--- title: Donald Trump: How Evangelicals Helped Him Win description: Unlike much of the political universe, Donald Trump’s inner circle of evangelical advisors is anything but surprised at his victory. canonical: https://time.com/4565010/donald-trump-evangelicals-win/ author: Elizabeth Dias article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-09T19:09:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:53:46.856Z article:section: Politics og:title: How Evangelicals Helped Trump Win og:description: The effort started as early as 2011. og:url: https://time.com/4565010/donald-trump-evangelicals-win/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9e45ec60a75ab65c/6988addb0a4a22ac169cbff5/trump2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Holds Election Night Event New York City og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Evangelicals Helped Trump Win twitter:description: The effort started as early as 2011. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9e45ec60a75ab65c/6988addb0a4a22ac169cbff5/trump2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Evangelicals Helped Donald Trump Win > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=7e30e28d-b5dd-4ecb-a5bb-855aa815bbcb&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Trump's Top Pastor [Watch (HLS stream): Trump's Top Pastor](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/A9Hi3DBO.m3u8) (8:46)  _Published 2016-07-18. One of the most visible pastors supporting Donald Trump comes from the most unlikely of places: the small town of Easley, South Carolina. Trump’s candidacy has thrust televangelist Mark Burns into the national political spotlight for the first time._ by [Elizabeth Dias](https://time.com/author/elizabeth-dias/) ## Elizabeth Dias Nov 9, 2016 7:09 PM UTC by [Elizabeth Dias](https://time.com/author/elizabeth-dias/) ## Elizabeth Dias Nov 9, 2016 7:09 PM UTC In the dark hours of early Wednesday morning, moments after Donald Trump gave his victory speech to a cheering ballroom in New York, the president-elect paused backstage with Pentecostal pastor Paula White. With vice-president-elect Mike Pence and their families nearby, White prayed over them, asking God to guide them in wisdom and to protect them in the days ahead. Just days earlier, White was traveling with Trump on his plane when he brought up how Harry Truman surprised everyone by winning against Thomas Dewey in 1948. Now, Trump prepares to enter the White House after an upset of his own. For White, “God’s hand and purpose in this” is hard to miss—thousands of Christians, she says, joined her in three days of prayer and fasting in anticipation of the outcome. “I haven’t personally seen it since 9/11 when the body has really come together,” she says. Unlike much of the political universe, Trump’s inner circle of evangelical advisors is anything but surprised at his victory. More than most, evangelicals cast their lot with Trump early, and like White, many of Trump key evangelical advisors were with Trump’s team on Tuesday in New York to usher in their win together. Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr., talked with Trump four times on Tuesday. It was on their third phone call, while waiting for Trump at the victory party, Falwell says, that Trump realized he was about to win. “‘Jerry, I think they are going to call Pennsylvania,’” Falwell recalls Trump saying. “The next think I know, I’m getting texts from his son-in-law they were on their way over.” Many of Trump’s evangelical leaders were optimistic of Trump’s success leading into Election Day. More than a handful drew on spiritual experiences, like prophecies and dreams, for strength. White early on had spiritual visions of God’s plan for Trump. Cleveland pastor Darrell Scott’s wife, Belinda, has had dreams where God showed her Trump would win. “I prophesized back in the primaries, we are going to win,” [Mark Burns, televangelist from Easley, South Carolina and Trump surrogate](http://time.com/trump-pastor/), says. “God uses the least likely, from myself to Donald Trump.” Tuesday morning, Trump invited several of his top evangelical supporters to visti him in his office. Scott, pastor of Cleveland’s New Spirit Revival Center, and Bruce LeVell, the Georgia jeweler who led Trump’s National Diversity Coalition, stopped by. Later that afternoon, Scott was with Trump advisor Michael Cohen in Trump Tower when he got a random call from one of Clinton’s Ohio phone bankers, asking him to vote for Clinton. Scott put the call on speaker, and the room chimed in that they all “hated” Clinton. “The call was the highlight of my day,” Scott says. Robert Jeffress, Southern Baptist pastor of First Dallas and another member of Trump’s evangelical advisory board, says Trump and his wife Melania were “very, very upbeat,” when he stopped by, and hours before the polls closed, the campaign was “cautiously optimistic.” Jeffress reminded Trump that he thought evangelicals would respond to his performance in the third debate, especially his positions on the Supreme Court and on abortion. Trump nodded. “He asked me how I thought the evangelical turnout would be,” Jeffress says. “I told him I thought it would be very strong.” “Very strong” was an understatement. Evangelicals comprised a record 26% of the electorate on Tuesday, and more than 80% of white born-again voters voted for Trump. Clinton received just 16% of the white evangelical vote, the lowest share ever received by a Democratic presidential nominee, according to Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition. “Evangelicals, white non-college voters, and momentum and intensity proved more important than ground game alone,” Reed says. “He went after them unapologetically, did faith-based media, and made an ironclad pledge on judges.” Evangelical turnout should not surprise, Scott adds, as evangelicals are “the group that was overlooked by the left, derided, denigrated by the liberal left.” These advisors say that Trump’s commitment to evangelicals—and divine providence—put Trump across the finish line Tuesday night. It was a strategy Trump chose early. When he considered a presidential run in 2011, he met with White, Scott and other pastors, and [after prayer with them decided the time was not right](http://time.com/4493530/donald-trump-prayer/). This cycle, Trump met early on with Pentecostal and evangelical pastors, many of whom were traditional political outsiders, and soon after evangelical figures like Falwell endorsed him, signaling to the evangelical base that a political outsider could have their trust. Trump created an evangelical advisory board, which held calls with Trump’s campaign or RNC strategists every Monday morning since the summer. The reach of Christian television and particularly the DayStar Network was significant, White says, as well as these pastors’ social media. “The way we reach people has changed,” White says. “People that normally wouldn’t be political were much more engaged, and that showed.” Jeffress says that both Clinton’s “corruption” and Trump’s commitment to anti-abortion judicial nominations were key factors for evangelical voters. “No Republican candidate has made greater effort to reach out to evangelicals than Trump,” Jeffress says. “The real question is why didn’t others like Romney and McCain make a similar effort. …There is a silent Trump vote that polls did not capture and many of those votes are evangelical.” Falwell says many in the media and political class might have been less surprised at the election’s outcome if they better understand the evangelical community. “Evangelical theology is all about forgiveness,” he says. “When you look at the issues, he ended up being the dream candidate for conservatives and evangelicals. The evangelical community has not been divided on Trump, just the leadership—the people were smarter than their leaders.” ## Transcript What's your relationship like with Mr Trump? Faster. [ LAUGH ] Good. Mr Trump said, you know you're speaking at the RNC right? We said, what are you serious? He said I want you to do what you always do. Just do what you do. And so here we go, speaking time, I see. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Good morning. Good morning, Daniel, how are you? Good morning. [ LAUGH ] Good morning, Miss Maggie. Absolutely, yes, people are shocked That I don't come from this major, major platform of a location of New York City, or California, but a small town right here in Easley, South Carolina. But that's the heartbeat of this country, and for me, it all goes back to Mr Trump. How much time? Two minutes, then we come back for one song. [ MUSIC ] [ APPLAUSE ] [ MUSIC ] So if you need a miracle in your life I want you to write that miracle down on your envelope. We fully believe in writing all over our envelopes. Once you have your offering ready I want you to raise it up as high as you can get it. Let's get on chairs and stuff they want is close to the Lord as possible Possible, and throw it in there. He is a billionaire from New York City, he could have taken anybody under his wing. There is no black person, there is no white person, there is no yellow person, there is no red person, there is only green people. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Greed is money. It is almost spiritual in a sense, it is bigger than just money right? I meant it is really about Donald Trump has showed over and over and over again how he's willing to give. People, the least likely people in opportunity to prove themselves. For someone like Donald Trump to say hey, your heart is right, your spirit is right. Come follow me. That speaks volumes. When God wants to bless you, he brings a person. He reveals a person. He blesses you with the person in your life. But when he wants to protect you. I teach this all the time, that I don't want a leader who just presents to me their resume because the resume has all your good stuff on there. I want a leader who will lead me who has a record. You know, they have a jail record. They have a record that says I've messed up, I've messed up, I've messed up. But I overcame, overcame, overcame. Is that what Mr. Trump has done? Without question. Without question he exudes the message of grace. That he was once blind, but now he sees. He was once pro- choice but now he is pro- life, after receiving the information. He's been married three times but he's proven to be a powerfully effective father. He's willing to admit his mistakes, but celebrate his children, and when I see him I see the message of grace. I remember when we were in Atlanta and there's a press release there and so many of us black pastors were with him, and I was right beside him. I said lord this may be the very last time I This close to Donald Trump, so whatever financial anointed on his life [ LAUGH ] let him fall upon my life, so I can teach other people. I don't know why me, he chose me. I don't know why out of all of the 50, 60- some odd leaders that were there, why am I the one that was being asked to come on television. Alright, let's go. Let's go. Let's go eat. Here are the keys. Thank you. We go out to eat every Sunday. I'm going to show you who my children are. Well first this is my mother, Joeda. This is my mother. The fabulous woman that burst the fabulous me, and then you have my youngest baby Samara, Samara- Interracial marriage as an interracial family is just so vital. This is my youngest and they are ten. The key to future of our country- Mark is 14. In our family, our children are getting an even greater education On how not to see color. And then where's Diamond? Diamond is next, she's 18. [ LAUGH ] With her fabulous pink hair and fabulous pink lipstick. And then our oldest is Jordan, and she will be 20 in a few days. I know I'm not old enough to have a 20 year old. Funeral but I do. I want to bring you to this stop here and I don't know if they still have the sign up front but we didn't want to really come here because they have the waiting rebel flag but then we saw the Trump sign And so maybe this would be good so we walked in and you can immediately tell that they had their eyes on us, that they were suspicious of us. We were together. And they didn't like that at all. We found something that we wanted and they basically said, that's not for sale. Yeah, that's not for sale When it was clearly for sale. And I didn't tell them I was a [ UNKNOWN ] for Trump, I didn't tell them I traveled on the campaign. I didn't say any of that, I simply said that's the reason right now why so many blacks and whites, cuz there are whites who won't support Mr. Trump because they think he's racist. The majority of the world thinks that the Trump supporter is this, I'm not a champion of Black people. That's why I don't compare myself to Dr. King. He was a champion of the African American communities. It frustrates me basically that the Black community, who, one of the minority groups that suffer the most, are consistently voting For the same people that positioned them to be there. Donald Trump really is the best solution for all minorities that is at the bottom of the tow pole. You know, they're disappointed with the president's comments of, you know, Black Lives Matter and Police Lives Matter. There wouldn't be a hash tag police lives matter if there wasn't a hash tag black lives matter. It seems like black lives only matter when a black life is killed by a white cop. Well, we are Heading to the airport. Heading to catch a flight to New York city. To appear tonight on Megyn Kelly to discuss what's taking place in this country in this place right now. Hopefully we won't be in a combative scenario, but knowing [ LAUGH ] They want to get us to communicate and argue. They want good TV. Go ahead, Pastor Mark Burns, in the back row. Pastor Mark Burns. People want to assassinate an officer. That is why they're out there. [ CROSSTALK ] Down the line, go ahead, Pastor Mark Burns, in the grey sir. Fear factor. It's just that they're scared. They're afraid because in today's society, cops are walking on eggshells because they don't want to show up on the next cell phone video and be automatically condemned before facts are even proven. [ CROSSTALK ] I truly feel appointed for such a time as this. I feel just like Ester did when Mordecai came to her and said you need to have the ear to the king. You have to help protect our people. So, she can position herself to be the voice piece of God, and be the influencing of the king's ear. What kinds of things are you speaking into the king's ear? Just be kind, be loving. [ MUSIC ] And your hope for November? [ LAUGH ] My hope for November, Donald Trump is, we're going to the White House. And I'm going to give the inaugural prayer, that's what I'm gonna do. I'm claiming it all, you know we're going all the way. 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