The Presidents’ preacher
From Truman to Trump
For almost half a century, Billy Graham was confidante and clergyman to America’s presidents. A registered Democrat who usually supported Republicans for president, Graham said the Bible tells us to pray for the powerful: “Jacob prayed for the pharaoh, and Daniel prayed for Nebuchadnezzar.” Here’s a president-by-president look:
Harry S. Truman
Graham’s only invitation to visit President Truman came in 1950. After praying with the president, Graham met the press. Still naive about such things at age 31, he answered all their questions about the private meeting — a violation of presidential protocol — and even agreed to photographers’ requests to kneel on the White House grounds.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
President Eisenhower got along with Graham from the start, even using him as a sounding board on racial questions. After a white mob prevented black students from attending Central High in Little Rock, Ark., Graham privately urged the Republican president to send in troops.
John F. Kennedy
America’s first Roman Catholic president invited America’s most famous Protestant minister to lunch and a game of golf in Palm Beach, Fla., in 1961. With the president at his side, Graham told reporters that Kennedy’s election had promoted better relations between Catholic and Protestant churches.
Lyndon B. Johnson
Graham says he probably spent more time with Johnson than any other president. LBJ sought out Graham on secular matters as well as spiritual ones. During a dinner at the White House in 1964, he ran down a list of possible running mates, then asked Graham which one he should pick. At that, Ruth Graham kicked her husband under the table. They dropped the topic.
Richard M. Nixon
“There goes young Richard Nixon from California,” Sen. Clyde Hoey of Shelby said as he and Graham sat down to lunch in the Senate dining room in Washington. It was 1950, and Nixon was a Republican senator from California. Nixon invited the young evangelist to play golf that very day — teeing up a long, deep friendship that eventually would damage Graham’s reputation.
Gerald R. Ford
After Watergate, Graham decided to stay politically neutral. The first president to feel this distancing act: Republican Ford.
Jimmy Carter
Though Democrat Carter may have been the most openly religious president in modern times — a self-described, “born-again” Southern Baptist — he and Graham never developed the close friendship the evangelist had with other presidents.
Ronald Reagan
Graham resumed his unofficial role as the presidents’ preacher during Ronald Reagan’s two terms. He said the prayer at inaugural church services in 1981 and 1985. And when Mikhail Gorbachev visited the White House in 1988, Graham was the only Protestant minister on Reagan’s invitation list.
George H.W. Bush
Graham had known Bush’s family for years before his 1988 election and considered the Republican president a close friend. Graham gave the invocation and benediction at Bush’s inauguration. He returned to the White House on Jan. 16, 1991 — the night America and its allies launched an air attack on Iraq.
Bill Clinton
In 1993, Graham was asked for the eighth time since 1952 to participate in a president’s inauguration. This time, the invitation came from President-elect Clinton, a Democrat and fellow Southerner. Graham had known Clinton and his wife, Hillary, since 1985.
George W. Bush
George W. Bush attended Presbyterian and Episcopal churches growing up. But until 1985, he says, he was more interested in partying than churchgoing. That year, during a trip to his parents’ home in Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush took a walk with a friend of the family - Billy Graham.
Barack Obama
By the time America elected its first black president in 2008, Graham was 90 years old and in fragile health. Trips to the White House were, for him, a thing of the past. But meeting with Billy Graham was a tradition Barack Obama was keen to continue.
Donald Trump
Though Trump did not meet with Billy Graham during his presidency, he did attend the elder Graham’s 95th birthday party in 2013 in Asheville, N.C. Trump was invited to the event by Graham’s son, Franklin, who later became a strong supporter of Trump’s after his 2016 election to the White House.