Donald Trump‘s favorite preacher has delivered a sermon to the masses on TV just hours after the president dropped an F-bomb, as well as threats of actual bombs, on the holiest day of the year for Christians.
Evangelist Franklin Graham was tapped to deliver a religious message to the nation on Easter Sunday’s episode of 60 Minutes.
Graham, a longtime Trump ally, told CBS viewers that “faith in God” was the value that most shaped America.
He said religious faith in the past during disasters was stronger than reliance on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), whose funding has been slashed by the Trump administration.
“It’s people of faith who have been the bedrock, the driving force behind our nation and in years past, where did people turn after a disaster, not FEMA, not to the government, it was the church that took them and fed them and gave them shelter, clothed them,” Graham, 73, said.
“I see faith as the most important defining value in our nation, and in every single life.”
The platforming of Graham, who has faced criticism for anti-LGBTQ views and calling Islam “a very evil and wicked religion” led to a blowback online.
“To give this man prime airtime only shows how low CBS has fallen since being taken over by David Ellison and Bari Weiss,” one X user wrote.
Another claimed it was a "death knell” for CBS.
The Daily Beast has reached out to CBS for comment.
Weiss, the network’s anti-woke editor-in-chief, has already indicated she is ready to overhaul 60 Minutes, including culling staff and influencing editorial choices.
“Bari wants to make the show harder,” a source told the New York Post last week. “No one is talking about 60 Minutes on Monday morning.”
MAGA-coded Weiss has already pulled one 60 Minutes episode off-air hours before it was due to go live over a lack of input from the Trump administration, while shelving another segment reportedly led to the show’s most high-profile correspondent, Anderson Cooper, not renewing his contract with the flagship show.
“She wants to put her stamp on 60 Minutes and how you do that is you either get rid of the top producer or the top correspondent,” the source added to the Post.
Graham’s holy words on 60 Minutes followed Trump threatening a war crime in a profanity-laden rant, including the Arabic word for God, on his Truth Social account on Easter Sunday.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F--kin’ Strait, you crazy b-----ds, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP,” the 79-year-old posted.
The unhinged post led to calls for the 25th Amendment to be invoked against Trump, including from his former communications director, Anthony Scaramucci.
Trump, who has questioned whether he will make it to heaven, also skipped Easter service. Graham was present for an Easter Prayer Service at the White House on April 16 last year. He also delivered an invocation during Trump’s inauguration ceremony in January 2025.
Just last month, the pastor was forced to withdraw comments he made at the Conservative Political Action Committee Convention (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas where he called for a third term for Trump.
“God loves you. He loves his country. And I love Donald Trump!,” Graham said.
“We’ll only have one chance at this. We’ll never get another president like Donald Trump! Never! And that’s why it’s important that we do everything that we can to try to get him reelected!”
The pastor later said he “misspoke” when he made the comment.
And last Sunday, to mark the Christian holy day, Palm Sunday, Trump shared a letter from Graham originally sent last October that assured him he was bound for heaven.
It seemed to reference Trump saying at that time “I mean, you know, I’m being a little cute. I don’t think there’s anything [that’s] going to get me in heaven. Okay? I think I’m not maybe heaven-bound.”
The preacher called Trump a peacemaker and noted the president had “commented to the media that you might not be heaven bound.”
“Maybe you responded in jest, but it is an important issue to know for certain that your soul is secure and will spend eternity in the presence of God,” Franklin said. “The only One who can save us from Hell is Jesus Christ. You can’t save yourself; I can’t save myself. Good works, prominence, success — none of these get us to Heaven. The only way to Heaven is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.”
