The Televangelist Inside the White House
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 November 2019
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Many past presidents have had a spiritual advisor. President Trump’s party faithful are an extension of his brand — white, evangelical. And his most trusted preacher is a wealthy televangelist who’s been investigated by Congress. Meet Paula White, the Mississippi girl who rose to prominence preaching piety, prosperity, and Vote Trump 2020.
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Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, Danielle Hewitt and Mara Silvers.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I asked Slate's Ruth Graham to watch this video with me, taped from a Trump rally back in June. |
| 0:11.8 | We're in central Florida right now in Orlando, Florida, at the Amway Center. |
| 0:16.4 | This is President Trump's official bid for the presidential election for 2020. |
| 0:21.6 | The president's family was there, warming up the crowd. |
| 0:24.6 | Eric, Don Jr. |
| 0:26.6 | But I wanted Ruth to help me understand someone else up on stage. |
| 0:30.6 | Her name is Paula White. |
| 0:32.6 | Okay, let's watch the video. |
| 0:34.6 | Let me call it up too. |
| 0:35.6 | We can like watch it together. |
| 0:44.2 | Okay. Good evening. Are you ready for a great night of victory? |
| 0:53.9 | White's a pastor. She's turned up at a few of these Trump events. And as the crowd was settling in for the show, she offered a prayer. |
| 0:59.6 | I'm going to ask you to grab that person's hand next to you if you don't mind standing up all over this beautiful arena. |
| 1:03.9 | This is such a church move to make everyone stand up and I'll dance. |
| 1:06.8 | Ruth covers the Christian right for Slate. |
| 1:15.9 | She's been watching as Paula White moves from the fringes of the evangelical church closer and closer to the White House. And her theology, like she's considered heretical by a lot of mainstream evangelicals. So for her to become, you know, one of really the president's top evangelical supporters and someone |
| 1:28.5 | that he's trotting out a lot is super interesting. |
| 1:31.5 | And, yeah, it was surprising to me. |
| 1:32.6 | I believe in the power of unity. |
| 1:36.1 | Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus. |
| 1:39.9 | That day in Orlando, White riffed on the Bible, smoothly flowing from one verse to another, |
| 1:46.2 | before turning to the president himself. |
... |
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