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Fact-checking Trump's big claim from National Prayer Breakfast speech; ‘got rid of Johnson Amendment’
President Donald Trump delivered a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday.
President Donald Trump delivered a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday. During his address, the 79-year-old made several big claims, including one about getting rid of the Johnson Amendment, a tax code provision from 1954 that bans all 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, including churches, from endorsing or opposing political candidates.
What did Trump say at the National Prayer Breakfast?
"People like me and people, like a lot of people, they want to hear from ministers, they want to hear from priests, they want to hear from them. And you were restricted from talking about very important things like who to elect if you said that you were gone, you couldn’t do it, even if you said it in a very nice way, because they were going to be better for the church," Trump said.
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The president further added that he worked hard to get rid of it.
"We worked hard at getting rid of the Johnson Amendment. It’s gone as far as you can say anything you want. Now, if you do say something bad about Trump, I will change my mind, and I will have, I will have your tax exempt status immediately revoked," he joked.
Fact-checking Trump's claim
Trump has limited the Johnson Amendment. In July last year, the Internal Revenue Service said that churches can endorse candidates without fear of losing their tax-exempt status. The agency made the statement in court. The case was between National Religious Broadcasters and others and the IRS.
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“When a house of worship in good faith speaks to its congregation, through its customary channels of communication on matters of faith in connection with religious services, concerning electoral politics viewed through the lens of religious faith, it neither 'participate[s]' nor 'intervene[s]' in a 'political campaign,' within the ordinary meaning of those words,” the parties wrote in the filing.
“Thus, communications from a house of worship to its congregation in connection with religious services through its usual channels of communication on matters of faith do not run afoul of the Johnson Amendment as properly interpreted.”
