Franklin Graham Likes What he Hears from Trump

Via an interview with ABC News, evangelist Franklin Graham said:

“Donald Trump, when I first saw that he was getting in, I thought, well, this has got to be a joke,” said Graham. “But the more you listen to him, the more you say to yourself, you know, maybe this guy’s right.”

This strikes me as odd for two reasons.

First, one would expect Graham to be focused on social issues and while Trump has paid some lip service to social issues of late (specifically abortion) it isn’t like Tump’s lifestyle has been that of your stereotypical Baptist, shall we say (you know, owning casinos, the divorces and such).

Second, if Graham has been impressed with what he is hearing, this calls Graham’s judgement into question since mostly Trump has been spouting Birther nonsense and the notion that what we need is an arrogant and belligerent foreign policy the likes of which would make George W. Bush’s seem timid and bashful by comparison.

I am at a loss as to what Graham would find appealing here.

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, US Politics, , , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. john personna says:

    Wouldn’t one find lots of evangelicals in casinos?

    They’ve always struck me as a “sin on Saturday, repent on Sunday” crowd.

  2. Tano says:

    this calls Graham’s judgement into question

    Wouldn’t be the first time.
    What has this guy ever done to deserve any attention at all? Other than being born to a famous father?

  3. Christian says:

    Since when do we not have the right to the evidence that Obama was born in the United States? Given that so many Americans do not believe he was born here he is under obligation to offer irrefutable evidence.

    The office of the presidency is not private, its public office and obama should answer to the people. If Trump can prove he’s not a citizen all of this is legitimate.

    It always makes me sick when someone talks about the beliefs and actions of Christians. Christians are always told what they should do, are opposed in everything they do and even the tenants of their faith in a nation where people are supposed to be free to believe whatever they choose.

    When do you ever refer to the beliefs of Judaism to question what the damn jews are doing in our government, culture, textbook industry, entertainment, porn industry, ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, persecution of Christianity and all the rest of the stuff they’re up to their eyeballs in???? WHEN???

    After all this country has always been Christian. Not jewish and not any other religion. If others don’t like here take a hike, I wish you would. When Kennedy ran for POTUS he had to assure the WASP nation that the Pope wouldn’t control the gov. This was before the jew forced his 1965 Immigration Act on us and made America diverse because it served the interests of the jew – at the expense of the general welfare of course.

  4. john personna says:

    I rented “Skyline” this week. Kind of a bad movie, like an upgraded Sci Fi Channel original. But watchable on those terms.

    Anyway, now and then they slice open an alien and this black guck comes out. “Christian’s” post is kind of like that.

  5. As I keep pointing out, your confusion stems from the fact you keep assuming that Republican politics has to do with the positions people have on various policy issues. It is entirely about identity politics, and Trump is one of the only candidates going out of his way to signla he’s a loyal member of the tribe.

    People like Graham would prefer a bad member of the tribe to an outside who agrees with them on most positions but who makes it clear that he’s not “one of you”.

  6. Basically, the whole birther thing breaks down to this: anyone who point out how crazy the birther delusion is has publically criticized a member of the Republican tribe for the purpose of defending an outsider (and not just any outside, the chief of the outsiders at that!). Whether this criticism is justified is completely beside the point; loyalty is more important than being right. If people in the tribe believe something, you’re suppost to support them no matter how ridiculous the belief because you always stick up for the tribe.

    Trump is the only guy running so far who explicitly gets this.

  7. Dodd says:

    Who?

  8. Christian says:

    I believe in being loyal to the United States of America. Not Israel, not Mexico and not Kenya.

    Any action that is not in the interests of the founding stock of this nation is treason. Based upon that definition you’d have to find the “republican tribe” to be patriots while the jew tribe should all be hanged. Not to mention muslims, hispanics,blacks and all the rest.

    Western civilization has a right to exist.

    Imagine a Japanese woman, bowing and prostrating herself before jews, blacks, hispanics, arabs and asiaians that have flooded illegally into Japan.

    She asks them what she can do for them, how she can be politically correct for them. They say she must give up her language and her culture in favor of theirs. They tell her that the history of Japan and all of its greatest leaders must be forgotten because they are offensive to these non Japanese.

    What do you think will happen to Japan under such circumstances?

    The social demands of the republicans and members of the Tea Party are legitimate and desirable for us. We have a right to defend, protect and keep what belongs to us.

    There is a difference between Arabs sitting on a vast sea of oil and all White countries sitting on vast seas of opportunity. The reason is race. Look at a map of the world and figure it out.

    It doesn’t matter how much we help Haitians they will never be any better off and it doesn’t matter how much we are called anti semites for opposing what jews are doing to us their history shows that this is what they have always done and if we don’t stop them they will destroy us.

    If not for jew control of our entire media we could have a real debate about what candidates represent for America rather than talk about Graham or Trump They wouldn’t merit attention if we had a ruling elite that wasn’t hostile to us and if we had control over our own media.

    If not for jew control over who gets selected as candidates we could have people worth voting for and an honest debate over the actual issues confronting us rather than the bs that passes for public debate.

  9. wr says:

    jwest. is that you?

  10. Derrick says:

    Someone’s grandma seems to have gotten access to the internets.

  11. matt says:

    Christian : Hi I’d like to introduce to you a treaty that was signed and ratified by many of the founding fathers not too long after the establishment of this country. They call it the Treaty of Tripoli and the following is taken directly from the treaty in 1796

    Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen,—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

    In god we trust didn’t appear on our money till the slogan was adopted in the middle 1950s as a reaction to the communist and their “godless ways”..

  12. matt says:

    I always find it hilarious when the descendents of immigrants whine and qq about immigrants..

  13. Christian says:

    @Matt – where does it say that jews should run everything? There have been lots of treaties but they can be re-negotiated or done away with.

    I don’ t think Christians should run the government. The fact remains that the people who founded, created and built this nation were Christian – not Muslim – not Buddhists – not Asian – not Arabs – not African – not Hispanic and sure as hell not jewish.

    How can people oppose Christians who have no Pacs, wealth or media, while ignoring jew control of media, foreign policy, the textbook industry, the publishing industry, Wall Street, the Federal Reserve etc etc.

  14. @matt:

    There’s no point trying to use rational argument to disuade someone from a position that wasn’t arrived at rationally to begin with.

  15. john personna says:

    Or someone who has at least equal odds of being a teenage troll.

  16. matt says:

    It’s obviously a troll act.

  17. @Matt:

    You’d like to hope. Having had some conversations with some true believers, I hate to say that it is possible that this isn’t an act.

    Indeed, part of the central thesis can be found in books by Pat Buchanan.

  18. Herb says:

    The irony burns. Doesn’t like “Jewish control” of everything, but is still a devoted Christian. How does that work?

  19. matt says:

    @Steven : Yes I do hope it is an act. You do have a valid point as I’ve ran into a few of those true believers myself 🙁