A number of well-known, controversial pastors and spiritual leaders have endorsed or voiced support for Donald Trump as president of the United States.
Many of Trump’s most famous religious supporters are often accused of preaching the prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel teaches that financial and physical well-being is God’s will for all believers, and that ministry donations will be repaid with material wealth.

According to TIME, Darrell Scott, who heads the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland, said that Trump “reminds him of Cyrus, a Persian king in the Bible who rebuilt Jerusalem’s wall.”

Clarence McClendon, one of the stars of the reality T.V. show Preachers of L.A., likened Trump to Zacchaeus, the Jewish tax collector Jesus was chastised for dining with and ministering to.

Finally, the leader of The Wisdom Center Television Ministry, Mike Murdock, was reported by TIME as saying that “Trump has the core values of Scriptures where you produce … he has so much honor given to him because he has had so much.”
Darrell Scott’s radio ministry reaches 4.5 million people in northeast Ohio alone and has an additional 150,000 online listeners. His church, the New Spirit Revival Center, is part of what Scott describes as the “pentecostal/charismatic persuasion.”

An excerpt from a 1998 article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer shows that Scott preaches a thinly veiled version of the prosperity gospel: “The presence of the Lord is in this place … That’s why you can’t come over here and get away with that mess you used to get away with. … But either way baby, when you get to this ministry, the mess is definitely going to stop.”

Clarence McClendon is the leader of Full Harvest International Church in Los Angeles, as well as a main character on the reality show “Preachers of L.A.” This show follows the personal and professional lives of three bishops, three pastors and their respective wives. Another controversial figure, McClendon was caught up in a domestic scandal in 2000 when he divorced his wife of 16 years, Tamara McClendon, and re-married a week later.

Mike Murdock is a televangelist with The Wisdom Center and hosts the popular program “Wisdom Keys with Mike Murdock.” Murdock is known for his lavish lifestyle and prosperity gospel preaching. In 2003, the Associated Press investigated Murdock’s finances and found that he only spent 1–3 percent (the legal minimum) of the money that his followers sent him on aid for the poor and sixty percent on overhead and his own salary.

Florida televangelist Paula White introduced this group of unconventional thinkers to Trump at a 2012 meeting with about 40 other pastors. Later on, White invited these same controversial figures and others like them to meet with Trump and create an evangelical advisory council.

White herself has a colorful history which includes an IRS investigation into her alleged misuse of ministry funds and a congressional probe into those same allegations. Additionally, the founder of “Focus on the Family” James Dobson claimed that White personally brought Trump to Christ. White, along with Darrell Scott, are the public faces of Trump’s religious outreach.

Trump is a non-traditional GOP Candidate who has surrounded himself with non-traditional religious leaders. Despite his association with controversial religious figures, a September 11 ABC News/Washington Post Poll shows Trump with a 48 point lead over Clinton with Evangelicals and a 28 point lead with Protestants.