President Donald Trump celebrated the life of Billy Graham on Wednesday with a tweet hailing the deceased evangelist he met just once in his lifetime as great and special.
‘The GREAT Billy Graham is dead. There was nobody like him! He will be missed by Christians and all religions. A very special man,’ the president tweeted.
Graham counseled presidents from both political parties dating back to Lyndon B. Johnson. Unable to see or hear especially well in his later years, the evangelist who participated in eight inaugurations passed his ministry on to his son Franklin in 2000.
Franklin has been a faithful backer of this sitting president – helping Trump to get out the vote and defending him on on television against allegations of infidelity.
President Donald Trump celebrated the life of Billy Graham on Wednesday with a tweet hailing the deceased evangelist as great and special
President Trump tweeted a tribute to Billy Graham Wednesday morning saying that ‘there was nobody like him!’
Trump met Billy Graham once, in 2013, at a birthday party. The future president ans his wife Melania are seen here with Graham at the celebration
Franklin Graham shared a photo from that event on his Facebook wall just before Trump was elected president. Also pictured are Greta Van Susteran (in front of Trump) and Sarah Palin (upper right)
Vice President Mike Pence called the late Billy Graham ‘one of the greatest Americans of the century’ in two tweets honoring the evangelical leader
Vice President Mike Pence, a religious conservative, got in front of Trump today, minutes before he passed on his condolences with a tweet of his own praising the 99-year-old pastor who had just passed away.
Pence said that he and his wife Karen ‘were saddened to learn of the passing of one of the greatest Americans of the century’ today.
‘We send our deepest condolences to the Graham family,’ Pence said. ‘Billy Graham’s ministry for the gospel of Jesus Christ and his matchless voice changed the lives of millions.’
‘We mourn his passing but I know with absolute certainty that today he heard those words, “well done good and faithful servant.” Thank you Billy Graham. God bless you’
Trump met Billy Graham once, in 2013, at a birthday party, that future first lady Melania Trump also attended.
Picking up where his father left off, Franklin Graham shared a passage from the Bible and delivered a prayer at the Washington, D.C. event that serves as the changing of the guard between the nation’s chief executives.
‘Mr. President, in the Bible, rain is a sign of God’s blessing,’ Graham said of the soggy weather. ‘And it started to rain, Mr. President, when you came to the platform. And it’s my prayer that God will bless you, your family, your administration, and may He bless America.’
Franklin Graham’s unextinguishable support for Trump is not shared by his entire family. Niece Jerushah Armfield has said she disagrees with her uncle that Trump’s election was God’s answer to the nation’s prayers.
In his campaign, Trump ‘encouraged racism, sexism and intolerance, exactly what Jesus taught against,’ she told the Washington Post.
Armfield said then that her grandfather correctly ‘understood the love of Jesus that fought for the outliers while the president-elect ostracized them.’
‘The evangelical leaders that endorsed Trump put power and influence over principles and character,’ she stated.
More recently, Armfield has criticized Trump for disparaging ‘s***hole countries’ like Haiti and El Salvador.
Graham counseled presidents from both political parties dating back to Lyndon B. Johnson. He was not especially close with Barack Obama but the former president sent a tweet today honoring the evangelist
First Lady Melania Trump also sent a tweet about Graham, who she met in 2013 with her husband
‘I understand a lot of evangelicals supporting him because of his policies,’ she told CNN at the end of January. ‘I’d love to see a Christian leader come out and say that they support Trump for his policies, but that his behavior disgusts them, and he needs to clean up his act.’
Armfield’s comments followed her uncle’s defense of President Trump after the Wall Street Journal revealed a $130,000 payout from the president’s personal lawyer last year to a porn star who claims she had an affair with the billionaire.
Franklin Graham, CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, told CNN that Trump was a ‘changed man.’
‘These alleged affairs, they’re alleged with Trump, didn’t happen while he was in office,’ he said.
Graham said the difference between Trump and Bill Clinton was that the Democratic president’s admitted philandering took place while he was in office.
‘This happened 11, 12, 13, 14 years ago,’ he said. ‘And so, I think there is a big difference and not that we give anybody a pass, but we have to look at the timeline and that was before he was in office.’