Long before Trump announced for the presidency in 2015, he had already made connections with leaders in the Christian community such as White(mentioned in my December 4th edition of “Revealing Trump”), more than a decade earlier in fact. Within several years he was making more new friends in the world of evangelicalism, such as eternally boyish Ralph Reed, the first executive director of the Christian Coalition in the early 1990s and a longtime political consultant and lobbyist, with whom Trump shared conversations on topics such as the Christian faith worldview and values. Trump then met Huckabee through their frequent interactions at the Fox News studios in New York. And in November 2013, Donald and Melania attended the ninety-fifth birthday celebration for Billy Graham, which was an invitation-only event.
A major part of Trump’s campaign agenda, and it remains so today, is to, in his words, “ . . . protect Christianity. And I can say that. I don’t have to be politically correct.” Trump caught the attention of evangelicals such as Reed by stating his belief that Christianity is under siege . . . and sticking to it. After Trump secured the Republican nomination for president in 2016, Reed took another look at where Trump stood on the issues most embraced by Christians and liked what he saw, his stamp of approval goes a long way in influencing evangelical leaders across America.
“He was pro-life,” Reed said of Trump. “He had just released his list of twenty-one judges for the Supreme Court; he was pro-traditional marriage; he was pro-Israel; he was against the Iran nuclear deal; he was for defunding Planned Parenthood. He was solid on every key issue that we cared about. And Trump was the only candidate who made one of the central promises of his campaign—at least to social conservatives—the repealing of the Johnson Amendment [a provision added to the U.S. tax code in 1954 disallowing 501(c)(3) nonprofit entities from endorsing or opposing political candidates] and the restoring of First Amendment rights to churches and ministries.” 1
This could have been seen as pandering by Trump, an attempt to “kiss up” to Reed and his evangelical teammates, but Reed shot down that idea, based on what by then had been more than six years of knowing Trump and sharing with the New York billionaire what Reed described as “very heartfelt and transparent conversations that were not in the contest of a candidacy. . . . I didn’t flatter him. I gave him the best unvarnished understanding of my views.”
Trump didn’t just start seeking out Christian leaders and evangelicals right after announcing his candidacy in 2015; he had already been with them, in some cases more than a decade. Like with White. And to this day he remains committed to his vast network of Christian contacts, often welcoming them into his closer circle time and again. Not all of them are Republicans, as is true with Bishop Wayne Jackson, a lifelong Democrat and the Detroit-based, African-American leader of Great Faith Ministries. When Jackson invited both Trump and Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton to speak to his congregation in 2016, Trump accepted immediately; Clinton turned it down. On the day Trump showed up to speak, a bevy of protestors greeted his arrival outside, but “When he got out of the SUV, the Spirit of the Lord told me that’s the next president of the United States,” Jackson said of Trump.2
One of the speakers at the 2016 Republican National Convention was Darrell Scott, an African-American pastor from Cleveland and devoted Trump supporter, even amid rising racial tensions across America following the shooting of five Dallas policemen by a gunman who had been on the prowl for white people. While much of the media chose to stir up charges of “racism” against Trump, Scott, accompanied by his wife Belinda, boldly went to the convention in support of Trump, not only as a political figure but also for his being a brother in Christ. They should have known him well by now—they had already been acquainted with Trump for five years, since 2011.
“He really is pursuing a deeper spiritual life. I can sense it,” Belinda Scott said. “My prayer for Mr. Trump is that he will be more sensitive to God than he ever has before . . . something is going on.” Added Darrell Scott: “He’s the first one to admit, ‘I’m flawed. I’m not perfect. I need to do better. I need to be better.’” 3
Trump’s associations with men and women in Christian ministry are many, years in the making in many cases, and evidence of his own walk with God and a strong faith that is as much about the company you keep as what you say and do. Others who know him well and will attest to his sincerity of faith include Dallas evangelist Lance Wallnau, who claims he heard from the Lord that the forty-fifth president would be an Isaiah 45 president, which he interpreted to mean Donald Trump, and that Trump would be a “wrecking ball to the spirit of political correctness,” much in the spirit of Cyrus depicted in Isaiah 45 of the Old Testament 4; and Franklin Graham Billy Graham’s evangelistic son, who, while not openly endorsing Trump for president, nonetheless said in an interview with the Religion News Service, “I think maybe God has allowed Donald Trump to win this election to protect the nation for the next few years by giving maybe an opportunity to have some good judges.” 5
Trump’s election in 2016, in which he won a decisive Electoral College victory despite Hillary Clinton’s “winning” the popular vote by a margin of 2.9 million votes—a result that many Christians saw as a sign of God’s Providence—has done more to advance the Christian Right cause than just protect the makeup of federal courts. One of the hallmarks of his presidency has been the White House access he has accorded evangelicals, signaling his commitment to move pro-life efforts forward in that uphill battle, and his executive order taking the teeth out of the Johnson Amendment. Trump’s official direction to the Department of the Treasury was to not take “any adverse action against” clergy members, churches, or other faith-based organizations “on the basis that such individual organization speaks or has spoken about moral or political issues from a religious perspective.” At the time, though, it was still left to Congress to complete the process by repealing the Johnson Amendment, and with a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives as of 2020, that prospect appeared unlikely—for now. 6
Election Day 2016 dawned with many Trump supporters seriously concerned about late polls showing Clinton several percentage points ahead of Trump, his election in doubt. Even Trump, ever confident (at least publicly) about his chances of victory, wasn’t sure what to expect. “I don’t know, Jerry, these exit polls look bad,” Trump reportedly said in an Election Night phone call with Jerry Falwell, Jr., president of Liberty University, an evangelical liberal arts institution in Lynchburg, Virginia. Trump had spoken there earlier in the year, showcasing his Christian beliefs with enthusiasm, and now he needed some support in return from Falwell.
“No, no, no, you got it,” Falwell told Trump. “I just have a feeling. You’re going to win it. I know it. Too much has happened that’s been miraculous this year for it not to be of God. You’re going to win.” Once it became clear several hours later, with one key battleground state after another turning to Trump, that he was headed to victory, Trump again spoke to Falwell, with buoyancy, saying, “Jerry, we’re about to win. They’re about to announce that we’re going to win Pennsylvania.”
“That’s the game,” Falwell responded.
“Yup, that’ll be the game,” Trump said. 7
A year later, after being inaugurated in January 2017, Trump returned to Liberty University to give a graduation address to more than fifty thousand in attendance. It was a captive, faith-based audience, of course, that enthusiastically welcomed Trump “home”:
“It’s been a little over a year since I’ve spoken on your beautiful campus and so much has changed. Right here, the class of 2017, dressed in cap and gown, graduating to a totally brilliant future. And here I am standing before you as president of the United States. So I’m guessing there are some people here today who thought that either one of those things, either one, would really require major help from God. Do we agree? And we got it.” 8
Notes:
1. David Brody and Scott Lamb, The Faith of Donald J. Trump: A
Spiritual Biography (New York: Broadside Books, 2018), 203.
2. Brody and Lamb, 236.
3. Brody and Lamb, 235.
4. Brody and Lamb, 185.
5. Brody and Lamb, 266.
6. Newt Gingrich, Trump’s America. (New York: Center Street, 2018, 56.
7. Brody and Lamb, 259.
8. Brody and Lamb, 301.