PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP ON FRIDAY BLASTED A MAGAZINE FOUNDED BY THE LATE REVEREND BILLY GRAHAM AFTER THE PUBLICATION FOR CONSERVATIVE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS CALLED FOR HIM TO BE REMOVED FROM OFFICE.

WASHINGTON • The first crack in Donald Trump’s support among the evangelical community in the United States emerged as a prominent Christian magazine called the president’s conduct “profoundly immoral” and said he should be removed from office.

Up to a quarter of U.S. voters identify as evangelical Christians and they have been a foundation of Trump’s support — he took over 80 per cent of the evangelical vote in the 2016 election. Leading figures in the movement have stood by him ever since, as he appointed religious conservative judges to the U.S. Supreme Court.

But in an editorial supporting impeachment on Thursday, Christianity Today’s Mark Galli said: “The facts in this instance are unambiguous: the president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents.

“That is not only a violation of the constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.” Galli, the editor-inchief, said Trump was “morally lost and confused.”

The Illinois-based publication, which has 80,000 print subscribers, has been described as the “flagship magazine” of evangelicalism and was founded in 1956 by the late Billy Graham.

On Friday, Trump responded on Twitter that it was a “far-left magazine” which “hasn’t been involved with the Billy Graham family for many years” and would “rather have a radical left non-believer, who wants to take your religion and your guns as president.”

He added: “No president has done more for the evangelical community, and it’s not even close.”

Trump was backed by Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son and himself a prominent evangelist. Graham said his father, who died last year, voted for Trump and would have been “very embarrassed” that the magazine had become a “leftist elite within the evangelical community.”

Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers who control Trump’s fate left Washington for a holiday break with no agreement over how they will handle the Senate trial to consider his impeachment charges in January.

Trump stands little chance of being convicted and removed from office by the Republican-controlled Senate, which will weigh the two impeachment charges that were passed on Wednesday by the Democratic-led House of Representatives. Republicans and Democrats are at loggerheads over how the trial will play out. Democrats want to call top Trump aides as witnesses, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not yet sent the impeachment package to the Senate.