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June 25, 2024
One evangelist’s request of former President Donald Trump is seemingly a bit too much of an ask for the reality TV star turned politician.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee told a crowd gathered in Philadelphia Saturday he is denying the Rev. Franklin Graham’s suggestion he avoid using course language during his speeches, essentially because it makes his addresses less interesting.
In a clip shared on X, Trump praised Graham as a “man I like” and described him as someone he admires before recalling a letter the evangelist the son of the late Billy Graham wrote, in which he asked the brash politician to stop using “foul language” on his campaign stops.
At a rally in Philadelphia, Trump tells crowd that Franklin Graham wrote him a letter telling him his speeches would be better if he didnt use foul language. Trump says Graham is wrong! @Franklin_Graham #trump pic.twitter.com/1zfMKpL9a3— Jesse Jackson (@JesseTJackson) June 23, 2024
“He said, President, I love your speaking. Your ability to speak is incredible. Your storytelling is great, but it could be so much better if you didnt use foul language,’” Trump recalled of the note from Graham, before responding to his request, saying, “He’s wrong.”
While Trump claimed he has been working “so hard” to avoid course language during his speeches, he said the lengths of his monologues which often run between one and two hours make it very difficult for him to completely eliminate swearing from his vocabulary.
He requested Graham allow him “one or two” curse words, because “if you don’t, you don’t get the emphasis.”
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To show he has made a good-faith effort, the former president noted a recent speech he delivered over the weekend at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference, a gathering of Christian political activists in Washington, D.C.
Trump said, “I was really good. I didnt interject. Could have been better if I used a couple of bad words.”
The likely Republican presidential nominee, though, did acknowledge one scenario in which he would stop using bad words altogether: “When I see people start to walk out, then well stop.”
“Im not going to use the word bull****,” Trump stated, saying the full curse word without censoring himself, going on to claim it’s “not that bad a word.”
As for Graham, he told The Wall Street Journal earlier this year he does not officially endorse political candidates. The evangelist has nonetheless become a stalwart supporter of the former president.
In 2021, for example, 10 Republican lawmakers sided with Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives in voting to impeach Trump over the rioting inside the U.S. Capitol. Graham compared those GOP legislators to Judas Iscariot, the wayward disciple who betrayed Jesus to the Roman authorities for 30 pieces of silver a sinful decision that set into motion Jesus’ crucifixion.
“These ten, from [Trumps] own party, joined in the feeding frenzy,” Graham wrote in a Facebook post at the time. “It makes you wonder what the thirty pieces of silver were that Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi promised for this betrayal.”
News of the language-based request from Graham comes as the Samaritan’s Purse and Billy Graham Evangelistic Association president launched a new fund for Christians facing religious liberty challenges in the United Kingdom.
“There are so many problems in our society, and people are looking for hope,” he said in a statement shared with CBN News. “We know that true hope can only be found in Jesus Christ, so we need to support one another in getting the Good News of Jesus Christ out whatever it takes.”
You can read more about that here.
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