Jerry Falwell Jr. spoke glowingly of President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday, claiming his impact is already being felt in American shopping locations.
“Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace asked Falwell, who as president of Liberty University is among the country’s most prominent evangelical Christian leaders, why evangelical voters turned out more heavily for Trump than several previous Republican nominees.
Falwell first cited Trump’s promise to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn abortion rights and the president-elect’s willingness to let social conservatives draft the Republican Party platform uninhibited.
Then Falwell turned to the cultural impact he believes Trump is having.
“All of those things, they just resounded with evangelicals and with Christians. And my wife’s noticed as she’s done her Christmas shopping this year that more of the retailers are saying, ‘Merry Christmas,’” Falwell said. “There’s a new hope and optimism ― there’s a good spirit in America, and I think that’s coming from his lead.”
Trump championed hot-button social issues on the campaign trail, including the supposed “war on Christmas” that Fox News pundits and other hardliners claim without evidence has created a hostile environment for those who would like to say “Merry Christmas.”
“You can say again ‘Merry Christmas’ because Donald Trump is now the president,” former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said on Fox News this month.
In his interview with Wallace, Falwell also shrugged off concerns about Rex Tillerson, the Exxon Mobil CEO Trump has tapped to serve as Secretary of State. Tillerson’s work advocating for the Boy Scouts of America to accept openly gay youth has drawn stinging criticism from evangelical leader Tony Perkins, who heads the Family Research Council.
“His position on social issues, I don’t believe are relevant in the position of Secretary of State,” Falwell said. “I don’t think he’ll ever have to weigh in on any of those issues.”
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