1. News
  2. World
  3. Americas
  4. US elections

Christian leader Jerry Falwell pictued posing in front of 'Playboy' cover of Donald Trump

The president of Liberty University was one of the first to endorse the New York tycoon

bomb1.jpg
Mr Falwell and his wife posed with Mr Trump after he met with religious leaders Twitter

The lesson for Jerry Falwell is simple: always, always, always, check over your shoulder before posing for a photograph.

The Evangelical Christian and president of Liberty University found himself at the centre of no small amount of mockery after he posed for a photograph with Donald Trump, against a backdrop that included a copy of Playboy, the soft porn magazine. What's more, the magazine cover featured Mr Trump and a model now serving jail time for cocaine smuggling.

Mr Falwell was an early endorser of Mr Trump and invited him to speak at his private Christian college in Virginia. In a speech to students, Mr Trump fumbled a reference to the bible. 

bomb2.jpg
Mr Trump appeared on the cover with Brandi Brandt, who is now in jail for cocaine smuggling (Playboy)

Mr Falell later said of his decision to back the New York tycoon: “I did so because the country is at that point.”

The leg-pulling began after Mr Falwell tweeted a photograph of himself and his wife, Becki, posing with Mr Trump in his New York office. What Mr Falwell had apparently not spotted were the series of framed magazine covers on the wall, among them a copy of Playboy, featuring Mr Trump and model Brandi Brandt on the cover. 

Brandt, who was once married to Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx, is said to have been a regular visitor to Mr Trump’s New York offices during the 1990s, was two years ago sentenced to six years in jail for her role in a drug smuggling operation.

Critics of Mr Trump and Mr Falwel’s support for him, were quick to point out the irony of the conservative Christian college leader posing in front of a men’s pornographic magazine.

Clinton Has "Perfected the Politics of Personal Profit and Even Theft" - Trump

The New York Daily News said that the image was especially ironic given that Mr Falwell’s father, Jerry Falwell Sr, famously sued Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt for a satirical depiction of him in his porn magazine, in a case that landed in the Supreme Court. (Mr Falwell lost the case.)

Donald Trump's most controversial quotes

Donald Trump's most controversial quotes

  • 1/14 On Isis:

    "Some of the candidates, they went in and didn’t know the air conditioner didn’t work and sweated like dogs, and they didn’t know the room was too big because they didn’t have anybody there. How are they going to beat ISIS?"

    Getty

  • 2/14 On immigration:

    "I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me —and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."

    Reuters

  • 3/14 On Free Trade:

    "Free trade is terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people. But we have stupid people."

    PAUL J. RICHARDS | AFP | Getty Images

  • 4/14 On Mexicans:

    "When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists."

    Getty

  • 5/14 On China:

    "I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China. Am I supposed to dislike them?... I love China. The biggest bank in the world is from China. You know where their United States headquarters is located? In this building, in Trump Tower."

    Getty Images

  • 6/14 On work:

    "If you're interested in 'balancing' work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable."

    AP

  • 7/14 On success:

    "What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate."

  • 8/14 On life:

    "Everything in life is luck."

    AFP

  • 9/14 On ambition:

    "You have to think anyway, so why not think big?"

    Getty Images

  • 10/14 On his opponents:

    "Bush is totally in favour of Common Core. I don't see how he can possibly get the nomination. He's weak on immigration. He's in favour of Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy? You just can't do it."

    Reuters

  • 11/14 On Obamacare:

    "You have to be hit by a tractor, literally, a tractor, to use it, because the deductibles are so high. It's virtually useless. And remember the $5 billion web site?... I have so many web sites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a web site. It costs me $3."

    Getty Images

  • 12/14 On Barack Obama:

    "Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him. I have the best courses in the world. I have one right next to the White House."

    PA

  • 13/14 On himself:

    "Love him or hate him, Trump is a man who is certain about what he wants and sets out to get it, no holds barred. Women find his power almost as much of a turn-on as his money."

    Getty Images

  • 14/14 On America:

    "The American Dream is dead. But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before and we will make America great again."

    GETTY

Mr Trump is reportedly proud of the March 1990 Playboy cover. Last month at a rally in Pennsylvania someone handed him a copy of the magazine to autograph as he worked the rope line and he held it to show to his cheering supporters.

On Tuesday night, Mr Fawell responded on Twitter by likening the criticism he had received to the travails endured by Jesus.

Read more

He wrote: “Honoured for same hypocrites who accused Jesus of being a friend of publicans and sinners to be targeting me over a decades old mag cover.”

Comments