What Donald Trump’s hush-money trial tells us about his -- and white evangelicals' -- character

I don’t recall hearing any white evangelical Trumpers say anything about the former presidents’ trial in New York, which makes them complicit in his sins.

When Donald Trump shows us what kind of person he is – what his character is and is not – we must believe it, and act accordingly.

There was a moment during the testimony of Stormy Daniels in the hush-money trial of Donald Trump that has caught the nation’s attention. One of Trump’s bodyguard’s told Daniels, an Adult Film actress, that Trump wanted to have dinner with her and to meet him in his hotel room. When she arrived and Trump opened the door to his lavish penthouse suite, there was no dinner; there was only Trump in his satin pajamas.

Reportedly, Trump asked her questions about the porn industry and whether she had been tested for STDs. He told her that he didn’t sleep in the same room with his wife Melania anymore, after about a year into their marriage, and that she was at home with their infant son. Trump offered the porn star an appearance on his Apprentice television show and promised to cheat to help her win.

Daniel testified that she was uncomfortable and wanted to leave and excused herself to go to the bathroom. When she came out, Trump had stripped to his boxer shorts and was sitting on the bed. When Daniels headed for the door Trump rose to stand in front of her and asked whether she wanted to get ahead; he told Daniels he could help her get out of the “trailer park,” a slam at working-class people. 

The moment that stunned and stuck with me was Daniels coming out of the bathroom with Trump in his boxer shorts on the bed offering to cheat and make her money, with his wife and infant son at home, if the porn star would have sex with him. That man, Donald Trump, is running again for President of the United States, with overwhelming support from white evangelical Christians. Is it that they just don’t see the man’s character or lack thereof, or just don’t care about his character?

Stormy Daniels leaves Manhattan Criminal Court after testifying about her adulterous encounter with Donald Trump.

The trial isn’t about Trump’s character, even though it has further revealed his complete lack of it. It’s about whether Trump and his aides manipulated business accounts to cover up a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels to keep quiet — just weeks after the Access Hollywood tapes had recorded Trump saying that celebrities like him could do whatever they wanted with women, including grabbing them in their private parts. With an election coming soon, it was cover-up time – again – for Donald Trump and his falsification of business records to accomplish that task would be a felony with jail time. That’s the accusation.

I recall that after the Access Hollywood tapes came out, some of Trump’s white evangelical supporters worried that his support among devout Christians would go away. But that didn’t happen, and the Stormy Daniels story did not come out at this very bad time for Trump. 

But it is public now. Trump’s support from white evangelicals survived the Access Hollywood scandal and it looks like it will survive this one, too. In fact, I don’t recall hearing any white evangelical Trumpers say anything about his current trial in New York.

This again places the issue of character center stage for Trump and his white Christian followers. It’s not the issue in court, but character is the moral issue on display in the courtroom. And it speaks not just to the character issue of Donald Trump, but to the character issue, or lack thereof, when it comes to gaining political power for themselves. 

I recall how these same white evangelicals railed against then-President Bill Clinton for his lack of moral character in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Character matters to leadership, they proclaimed. And I also remember how I reacted to the controversy when I was editor of Sojourners magazine back then.

In contrast to many on the progressive left, I said that character did matter for leadership – who we can trust or not, and that Bill Clinton's obvious character flaws were relevant to the political leadership discussion. That policy choices are indeed moral issues, which I have always believed, is indeed true, but demonstrations of moral character are relevant to the exercise of leadership as well. Liberals said we should just “move on,” and it's worth remembering that was the name and critical first issue of the huge online network called Move On, that launched at that time.

But the utter hypocrisy of attacking the sexual morality of Bill Clinton and ignoring or even excusing that serial immorality of Donald Trump in his personal, sexual, family, business, and political life is so blatant that it undermines the morality and character of pro-Trump white evangelicals – both leaders and followers. 

Cartoon by Bruce Gerencser.

And this is not just about his utter corruption of family life. Trump calling immigrants “animals” and “vermin” who “poison the bloodstream” of America is immoral, and white evangelicals should say so. Promising to set up internment camps to deport 11 million people who have lived here for decades under a broken immigration system is immoral too. Where are the white evangelical voices against that biblical immorality?

Turning the independence of the Department of Justice into his personal lawyers to exact revenge and “retribution” against his opponents and promising to fire any prosecutor who won’t target Trump’s personal enemies is also an immoral act that threatens our judicial system. And planning to pardon the offenders of violent protest in the U.S. Capitol some of whom attacked police officers — where are the peacemakers that Jesus called the children of God?

Pledging to send the military into cities to crush peaceful protest, gutting the civil service for his own loyal cronies, saying that he will not accept the results of the next election if he loses and suggesting violence if he doesn’t win – are all immoral and dangerous. And what have we heard from the evangelical leaders who are usually so concerned about the nation’s morality? Nothing. Silence. Which in this case is complicity.  

Moral character is core to this election campaign. And because everyone knows that Donald Trump has no moral character, what is now at stake is the moral character of white evangelicals – who have nothing at all to say about that.

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