Christian support for Trump is mystifying, says Welby
Archbishop of Canterbury questions church-goers’ backing for president and criticises attitude to women
THE Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, has said he does not understand why fundamentalist Christians in the US support Donald Trump.
The Archbishop, speaking on ITV’S Peston on Sunday, said he “really genuinely” had no idea how the US president had secured such a significant support base amongst church-goers.
He made the admission as he described Mr Trump’s attitude towards women as “completely unacceptable”.
Questioned on why he believed the president received support from fundamentalist Christians in the US, he replied: “There’s two things going through my mind: do I say what I think, or do I say what I should say?
“And I’m going to say what I think. No I don’t understand it. I really genuinely do not understand where that is coming from.” However, he conceded that he would attend an official state dinner, which he has traditionally been invited to, if the president came on an official visit.
He said: “Part of the job is to meet people you disagree with and to testify of the love of Christ to them and to seek to draw them into a different way. The odds are, it would be unlikely I’d do more than shake hands with him.”
The Archbishop previously accused Mr Trump of being part of a group of leaders from a “nationalist, populist, or even fascist tradition of politics”.
Exactly when Mr Trump will make a visit is unclear. The latest suggestion is that it could be early next year, possibly to open the new American embassy in Wandsworth. Since taking office he has been to the Far East, the Middle East, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Germany and France – but not the UK, despite having been in office for 10 months.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “Our position on the state visit has not changed – an offer has been extended and President Trump has accepted. Exact dates for President Trump to visit have not yet been arranged.”
While Lyndon Johnson and Gerald Ford never made an official visit to Britain, most other recent incumbents of the Oval Office did cross the Atlantic early in their presidency.
However, a visit by Mr Trump remains problematic. Despite an invitation from Theresa May, the Prime Minister, there is strong opposition across the political spectrum.
In February, John Bercow, the House of Commons Speaker, made clear that he “strongly opposed” granting Mr Trump the honour of addressing both houses of parliament.
Mr Trump has also succeeded in antagonising Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, with attacks on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump used Twitter over the weekend to round on his media foes, this time accusing CNN as being a purveyor of “fake news”. This was just the latest broadside from Mr Trump aimed at CNN, one of the main cable news channels in the US. The president’s preferred channel is the conservative station, Fox News.
Mr Trump described Fox News as “far more important”, accusing CNN of representing the US to the world “very poorly”. CNN hit back after the attack. Tweeting under the hashtag Factsfirst it wrote: “It’s not CNN’S job to represent the US to the world. That’s yours. Our job is to report the news.”