Trump's Apostle
No matter how incendiary his latest tweet or policy might seem, Donald Trump can count on evangelical preacher and Fox News fixture Robert Jeffress to defend him. Whats behind the Dallas pastors unconditional embrace?
Heres Robert Jeffress, talking to the hundreds of thousands of people watching conservative cable news on a typical Friday evening, and hes defending President Donald Trump against the latest array of accusations in the news this week. And he isnt simply defending Trumphes defending him with one carefully crafted Bible-wrapped barb after another, and with more passion, more preparation, more devotion than anyone else on television.
As Lou Dobbs finishes his opening remarks, Jeffress laughs and nods. Its early January, about two weeks into what will prove to be the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of federal workers are missing paychecks, worrying about mortgages, car payments, utility bills. Some have started going to food banks. But Dobbs waves his hand up and down and tells Jeffress that he hasnt heard anyoneliterally no one!say they miss the government. The jowly host revels in Trumps threats that the shutdown could continue for months, if not years, if thats what it takes to get more wall built on Americas border with Mexico.
Jeffress, speaking from a remote studio in downtown Dallas, agrees completely. Well, hes doing exactly the right thing in keeping this government shut down until he gets that wall, he says.
Jeffress is the senior pastor at First Baptist Dallas, a 13,000-member megachurch thats one of the most influential in the country, but hes known best for appearances like this one: hes often on Fox & Friends or Hannity or any number of sound-bitey segments on Fox News or Fox Business. His own religious show airs six days a week on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. He has a daily radio program too, broadcast on more than nine hundred Christian stations across the country, though its TV he loves best. Dobbs invites Jeffress onto his show nearly every week.
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