TRUMP’S GOD MACHINE
THE DONALD TRUMP CHARM CAMPAIGN can be overwhelming, even to the sophisticated. It can include free strappy Ivanka Trump heels, top New York City restaurant reservations and an offer of his private cell-phone number, which he answers himself. You might also get phone access to his children, who are all involved in the campaign in some way. Jerry Falwell Jr., the first evangelical leader to endorse the thrice-married billionaire, learned all of this firsthand.
And for Falwell, the son of the popular televangelist who founded the Moral Majority in the 1970s, the personal touch is part of his own family’s business. Falwell remembers meeting Ted Cruz at the Charleston, S.C., GOP debate in January and shaking the Texan’s hand. “He acted like he didn’t have a clue who he was talking to,” Falwell recalls of Cruz. “I wasn’t offended, but if he is going to be in politics, he needs to be more personal.” Trump, by contrast, was a blur of charm, working the room that night with a warmth Falwell recognized from his namesake, who died in 2007. “He was so personable—my father was like that—so politically incorrect,” says Falwell.
Less than a week later, Trump arrived at Falwell’s campus to speak in the very auditorium Cruz had chosen to launch his presidential campaign. Falwell endorsed Trump days later. “They call him a populist. That is what we’ve been accused of being for a long time,” Falwell says. “I don’t know why to be President you have to
