me about your faith?” He says Trump
responded, “Tell people that my faith is
very important to me but that it’s also
very personal.”
Then someone asks if he agrees with
the president about the news media.
Jeffress looks right at me and smiles. He
tells the audience that his mother was a
high school journalism teacher. Her for-
mer students went on to work for some
of the best newspapers in the country.
“I honestly believe that most of the me-
dia tries their hardest to get it right,” he
says, adding that the freedom of religion
and freedom of the press are inextri-
cably linked by the First Amendment.
Over the following weeks, Jeffress
and I discuss Russia and the forthcom-
ing Mueller report, the joys of raising
children (he has two daughters), the
#MeToo movement and the church’s
relationship with women. Every time
we talk—no matter the headlines, no
matter the president’s latest inflamma-
tory remarks—Jeffress is steadfast in his
defense of Trump. When the Mueller re-
port is released in April and shows am-
ple evidence of obstruction of justice,
Jeffress says he still believes the entire
investigation has been a political ploy
to damage the president.
To watch him find new ways to jus-
tify his support is as impressive as it is
exasperating. I ask him if he’s bothered
when the president tells easily disprov-
able lies—like when he claims, contrary
to the evidence, that special prosecutor
Robert Mueller is a Democrat.
“I operate under the assumption that
the president knows more than we do,”
he says. “I think he probably has insight
into that investigation that I don’t have.”
Not once, in all the months we’ve met,
has Jeffress criticized Trump. I want
to know if he is at all concerned by the
cost of this allegiance. I ask if he worries
about turning off seekers with what they
might perceive as his hypocrisy. Even
Billy Graham ultimately regretted his
involvement with Richard Nixon.
He tells me he isn’t concerned. He
endorses the president’s policies and
not necessarily his behavior, he says,
and most people are smart enough to
know the difference. I ask if he worries
that Trump is driving deeper the wedg-
es in our society or stoking dangerous
ideologies and emboldening nefarious
actors. He tells me he believes the pres-
ident has merely exposed the division
in our country and that a public figure
isn’t responsible when someone misin-
terprets a message as a call for violence.
“There have been screwballs and zealots
throughout history who have taken the
truth and twisted it,” he says.
I ask if he at least holds Trump ac-
countable. Does he ever criticize the
president in their private meetings?
“If it had happened, I wouldn’t tell you
about it,” he replies, “because I just feel
like friends don’t do that to one another.”
I ask him whether Trump might be
a test from God, a test of whether Jef-
fress’s devotion is to the Bible’s teach-
ings and requirements or whether it’s
to a powerful leader whose policies he
finds agreeable.
“You have to operate on the best in-
formation that you have, and what we
had in 2016 was the choice between two
diametrically opposed candidates,” he
says. “One was pro-life, pro–religious
liberty, pro–conservative judiciary. His
name was Donald Trump. One was a
pro-choice candidate who would not
stop an abortion or limit an abortion
for any reason at all. It could not have
been a more clear choice at that point.”
Did he consider any of the sixteen oth-
er Republican candidates, most of whom
would have appointed pro-life judges?
“I don’t think any of them could have
won,” Jeffress says.
Jeffress is often asked what it would
take for evangelicals to walk away from
the president. If the economy collapses,
he tells me, people will probably want a
change. And if the president were caught
being unfaithful to his wife while in of-
fice, he could see people having a prob-
lem with that. But more than anything,
it would take a change in policies.
“If he said, ‘You know, I think we’ve
got enough conservatives on the Su-
preme Court. It’s time for us to have
some more moderate views and balance
things out.’ Or if he suddenly decided,
‘You know what, I used to be pro-choice,
and then I turned pro-life. I’m gonna
go back to pro-choice again.’ I mean,
those would certainly be deal-break-
ers, I think.”
Then he clarifies. He knows his au-
dience. What he meant was that these
changes would be deal-breakers for
evangelicals politically, not for his own
relationship with Trump.
“I’m his friend,” he says. “I’ll never
walk away.” TTEXAS MONTHLY 113