Evangelicals and Trump: ‘A transactional relationship’

One of the most intriguing people I interviewed on the record for the book was Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Dallas since 2007. The church, which some have called the Vatican of the Baptist world, has been around for about 150 years, has about 15,000 members and sprawls across multiple blocks of downtown Dallas. Jeffress runs a popular broadcast ministry and is a frequent commentator on Fox News.

Jeffress was one of the first prominent evangelicals to support Donald Trump and even campaigned with him before the Iowa caucuses in 2016. When I asked why he favored Trump over fellow Texan Ted Cruz and the many other candidates running, Jeffress answered simply, “It was real easy: It was a political calculation. I felt like he was the only one of that field running that had the power to beat Hillary Clinton.”

I appreciated his honesty and asked him about his reaction to the “Access Hollywood” tape released late in the campaign that depicted Trump profanely bragging about his sexual conquests. Jeffress said then-Fox News host Bill O’Reilly asked him to discuss it on his program along with Trump. Jeffress and Trump met at hotel in Dallas for the taping. Trump went first and answered O’Reilly’s questions. Then Jeffress took Trump’s place in the chair while Trump stood by. Jeffress said what Trump had said on the tape was indefensible, but it wasn’t enough to make him vote for Hillary Clinton. That seemed to be the evangelical consensus — Ralph Reed told me the same thing — and Trump went on to upset Clinton.

As president, Trump carefully tended to his evangelical supporters who were crucial in propelling him to the presidency. Jeffress attended many White House functions and received the honor of delivering the opening prayer at the dedication of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. Still, Jeffress understood that he was involved in a “transactional relationship.” In return for evangelical support, Trump nominated “three Supreme Court justices who are rock-solid conservatives,” Jeffress noted.

I asked him if evangelicals had been damaged by their strong backing of Trump. “I think there may have been some cost to it,” he replied. “Unfortunately, I think today most people view evangelicals as a voting bloc rather than as people who are distinguished by what they believe about Jesus Christ.”

For all of his bluntness about a “transactional relationship,” Jeffress tries to walk an impossibly thin line. He says he rarely mentioned Trump in the pulpit, but defended him in widely seen TV appearances. He says he disagrees with Republican Party on some issues and that Democrats are also welcome at his church, but the politicians who speak at First Baptist always seem to be Republicans. (When I asked why he let Vice President Mike Pence give a partisan speech from the pulpit in June 2020, Jeffress give the tissue-thin justification that he wasn’t a candidate because there was talk of Trump dumping Pence from the ticket at the convention.) White evangelicals are the most important voting bloc for the Republican Party, and politically active pastors like Jeffress have solidified that relationship.