a good one.”