Trump puts evangelical advisers in a difficult spot

WASHINGTON—Some of President Donald Trump’s spiritual advisers think he could have responded better to the Aug. 12 violence in Charlottesville, Va., but say ultimately they don’t expect him to heal the nation’s racial divide.

Following Trump’s meandering response to the racially charged incident, at least one of his evangelical advisory board members resigned in protest. A.R. Bernard, pastor of New York City’s largest evangelical congregation, said in a statement the deepening conflict of values between him and the administration had become clear.

But most of Trump’s faith advisers say they still have great access to the president and want to work together on racial reconciliation and finding solutions to other justice issues.

“I think the morale is high only because people feel ultimately they will be heard,” Bishop Harry Jackson, a member of Trump’s faith advisory board, told me. “We need to unify and say, ‘This is what we want.’ I don’t feel like we’ve made that clear of a demand on power yet.”

Trump polarized many Christians during the 2016 election. Most evangelicals ended up voting for him and continue to show their support, but each new controversy increases the strain.

On Monday, hundreds of left-leaning faith leaders, led by the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, marched through the streets of the nation’s capital to commemorate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and condemn the president’s response to Charlottesville. They believe the church can help foster racial reconciliation but insist repentance is the first key step.

Jim Garlow, another member of Trump’s faith board and pastor of Skyline Church in San Diego, said white Americans will never fully understand how minorities feel in the United States, and it’s important for them to repent of known and unknown prejudices.

“The president could change his language and the hatred could still be there,” Garlow said. “The government does not have the capacity of what the church can do.”

Trump’s faith advisers schedule conference calls with the president every two weeks, but those meetings don’t always happen. Most board members don’t have direct access, instead sending messages to the president through his staff, but they often feel pressure to respond to Trump controversies.

“I refuse to be the Monday-morning quarterback for Mr. Trump,” Jackson told me. “He’s a big boy. He’s over 70 years old. He is who he is. But in a spiritual sense, he’s called on me to be a counsel; it’s up to him to decide how much of my counsel he is going to receive.”

In response to the backlash from Charlottesville, Trump’s new chief of staff, John Kelly, reached out to Pastor Mike Hayes of Covenant Church in Dallas for recommendations of influential African-Americans willing to work with the Trump administration. Hayes said Kelly wants to establish a working group of diverse community leaders to help with racial reconciliation.

As more cities consider how to respond to racially charged protests and activists tearing down Confederate monuments, the Trump administration is going to need all the help it can get.

State downsizing

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson revealed this week he plans to eliminate or consolidate dozens of special envoy positions.

In a letter to Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Tillerson expressed concern over the proliferation of special envoys.

“I believe the department will be able to better execute its mission by integrating certain envoys and special representative offices within the regional and functional bureaus, and eliminating those that have accomplished or outlived their original purpose,” he wrote in the letter obtained by Foreign Policy.

Special envoys, unlike most other State Department positions, normally don’t require Senate confirmation, and Tillerson has the power to control the total number. He plans to eliminate special envoys for Syria, Sudan, and South Sudan—a concern for international religious freedom advocates.

Under the reorganization, fewer offices will handle religious freedom issues. The ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom office will grow significantly by assuming responsibility for several other offices. That includes the special representative for religion and global affairs, the special representative to Muslim communities, the envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the special adviser for religious minorities in the Near East and South/Central Asia.

Placing the related departments under one leader could improve efficiency, but the religious freedom ambassador position remains vacant. The president nominated Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback last month, but Brownback still needs to clear a Senate confirmation vote.

Under the reorganization, Tillerson prioritized retaining the State Department’s special envoys for LGBT issues, anti-Semitism, and global women’s issues. —E.W.

On the trail for tax reform

President Donald Trump hit the road Wednesday to whip up support for tax reform.

In a speech to supporters in Springfield, Mo., Trump outlined why he thinks the United States needs a new tax code but stopped short of providing details.

He said he thinks the ideal American corporate tax rate should be 15 percent and gave four principles for tax legislation. The new tax code should be simple, fair, and easy to understand; it should foster growth for job creation and higher wages; it should provide tax breaks for middle-class families; and it should find ways to bring back offshore profits.

Trump’s patience with Congress is running out, and he needs a policy victory.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” the president said of the prospective tax overhaul. “I don’t want to be disappointed by Congress.”

Lawmakers return to Washington next week, and GOP leaders say tax reform is at the top of their agenda. Trump lashed out at Republicans for failing to coalesce around healthcare reform, and he said in Missouri he hasn’t forgotten that debacle. If Republican lawmakers can’t figure out a tax bill they can all support, Trump and his base of voters may never forgive them. — E.W.

Drip, drip, drip

The case against a former Democratic technology aid continues to grow. Imran Awan still retains a secret email account on the House computer system, even though he’s banned from the congressional network because of alleged cybersecurity violations, according to a Tuesday report from the Daily Caller News Foundation. Awan and a handful of other former Democratic staffers are at the center of an FBI investigation over their work in the halls of Congress. Authorities shut down Awan’s standard email account on Feb. 2 over claims he stole equipment, and he was arrested on July 25 in northern Virginia at Dulles International Airport on a separate bank fraud charge while trying to board a flight to his native Pakistan. Awan conspicuously remained on the payroll of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., until then. Earlier this month, a federal grand jury indicted Awan on four counts of conspiracy in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. —E.W.

Questions and answers

President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., agreed this week to sit down with the Senate Judiciary Committee for a transcribed interview regarding his connections to Russian officials. Trump Jr. agreed earlier this summer to be interviewed and turn over hundreds of pages of documents regarding his communication with Russians. Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, decided to postpone that July hearing. But on Wednesday he and the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, said in a joint statement Trump Jr.’s interview is being rescheduled. The committee’s inquiry into Russia’s contacts with Trump officials is part of several ongoing investigations into the country’s alleged 2016 presidential election meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. —E.W.