The woman who led the candidate to Christ has many of the same problems connecting with evangelicals as he has.
And Trump and White share personal track records — divorce, bankruptcy, embracing views outside of the Republican and evangelical mainstreams — that raise hackles among the influential Christian leaders Trump needs on his team as he seeks to consolidate the Republican base.
.. White tells stories of walking up Fifth Avenue in New York with Trump and watching the real estate mogul cross the street to shake hands with construction workers. And there was the time he was showing her a new golf course in California and got out of the golf cart to thank a Latino man who was taking care of his sand traps. White, who still owns a unit at a Trump property in New York, said his employees at his buildings were loyal to him.
To her, this serves as evidence that the cussing, controversial Trump is ultimately a man of God.
White is aiming to line up endorsements, ready to offer stories of Trump’s kindnesses behind the scenes. She was central to establishing Trump’s evangelical advisory board, which includes several pillars of the traditionally powerful religious right, such as James Dobson and Jerry Falwell Jr. And some members of the board, like pastor Mark Burns, a vocal Trump surrogate, have developed a fierce loyalty to White.
.. But her ability to convince the evangelical world that Trump is a man of faith is impeded by the man himself. Trump has bragged about his sexual conquests, says he’s never asked God for forgiveness, struggles to cite Bible verses (“two Corinthians”) and has waffled on abortion and marriage. What’s more, White is seen as an imperfect messenger for an already deeply flawed candidate.
.. But like Trump, she has a track record of talking about money — a lot — and that rubs some in the evangelical establishment the wrong way. In one televised sit-down with Trump, White asked him about “those life lessons that really caused you to succeed financially today.” Trump pointed to his father, a workaholic who was passionate about his career.
“That’s the principle I teach,” White responded. “Find your passion in life and figure out a way to make money.”
Will Trump’s Nomination Be the End of the Religious Right?
Conservative Christians have long aligned with the Republican Party. But never before has a GOP nominee so flouted evangelical beliefs.
.. The breaking point came on June 21, when Trump—ironically in an effort to appease the religious right—met with nearly a thousand evangelical leaders and announced a 25-person “evangelical advisory board” to help him reach conservative Christian voters.
.. Almost all the members of that board have histories of being right-leaning, pro-life and pro-Israel—typical for conservative Christians. But as Ruth Graham noted at Slate, the group is really a who’s-who of former evangelical leaders: Ralph Reed, former leader of the Christian Coalition; Ronnie Floyd, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention; and James Dobson, former president of Focus on the Family. It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that the board is mostly older (average age: 64), mostly male and mostly white, with only four people of color. They are a remnant, in other words, of the old guard Moral Majority-era conservative evangelicals whose political influence, on issues like same-sex marriage, contraception and school prayer, was already waning.
.. Christian blogger Fred Clark called the advisory board a “B-list of second-tier religious right figures along with a handful of peaked-long-ago relics.” The Hispanic Baptist Pastors Alliance took offense too, in a statement warning that “joining this board is not the wisest way to be salt and light” and cautioning against “jumping into a crowded office where the weed and wheat are undistinguishable.” It was essentially a call to stay out of politics—a rejection of the basic premise of the Moral Majority, that Christians ought to influence politics to see God’s Kingdom come.
.. Russell Moore—an influential leader in the Southern Baptist Convention with a history of theologically and politically conservative views—immediately denounced the board’s “heretical prosperity gospel hucksters hailed as spiritual leaders.” Presumably he was taking aim at people like televangelists Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and Paula White
.. Some evangelicals, like Southern Evangelical Seminary president Richard Land—another member of Trump’s board, though he has not officially endorsed the candidate—continue to see their calling as being “salt and light” to those in positions of power. They believe Christians have a mandate to influence politics through whatever avenue is available to them, whether they like the candidate or not.
.. One member of Trump’s advisory board, Reverend Robert Jeffress, put it more bluntly in making the case to evangelicals for supporting a Trump presidency: “I want the meanest, toughest, son-of-a-you-know-what I can find in that role, and I think that’s where many evangelicals are.
.. “There’s never been infighting among Christian leaders about whether to support a serial adulterer… who lauds the work of Planned Parenthood, mocks the disabled, inflames racial tensions and vowed to order American military personnel to commit war crimes,” says Eric Teetsel, 32, one of the most prominent leaders of evangelicalism’s “new guard,” a subgroup committed to social justice issues.
.. rather than switch his allegiance to the presumptive GOP nominee, he hopes to convince his fellow evangelicals not to vote Trump. The same day of Trump’s meeting with evangelicals, Teetsel stood outside the Marriott Marquis in New York holding a homemade sign that read, “Torture is not pro-life. Racism isnot pro-life. Misogyny is not pro-life. Murdering the children of terrorists is not pro-life.” “When influential Christian leaders give cover to a man like Donald Trump we shouldn’t be surprised when our neighbors are uninterested in the Gospel,” Teetsel told me.
Senator Joni Ernst Is Given Prime Speaking Slot at G.O.P. Convention
Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa will speak at the Republican National Convention, making her among the prominent conservative politicians the Trump campaign has lined up for the event
.. Giving a prime speaking slot to Ms. Ernst — who was being vetted as a possible running mate to Mr. Trump but is no longer under consideration — is fitting in many ways, like in possibly helping the candidate neutralize the criticism that he has been insensitive to women.
.. In recent days, some speakers from the political world have started to leak out, including Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who told a local television station on Tuesday that he would address the convention.
Donald Trump Meets With Senator Joni Ernst, a Possible Running Mate
It is unusual in recent history for a presumptive nominee of a major party to tease out the process for choosing a running mate in such a public way, but it is reflective of Mr. Trump’s approach on his reality TV show, “The Apprentice.”