Why Evangelicals Couldn't Care Less About Trump's Epstein Scandal

The Reverend Rob Schenck

In October 2016, when an audio recording surfaced of Donald Trump bragging to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush that he could kiss and grope the genitals of any woman he pleased because he was a star, one of America’s most venerated evangelical scholars withdrew his endorsement of Trump’s presidential run. It’s impossible to overstate the impact of Wayne Grudem’s reversal. Pastors, theologians, and academics revered the Harvard and Cambridge-educated ethicist, co-founder of the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and translator of the English Standard Version of the Bible.

Just three months before the tape was released, Grudem had penned an essay for the politically conservative publication Town Hall titled “Why Voting for Donald Trump Is a Morally Good Choice.” In it, he wrote, “I did not support Trump in the primary season. I even spoke against him at a pastors’ conference in February. But now I plan to vote for him. I do not think it is right to call him an ‘evil candidate.’ I think rather he is a good candidate with flaws.” His first reason justifying this support was what Clinton would do to the Supreme Court. Three months later, after the tapes were released, he told the same publication that Trump’s remarks were “morally evil.”

Fast forward to 2020, and Grudem would do another U-Turn and re-endorse Trump. This whipsaw would become a pattern for evangelical giants.

Still, way back in 2016, evangelicals did hold to certain standards. Those were the days before the president of the biggest evangelical institution of higher learning, Liberty University, was caught literally with his pants down (well, unzipped) aboard a yacht and next to a woman not his wife. It’s worth mentioning that the disgraced Jerry Falwell, Jr., was also an early religious adviser to Trump. Both Trump and Falwell would feel the heat of evangelical opprobrium—and then be subsequently reinstated.

Trump did face a day of reckoning immediately after the release of the Access Hollywood clip. Pastor James MacDonald, then of the enormous Harvest Bible Church in Elgin, Illinois, and a member of Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Committee, condemned what he heard on the tape as “lecherous and worthless.” What’s more, he publicly resigned from his coveted role on the campaign. The next day, the hugely popular Christian Post would report that a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll revealed that Trump’s evangelical support had “plummeted” by 11 points. Clearly, this wasn’t the end. Both Grudem and MacDonald would return to the fold and applaud Trump’s accomplishments. In a post-election interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network’s Pat Robertson, Evangelical publishing titan, Steven Strang, of Charisma Media, pointed out that “God intervened” and evangelicals voted for Trump in record numbers, even though Trump was a guy “we didn’t even necessarily like.”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/08/why-evangelicals-couldnt-care-less-about-trumps-epstein-scandal/

They have a long history of falling for narcissists posing as Saviors. This one is no different and no less dangerous.