The Dictatorship
Meet the MAGA world pastor who is trying to convert Trump on Ukraine
New battle lines are being drawn over what “America First” actually means, and Pastor Mark Burns has planted his flag on the side nobody saw coming.
Trump’s unofficial spiritual advisor is now meeting regularly with the State Department, pushing secondary sanctions on Russian oil and telling anyone who will listen that supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia is actually an America First position.
The televangelist-turned-Trump confidante didn’t plan to become Ukraine’s most unlikely champion. He once believed the Russian talking points, appearing on every media outlet that would have him arguing against U.S. involvement in the country. But after befriending Ukraine’s chief rabbi, Moshe Azman, Burns visited Kyiv earlier this year, where he witnessed firsthand the devastation wrought by the war.
Now, Burns is pointing fingers at the conservative media ecosystem that helped shape much of MAGA’s views on the war. Calling out Tucker Carlson, Fox News and the anti-Ukraine chorus of right-wing voices, Burns spoke in an interview of his past conviction that Ukraine was a Nazi-harboring, racist regime that persecuted Christians and was undeserving of American support.
That was all a lie, Burns now says.
“I believed the hype when they said Ukraine does not allow religious freedoms to happen…I believed that Russians were conservatives and believed in the conservative movement in America – all of that is a lie,” he told MS NOW.
“I believed the hype when they said Ukraine does not allow religious freedoms to happen… I believed that Russians were conservatives and believed in the conservative movement in America – all of that is a lie.”
Pastor Mark Burns, Trump’s unofficial spiritual advisor
Before his Ukraine conversion, Burns struck up a relationship with Trump in 2015 when he was invited to Trump Tower with other evangelical leaders to discuss Trump’s first presidential bid. Burns quickly became a campaign surrogate, electrifying crowds at rallies across the country with his sermon-like speeches.
The pastor, who founded the Now TV Network for Christians, was then tapped to serve on the campaign’s evangelical advisory board. His trajectory to unofficial “spiritual diplomat,” as he calls it, following several failed congressional bids in South Carolina, has kept him at the fringes of Trumpworld, one of the figures with varying influence on the president who is outside of the formal chain of command.
He’s not traveling as an official government emissary, but Burns says he’s in frequent touch with the State Department about Ukraine. He has not spoken directly with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was among the American negotiators who met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday to discuss the latest peace proposal, or Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy who is deeply involved in efforts to broker peace.
The White House and the State Department did not respond to request for comment.
Unlike most MAGA acolytes, Burns finds himself at odds with Trump on one of the most consequential foreign policy questions of the moment. Administration figures sympathetic to Ukraine are dwindling: Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, is set to leave his post next year.
Burns’s Ukraine awakening started with his spring visit to the country, which took place shortly after the explosive Oval Office showdown between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Zelenskyy. The pastor said the trip left him near tears as he toured flattened sites, saw evidence of what he described as Russian atrocities and heard harrowing testimony from religious leaders. He also felt remorse and regret for taking part in the campaign to amplify Russian narratives about the war and criticisms of Ukraine aid.
Burns started flooding Trump with images and reports from the ground. “I was sending him everything that I can see, and every image that I could see – and this is what’s really happening. These things are not showing up on Fox News,” Burns explained.
Since that trip, Burns has privately and publicly called on Trump to supply Ukraine with weapons. And after the release of the recent 28-point peace plan that echoed Russian talking points, Burns said he told Trump he “disagreed” with a proposal he viewed as “capitulating to Russia.”
Pastor Mark Burns, left, and Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak on March 31, 2025, in Ukraine. The Presidential Office of Ukraine, www.president.gov.ua
But the Trump administration seems committed to pulling back from Ukraine, ramping up pressure on Zelenskyy to accept a plan that calls for Ukraine to withdraw from territory in the eastern Donbas region. Last week, in a document known as the National Security Strategythe administration stated the need for an “expeditious” peace deal, the re-establishment of “strategic stability with Russia,” and a retreat from European security interests.
Burns’ work for Ukraine was recognized this week by the U.S.-Ukraine foundation, a non-profit that advocates for close ties between the two countries. The way Burns sees it, support for Ukraine is an America First policy: arm Ukraine now, or risk sending American soldiers to fight a third World War in Europe at a later date, if Russian President Vladimir Putin triggers NATO’s mutual defense clause. It’s essentially the same argument establishment Republicans have made for decades about containing and deterring foreign adversaries – a worldview that Trump explicitly ran against.
Burns’ advocacy has started to extend beyond military aid to what he has described as a moral crisis that has also put him at odds with another one of the administration’s policies.
He’s now lobbying State on behalf of Ukrainians refugees who came to the U.S. legally to flee the war and are facing deportation as their visas expire and the Biden-era immigration program has been paused. Burns told MS NOW he met with State Department staff about the issue this week as roughly 260,000 people who fled the war and now live in the U.S. are in legal limbo, according to Reuters.
“We have a moral obligation to support the people – those who have entered into our nation legally,” Burns said.
“Locked up by ICE? This doesn’t make any sense to me,” Burns added. “They left with nothing. Many came here with just their book bag,” he said. “Now many can’t work and their visas are expiring. There’s no renewing these applications. It’s a 911 situation that is a moral obligation.”
Jacqueline Alemany is co-anchor of “The Weekend” and a Washington correspondent for MS NOW.
The Dictatorship
Monday’s Campaign Round-Up, 6.22.26: Why Trump backed both Republicans in a key S.C. race
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In South Carolina’s gubernatorial raceDonald Trump endorsed Lt. Gov. Pam Evette last month. Last week, however, ahead of this week’s primary runoff election in the race, the president published an online item telling voters that “you can’t go wrong” with either Evette or state Attorney General Alan Wilson.
If this sounds at all familiar, it’s because Trump has done this before. Around this time two years ago, for example, he endorsed both Republicans running in a congressional primary in Arizona. And two years before that, he endorsed two leading contenders in a Senate primary in Missouri.
Only the president can say for sure why he ended up endorsing Evette and Wilson in the South Carolina race, though it’s worth emphasizing for context that GOP primary voters have already ignored his direction into two gubernatorial primaries this month, and it stands to reason that he hoped to avoid a third.
* We’re one day away from a variety of notable racesincluding but not limited to South Carolina’s gubernatorial race. There are also some congressional primaries in a handful of statesincluding Maryland, New York and Utah.
* In took a while, but the ballots have been tallied under Maine’s ranked-choice systemand we now know that Democrat Hannah Pingree, the former state House speaker, will face off against Republican Bobby Charles, who worked at the State Department during the Bush-Cheney era.
* As for Maine’s closely watched congressional racestate Auditor Matt Dunlap won the Democratic nomination in the battleground 2nd District, defeating state Sen. Joe Baldacci, who enjoyed the backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Dunlap will run in the fall against a familiar figure: former Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who had moved to Florida a few years ago, but who returned to run for Congress.
* In California’s congressional special electiontwo Democratic candidates — state Sen. Aisha Wahab and Melissa Hernandez, a Bay Area Rapid Transit director — have advanced to an Aug. 18 special general election. The winner will fill the vacancy left by disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April.
* In a new commercial shared first with MS NOWDemocrat James Talarico has launched his campaign’s first multimillion-dollar ad buy in Texas’ gubernatorial race. In the 30-second spot, Talarico focuses on affordability and the cost of living. The state lawmaker will face scandal-plagued state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the fall.
* And in New Jersey, Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr.who has been missing from Capitol Hill since early March, will reportedly return to work on June 30according to a statement from his spokesperson. Neither Kean nor his office have offered any public information about why he has been away.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
The Dictatorship
Trump tries dual endorsement in South Carolina as his pick for governor flounders in polls
After President Donald Trump’s pick for governor in Iowa lost in the Republican primary earlier this month, the president argued that he “would have endorsed the other person” if he had “the proper information.”
Trump is taking no chances in the South Carolina gubernatorial primary. Over the weekend he rescinded his exclusive endorsement of Pamela Evette, the lieutenant governor, announcing instead that he would support both Evette and her runoff opponent, Alan Wilson, the state’s attorney general.
The move put Evette’s political future in jeopardy: Even before Trump’s dual endorsement, she trailed in limited public polling and was seen by political observers in South Carolina as a weak candidate with little to show besides the president’s coveted endorsement.
“Her chief distinction from Alan Wilson was that Trump endorsed her,” said Dr. Dubose Kapeluck, a professor of political science at the Citadel Military College of South Carolina.
Trump’s dual endorsement “was a kiss of death,” he told MS NOW.
Evette, who moved to South Carolina from Ohio to found a successful payroll and HR company in 2000, has been lieutenant governor since 2019, serving under Gov. Henry McMaster, who is term-limited.
In office, she has pursued meaningful but little-celebrated policies, like a key tort reform bill, according to Gil Gatch, a Republican member of the South Carolina state House and an Evette supporter.
But voters could be forgiven for knowing little about Evette besides the fact that Trump endorsed her, which he did just days before the June 9 primary. Visitors to her campaign website are greeted with a full-screen message labeling Evette as “Trump-endorsed.” The first line in her X bio states the same. Pro-Evette television ads are quick to tout the endorsement.
An accomplishment like tort reform, while noted on Evette’s website, “maybe could have been something that was highlighted more heavily,” Gatch told MS NOW.
The political makeup of South Carolina nearly guarantees the next governor will be whoever emerges on Tuesday between Evette and Wilson. They survived a crowded primary field on June 9, and nearly every challenger who fell short of the runoff publicly endorsed the attorney general.
“She’s just not a good candidate,” Josh Kimbrell, a state senator who failed to make the runoff and has since said he’d back Wilson, said of Evette.
“She kind of assumed this was a coronation, and that was never going to go over that well,” he added.
Even some pro-Trump voters were confused by the president’s initial endorsement of Evette, whom he called “a good friend, fighter, and WINNER” in a social media post in May.
“I have no clue why Trump would endorse Pamela Evette,” Leland Lemmons, a 30-year-old Trump supporter told MS NOW as he exited a polling site in the Greenville suburb of Easley on June 9.
“She’s served, you know, a decent time. I just haven’t seen much fruition of what she’s done in office,” he added.
In a post on Truth Social Friday announcing his dual endorsement, Trump wrote, “I can’t hurt one of them by only Endorsing the other, so, therefore, I am going to Endorse, for Governor of South Carolina, both Pam Evette and Alan Wilson!”
In a subsequent statement on X, Evette said, “I was proud to come in first as [Trump’s] endorsed candidate for Governor on June 9th. Looking forward to doing it again on June 23rd.”
After The Washington Post foreshadowed the dual endorsement last Tuesday, allies of Evette were quick to denounce the possibility.
“I would guess that’s fake news,” Suzanne Pucci, a member of Evette’s finance committee, told MS NOW of the chance Trump would also endorse Wilson. “She’s probably not real worried about it.”
Another close ally and supporter told MS NOW at the time the report was “a total, fabricated lie.”
“[Trump] is invested in Pamela Evette because she invested in him. He’s a loyal guy. That kind of stuff is important to him,” added the supporter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“With or without Trump, I think she is going to win,” they said.
On Thursday, a senior campaign aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, brushed off the idea of a dual endorsement, telling MS NOW in a statement, “Pamela Evette has earned the complete and total endorsement of President Trump. She is the only Trump-endorsed candidate in this race and we look forward to delivering a big win for the president on Tuesday.”
Roughly 24 hours later, Trump retracted the exclusive endorsement.
Will McDuffie is a reporter for MS NOW.
As last week’s G7 summit in France got underway, a reporter asked Donald Trump whether his purported deal with Iran was final. “No, it’s not final,” the president replied. Later that day — during a visit to Versaillesof all places — he signed the framework anyway.
But moments after signing his name to the memorandum of understanding, Trump offered an unsubtle hint about what he was thinking at the time. Amid applause from those around him, the American president pointed down and then up while saying“Oil down, stocks up.”
In other words, Trump’s focus had nothing to do with natural security and everything to do with the economy. What’s more, the four-word phrase was part of a larger and underappreciated pattern. The Washington Post reported:
In the more than 100 days since President Donald Trump launched a war with Iran, he has offered a shifting list of reasons for why he started the conflict. But in explaining his push for peace, he named a priority much closer to home: protecting the stock market.
“I didn’t want to see economic catastrophe,” Trump told reporters gathered in the Alpine spa town of Évian-les-Bains, France, after the Group of Seven summit.
As the summit wrapped up, the Republican similarly said“I’ve studied presidents, some good, some bad, some great. Not too many are great and some really bad. … And the one president I did not want to be was the late, great Herbert Hoover. I didn’t want that and who knows what would have happened.”
He pushed the same point in an interview with Axios, which was released over the weekend.
“If I went further, the stock market would be much lower,” the president said. “Now think of this: I have one primary wish as president, in terms of people: I never want to be the late, great Herbert Hoover.”
The comments came days after Trump similarly argued“The alternative to this deal was a global recession. There are stupid people who want to see a global recession. They are just stupid people.”
Whether the president fully appreciates the implications of his own rhetoric, this string of comments doesn’t just shed light on his motivations for accepting a defeat, it also suggests he saw his failed policy in Iran as pushing the global economy toward a dangerous cliff.
In other words, based on Trump’s own comments, the war he started was poised to create an “economic catastrophe,” which he was desperate to avoid — and which led him to accept a framework that empowered Iran to get what it wanted in exchange for effectively no concessions at all.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
- OMB nominee ‘can’t commit’ to forgoing ‘pocket rescissions’ funding gambit this year
- Turek leads Hinson in Iowa Senate poll of likely general election voters
- Capitol agenda: House GOP races to make Recon 3.0 real
- A rising populist tide is threatening New York’s powerful incumbents
- Senate Judiciary schedules confirmation hearing for Todd Blanche
- OMB nominee ‘can’t commit’ to forgoing ‘pocket rescissions’ funding gambit this year
- Senate Republicans say it’s time to give Trump a reality check
- Senate Republicans exclude Democrats’ food aid demand from farm bill
- Turek leads Hinson in Iowa Senate poll of likely general election voters
- Turek leads Hinson in Iowa Senate poll of likely general election voters
-
Politics1 year agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
Politics1 year agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
Uncategorized2 years ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
The Josh Fourrier Show2 years agoDOOMSDAY: Trump won, now what?
-
Politics1 year agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit
-
The Dictatorship10 months agoMike Johnson sums up the GOP’s arrogant position on military occupation with two words