Donald Trump took time away from promoting conspiracy theories about President Obama’s birth certificate to speak at Liberty University’s Convocation yesterday, where he was praised by Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. as “one of the greatest visionaries of our time.” Trump got an honorary doctorate for his “unwavering and public commitment to our nation’s founding principles of limited government, individual liberty, and the free enterprise system, and in further recognition of his iconic status as one of America’s most successful visionaries and entrepreneurs.” The speech itself? Kyle Mantyla at Right Wing Watch calls it a “typically self-aggrandizing and buffoonish message” that included Trump’s admonition to “get even” with people who do you wrong. The mutual admiration society between Falwell and Trump may reveal something about the values that are driving Liberty’s leaders: money, celebrity, and sticking it to your opponents.
[Full disclosure: As my bio notes, I am a senior fellow at People For the American Way and contribute to its Right Wing Watch blog.]Liberty Loves Trump and the Feeling is Mutual
