Trump ‘donates’ $100k to anti-LGBT pastor who helped write speeches for his Presidential campaign
Donald Trump may face serious questions about financial conduct – after he reportedly ‘donated’ $100,000 to an anti-LGBT pastor who helped write speeches for his Presidential campaign.
Trump has faced repeatedĀ questionsĀ about his links to Tony Perkins of theĀ Family Research Council, which is listed as an active anti-LGBT hate group by extremism watchdog the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Perkins has faced criticism in the past for blaming gay people for the Holocaust, insisting that LGBT activistsĀ will soon attempt a ‘Christian Holocaust’ too.
He was slammed by Jewish groups after claimingĀ that Christians are being sent to “camps”, and that soon gays are “going to start rolling out the boxcars to start hauling off Christians”
After Perkins’ Greenwell Springs Baptist Church was impacted by the recent Louisiana flooding, CNN reports they Republican Presidential hopeful Donald Trump made a personal $100,000 donation to the Church.
However, the donation could be in violation of election finance rules, given Perkins previously provided services to Trump’s electionĀ campaign, with Trump himself praising his speech-writing “help”.
Earlier this year, when Trump wasĀ mocked for misquoting the Bible in a speech, he revealed it had been co-written by Mr Perkins.
He said: “Tony Perkins wrote that out for meā¦ Tony Perkins is a very, very good guy.
“He actually wrote out the Two, he wrote out the number āTwo Corinthiansā.
“I took exactly what Tony said, and thought, Tony has to know better than anybody.”
If the donation does violate campaign finance laws, it could face investigation by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), an independent federal agency.
The news comes just a week after Mr Trump was confirmed to be attending a Family Research Council rally, alongside a number of anti-LGBT activists.
Every Republican Presidential nominee of the past decade has snubbed the event due to its extremist views.
Perkins previously compared gays to paedophiles, saying: āWhile activists like to claim that paedophilia is a completely distinct orientation from homosexuality, evidence shows a disproportionate overlap between the two. It is a homosexual problem.ā
He also brandedĀ the āIt Gets Betterā anti-bullying campaign ādisgustingā, saying: āItās part of a concerted effort to recruit [kids] into that lifestyle.ā
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
