President Donald Trump "absolutely hates phoniness" and he was right to slam House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Mitt Romney at the National Prayer Breakfast for their comments on faith, Robert Jeffress, the senior pastor at the 14,0000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas, said Friday.
"The president thinks there's something inherently phony about saying that you're praying for him while you're working 24/7 to destroy him," Jeffress told Fox News' "Fox & Friends."
He added that the Bible supports Trump's skepticism, quoting from the book of James that "'we shouldn't be blessing and cursing at the same time.'"
Trump slammed both Romney, who cited his faith as the reason for voting for impeachment, and Pelosi, who has said she prays for him.
"I don't like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong, nor do I like people who say, 'I pray for you' when they know that that's not so," he said, with Pelosi sitting just a few seats away from him.
Jeffress said Trump once asked him what he thought about Jesus' command to "love our enemies," and that he'd told the president that to love one's enemies means you want God's best for them, "but it doesn't mean you're going to be unified with them. Truth divides people."
He also said he can understand why Trump spoke out against Romney, and why he would think the Utah Republican's decision was based on "self-promotion and bitterness" rather than prayer.
"Mitt Romney has had vitriol against this president for years," said Jeffress. "It's obvious he's bitter that the American people rejected him two times for president and President Trump was able to do something he wasn't."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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