What Paula White's Trump Appointment Says About the Rest of Us

Many of the 'respectable evangelicals' have snobbishly distanced ourselves or attacked POTUS in recent years. It should come to no surprise he passed us up.

If you tilt your head ever so slightly, and close your eyes, you can hear somewhere off in the distance the crying and gnashing of teeth from ten thousand angry pastors. President Trump, it seems, has betrayed Jesus, the American people, and probably Elvis somehow. He has committed the Abomination of Desolation, and appointed Paula White to the White House Faith Office.

The heavens shook, and the Earth trembled. Okay, I’ll stop being melodramatic.

First, let’s cover the facts.

WHAT DID TRUMP DO AGAIN?

In 2025, after Trump's re-inauguration, he announced the creation of a "White House Faith Office" with White as its director. This move was intended to strengthen ties with religious communities, focusing on faith-based initiatives.

During Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, White was a key figure in rallying evangelical support (at least from the crazy charismatic wing of evangelicalism). She was part of Trump's Evangelical Advisory Board and delivered the invocation at his inauguration in January 2017, making her the first female clergy member to do so. And now, Trump has picked White to lead the new Faith Office.

WHO IS WHITE?

Paula White is a well-known televangelist and advocate of the prosperity gospel, which emphasizes that faith, positive confession, and donations to religious causes can lead to material wealth. She has been involved in various controversies, including financial scrutiny and theological disputes within Christian circles. I’ve personally written about her about a thousand times, at both Pulpit & Pen and Protestia.

By the way, if you’re a reader of Insight to Incite but aren’t yet a follower of Protestia and Pulpit & Pen, I would encourage you to read both blogs. Protestia currently covers the daily polemics-related news and Pulpit & Pen is more or less a museum showcasing all my former writing you can’t find here or at Protestia. The search bars will be very helpful to you. And while I’m making this aside, remember that paid subscribers to Insight to Incite get Protestia + privileges (you get to participate in our weekly Zoom meetings, access to paid content, etc) without you having to pay to subscribe there also.

I’ve covered White teaching a treasury in Heaven you deposit money into whenever you give her money for later use once you die (I guess Heaven has a high cost of living or something, so you’ll need it), that wherever she steps becomes Holy Ground, appointing herself an Apostle, telling people God’s commanded them to give Jim Bakker money, embracing the Moonies cult as God-lovers, her alleged-but-pretty-verified (because there’s photos) affair with Benny Hinn, and so, so much more craziness.

Trump first encountered White in the early 2000s when he watched her on television and subsequently reached out to her. Their relationship has been described as one where White provided spiritual guidance, including private Bible studies and prayers, particularly before significant events like his 2016 campaign.

White claims to have led Trump to Christ, a claim backed up at the time by James Dobson. And frankly, this should make us all concerned for his soul. Trump’s last pastor was Norman Vincent Peale, the founder of the Power of Positive Thinking. He hasn’t had a lot of great spiritual leaders in his life.

On her third marriage, with her ex-husband having claimed she was a “serial-adulterer” and with fairly substantiated claims of breaking up Benny Hinn’s marriage (the Hinns later reconciled, before they broke up again), White seems to have more than a few things in common with President Trump.

The two of them go back decades, with White having purchased a 3.5 million dollar apartment in Trump Towers, back when that was an expensive price. They’ve known each other a very long time.

THE OUTRAGE

In 2016, Russell Moore - then president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and currently the Editor of USAID propaganda organization Christianity Today - said, “Paula White is a charlatan and recognized as a heretic by every orthodox Christian, of whatever tribe.” As we reported at Pulpit & Pen, she “clapped back” and said that their opinion didn’t matter.

But in recent days, lots of Christians far more orthodox than Paula White have complained that they feel let down by Trump for this appointment. It’s on this that I wish to opine.

You can see some of the complaints below.

SO LET ME OPINE THEN

While Trump’s pick of Paula White isn’t surprising, it is disappointing. I wish he hadn’t have. I wish, for example, that he would have closed his eyes and thrown a rock into the crowd at Shepherd’s Conference and take whoever happened to get hit. But this is the real world.

In the real world, pastors lack political courage. In fact, of the men who I would most wish - in whatever dream world I live in - that he would have chosen for this role, I can’t think of any who sully their hands with politics at all. Can you imagine Voddie Baucham or Paul Washer making a political endorsement? I’m sure they would tell you that’s just not what they’re called to do. I’m not sure I agree with that sentiment, that men of God should divorce themselves from the ugliness of politics, but I’m open to the idea that different men have different callings.

What I can tell you is that Donald Trump has repeatedly been treated by evangelicals like the ugly prom date, the one you’re ashamed to tell anybody you’re going with, because your mom is friends with their mom and you don’t have a choice. Whatever support most evangelical leaders have given him have been beleaguered, half-hearted, and semi-apologetic.

In all three elections (2016, 2020, and 2024), Albert Mohler stuck his pinky finger to the wind to lead like a weather-cock, expressed that he was voting ‘for the lesser evil,’ gave about five good reasons he didn’t like his choices, and endorsed him within weeks of the election - far too late to offer any significant support. And then, right on time, Mohler went onto media outlets and complained vocally every time Trump “embarrassed” him (see below).

I stood amazed during the 2024 election cycle to see full-time Tweet Ministers like Tom Buck, who only reluctantly endorsed him, bemoan his campaign decisions almost daily in a way that was far more helpful to Kamala Harris than anyone else. I’m not saying Buck was a secret Harris agent. I’m saying that Buck is one of a long line of pastors who, paying attention only to politics every four years or so, would best be served by sticking to opinions on homiletics and Cowboys football.

I was amazed to see pastors characterize Trump as “the lesser of two evils” despite giving evangelicals literally everything they asked for, far-exceeding our expectations, and showing more compassion and giving more honor to Christians and our Christ than any president in our lifetimes (and frankly, in the last 150 years). Is this the “lesser evil?” I found it an abysmal way to speak of the man who - despite his many flaws - stood and still stands between evangelicals and the people who would persecute us if given the opportunity.

I don’t know about you, but when a man defends me, I keep my thoughts about his evil qualities to myself. Or at the least, I don’t spout off about them during an election cycle.

I stood amazed at the ministers who indeed did endorse Trump - or at the least, told people how they were going to vote - then go on practically apologize for their decision, like they had something to be ashamed of. It was as if they found enough courage to confess the obvious - Christians vote for Trump - while worrying feverishly about what Dwight McKissic or Beth Moore would think about it.

Donald Trump is a brave man. He’s a bold man. He’s not going to have anyone around him who is neither brave nor bold. I suspect he could smell the estrogen dripping off the typical evangelical preacher, and just decided if he wanted a woman, he’d get a real one.

The Scripture tells us to ‘honor the king,’ which is a pragmatic order. It’s for the purpose of living a peaceable life, and to not make enemies of those who could end us by decree. And frankly, many ‘respectable’ evangelicals have not given Trump the honor that he is due as a very good friend to the evangelical community. He has been, for all intents and purposes, a loyal protector. He’s not been ashamed of us, but we have largely been ashamed of him.

And that’s how you end up with Paula White as the White House faith advisor.

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