In interview with pastor who blamed LGBTQ people for 9/11, Trump gushes over pastor who said that LGBTQ people live “filthy lives”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

President Donald Trump appeared in a rare interview hosted by anti-LGBTQ televangelist and 700 Club host Pat Robertson at the White House, where he praised Fox News contributor and anti-LGBTQ pastor Robert Jeffress as a “great guy.”

Robertson has a long-standing history of engaging in anti-LGBTQ extremism and using incendiary rhetoric, such as commenting that he “totally concur[red]” with Rev. Jerry Falwell when he said that “the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays, and the lesbians” must “bear some burden” for the 9/11 terror attacks. He recently claimed that God is working on Trump’s behalf and that the president’s opponents are “not only revolting against Trump, they’re revolting against what God’s plan is for America” due to a “satanic” desire to “destroy America.” During the July 13 700 Club interview, Trump praised Fox News contributor and pastor Robert Jeffress, calling him a “great guy.” Jeffress, too, has a long history of attacking LGBTQ people, including saying that they lead “miserable” and “filthy” lives and that “homosexuality is perverse -- it represents a degradation of a person’s mind.”

This interview with Robertson comes two days after Trump hosted more than two dozen leaders of the the religious right, including several known anti-LGBTQ extremists and hate group representatives, at the White House. Attendees included Tony Perkins of anti-LGBTQ hate group the Family Research Council, televangelist Paula White, and former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). 

From the July 13 edition of the Christian Broadcast Network’s The 700 Club:

PAT ROBERTSON (HOST): Well I appreciate so much what you're doing. By the way, the evangelicals of America voted 83 percent in the last election for you. And I want you to know there are thousands and thousands of people praying for you all the time and holding you up.

DONALD TRUMP: Thank you, Pat. That’s so nice. The evangelicals were so great to me, and they did. They came out in massive numbers. And on top of that, I got 83 percent. But they came out in record numbers. They never came out like that.

[...]

And I want to hear from you and others that we like. Franklin Graham, I have such -- Dr. Jeffress, Robert Jeffress, who is such a great guy, Pastor Jeffress. He used to go on television. I didn't know who he was. I’d see him, and he was always speaking so well of me. And you have so many people that I want to hear from.