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Joel Osteen Claims Donald Trump Is ‘A Good Man’

By Niki Cruz
Published on: 05:54 PST, Mar 14, 2016

Pastor Joel Osteen knows a thing or two about being polarizing to the masses. Osteen has received criticism for his conservative views throughout the years, so it’s not a surprise that Osteen has sympathy for presidential hopeful Donald Trump. It goes without saying, but Mr. Trump has received a less than favorable response from some people due to his plan to build a wall to keep Mexican immigrants out of the United States and his views on Muslims.

Joel Osteen has come out in defense of Donald Trump, which has riled up a few people. Osteen, who was busy promoting his new book, The Power of I Am: Two Words That Will Change Your Life Today, spoke to radio show Kilmeade & Friends about a myriad of topics, and one of them, as you might have guessed, is Donald Trump.

When asked about what he thinks of Donald Trump, the pastor said, “Mr. Trump is an incredible communicator and brander. He’s been a friend of our ministry. He’s a good man.”

Here’s how people reacted on Twitter to the quote.

This isn’t the only time Osteen has spoken about the presidential race. On a separate occasion, Osteen told people to “overlook things that are done wrong” and “choose to be happy” rather than to feed into the negative tone in the elections.

During an interview with NorthJersey.com, Osteen said, “I don’t get specific about the politics, but our core message deals with [how] every day, you have to choose to be happy, you have to overlook things that are done wrong and things that are said.”

Trump’s rallies over the weekend experienced protest groups fighting with his supporters. Mr. Trump went on to blame Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders in regard to the outbursts that took place.

According to CNN, Trump called for the protestors’ arrest in Chicago, telling police, “I’m going to ask that you arrest them. I’ll file whatever charges you want. If they want to do this… we’re going to go strongly for your arrests.”

CNN writes, “Trump also accused Bernie Sanders’ supporters of sowing unrest at his events and the GOP front-runner refused to back down from his rhetoric that some have cited as the cause of heightened tension at his rallies.”

However, some might take Osteen standing up for Trump as a public endorsement of the candidate, he hasn’t officially released a statement saying that he plans back Mr. Trump.

Back in 2012, Joel Osteen explained to CBS This Morning that he doesn’t discuss politics for a reason.

“You start dividing yourself saying, ‘I’m a Democrat,’ ‘Republican,’ whatever, 50 percent immediately don’t agree. And I want to throw a broad message of hope to everyone, not somebody turn me off because of my political preference.”

Back then he wanted both candidates to “keep it as civil as possible.”

What do you think about Joel Osteen’s comments on Donald Trump and politics in America?

[Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM]

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