Responding to compliments about his election victory and support from evangelical voters, President Donald Trump told Christian Broadcasting Network’s founder Pat Robertson that he had signed an order to empower religious leaders to speak up politically.
"We've really helped because I've gotten rid of the Johnson Amendment, now we are going to go try to get rid of it permanently in Congress, but I signed an executive order so that now people like you that I want to hear from, ministers and and preachers and rabbis and whoever it may be, they can speak," Trump said in a July 12 interview with Robertson. "You know, you couldn’t speak politically before; now you can. And I want to hear from you and others that we like."
During the campaign Trump accurately said that an amendment pushed by Lyndon B. Johnson threatened religious institutions with the loss of their tax-exempt status if they openly advocated their political views. Trump then said he would repeal that language.
So Trump’s comments to Robertson left us wondering if in fact Trump had "gotten rid of the Johnson Amendment" and if because of his executive order religious leaders were able to speak up politically.
Politics and religion experts told us Trump’s remarks were misleading on several grounds: He does not have the constitutional authority to eliminate the law, and religious leaders have been speaking up politically even before Trump’s order, despite the legal restriction.
Background on the ‘Johnson Amendment’We noted in a previous fact check of Trump’s remarks about the "Johnson Amendment" that the restriction comes from the Internal Revenue Code, and that it applies to all 501(c)(3) organizations, known as charitable organizations.
The term "Johnson Amendment" derives from America’s 36th president, Lyndon B. Johnson, who became president when John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Johnson championed the restriction in 1954 when he was a U.S. senator running for re-election. A conservative nonprofit group that wanted to limit the treaty-making ability of the president produced material that called for electing his primary opponent, millionaire rancher-oilman Dudley Dougherty.
In response, Johnson, then Senate Democratic minority leader, introduced an amendment to section 501(c)(3) of the federal tax code dealing with tax-exempt charitable organizations, including groups organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, literacy and educational purposes, or to prevent cruelty to children or animals. The objective was to restrict the involvement in partisan politics of organizations that wanted to be exempt from paying taxes.
The law says: "Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes."
‘Gotten rid of the Johnson Amendment’?Trump told Robertson that he had "gotten rid of the Johnson Amendment."
But that’s misleading. Trump cannot get "rid of" a law because a president does not have that constitutional authority. Trump needs Congress to take action; he even referenced that process when he added to his statement, "now we are going to go try to get rid of it permanently in Congress." (A bill on this topic introduced by Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., is in the Ways and Means Committee.)
We asked the White House for more information on Trump’s comments but did not get a response.
What Trump has done is sign an executive order that tells the Treasury Department to be lenient in its enforcement of current law against religious organizations.
Specifically, the May 4 order said: