Sure, we know CNSNews.com is slavishly pro-Trump, but managing editor Michael W. Chapman took it to an other level in an Oct. 25 blog post that’s essentially a press release for a new pro-Trump book:
In best selling author Doug Wead’s forthcoming book, Inside Trump’s White House: The Real Story of His Presidency, it is revealed that President Donald Trump has been a devoted viewer of Christian television, and evangelical preachers, since the 1980s.
President Trump’s good friend Paula White told Wead, “He had watched hours of Christian television [since the 1980s]. And not just watched it, but really listened to the messages. He had retained what he had heard. He could bring it back and repeat it to me. He would say what it meant to him.”
“Trump had watched the Billy Graham telecasts as a boy and had later watched Jimmy Swaggart in the 1980’s,” states Wead in the book. “But he especially loved the positive preacher, Norman Vincent Peale. Trump found televangelist Paula White while channel surfing on a Sunday morning in Trump Tower.”
“Political writers were always puzzled by his connection to evangelical supporters but it had actually begun early,” said Wead.
There is apparently no corroboration for White’s claim, since Chapman doesn’t mention any. Certainly, there’s no evidence that Trump has acted since the 1980s like he believed anything those TV preachers had to say.
There’s also more to this story that Chapman apparently didn’t feel the need to check into, given that he was writing a press release and not a “news” article. A few days after Chapman’s article was published, it was announced that White had joined the Trump administration in an outreach job.
White is an evangelist that promotes the “prosperity gospel,” and former George W. Bush administration ethics lawyer Richard Painter has pointed out that White has appealed to her followers to send their first paychecks of the year to her ministry with the vague promise they would be repaid in divine blessing, which he portrayed as a Ponzi scheme. And White’s recent book portrays Trump’s election as part of a divine plan. (CNS has embraced the divine-Donald narrative.)
But back to Chapman, who clearly has a book to sell so badly he’s copy-and-pasting PR copy into his post:
According to the page on Amazon.com, Inside Trump’s White House offers a sweeping, eloquent history of President Donald J. Trump’s first years in office, covering everything from election night to the news of today. The book will include never-before-reported stories and scoops, including how President Trump turned around the American economy, how he ‘never complains and never explains,’ and how his actions sometimes lead to misunderstandings with the media and the public.
“It also includes exclusive interviews with the Trump family about the Mueller report, and narrates their reactions when the report was finally released.”
Wead’s book also contains one massive screw-up (not that Chapman will tell you about that). A Fox News article previewing the book highlighted Wead’s claim that the Obama White House held “nonstop PC meetings,” which Wead decided meant “political correctness,” for intelligence officials. In fact, “PC” meant “Principals Committee,” which is the name of the group of top intelligence officials. Wead was forced to walk back the claim and his publisher said it will correct it in the next printing of the book.
These stories about White and Wead are much more interesting and newsworthy than the one Chapman thought you should know about.