Prominent US Evangelical magazine calls for Donald Trump to be removed from office

The first crack in Donald Trump's support among America's huge Evangelical community emerged as the prominent magazine Christianity Today called the president's conduct "profoundly immoral" and said he should be removed from office.

Up to one quarter of US voters identify as Evangelical Christians and they have been a foundation of Mr Trump's support.

He took over 80 per cent of the Evangelical vote in the 2016 election. Leading figures in the movement have stood by him ever since, as he appointed religious conservative judges to the US Supreme Court.

But in an editorial supporting impeachment Christianity Today, which was founded in 1956 by the late televangelist Billy Graham, said: "The facts in this instance are unambiguous: the president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president's political opponents.

"That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral." It urged Evangelicals supporting the president "in spite of his blackened moral record," to remember "loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments" and "your witness to your Lord and Saviour".

Mr Trump, it said, was “morally lost and confused." The Illinois-based publication, which has 80,000 print subscribers, has been described as the "flagship magazine" of Evangelicalism.

Following the publication of the article, entitled "Trump should be removed from office," its website crashed.

On Twitter, Mr Trump responded that it was a "far-Left magazine" which "hasn’t been involved with the Billy Graham family for many years" and would "rather have a radical Left nonbeliever, who wants to take your religion and your guns" as president."

He added: "No president has done more for the Evangelical community, and it’s not even close."

Mr Trump said he would not be reading the publication again, and wrote its initials as "ET" rather than "CT". The editorial was written by Mark Galli, the editor-in-chief, who is retiring next month.

Mr Trump was backed by Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son and himself a prominent evangelist. He said it was "unfathomable" and his father, who died last year, would have been "very embarrassed" that the magazine had become a "Leftist elite within the Evangelical community."

Mr Graham added: "I have not previously shared who my father voted for in the past election, but because of this article, I feel it is necessary to share it now.

"My father knew Donald Trump, he believed in Donald Trump, and he voted for Donald Trump. He believed that Donald J. Trump was the man for this hour in history for our nation."

Mr Trump later attacked Christianity Today again on Twitter, accusing it of "looking to those of the socialist/communist bent to guard their religion."

He added: "Thank you to Franklin Graham for stating that his father, the late great Billy Graham, voted for me in the 2016 Election. I know how pleased you are with the work we have all done together!"

The row came as a former White House official claimed Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, had personally convinced Mr Trump, against the conclusions of every US intelligence agency, that Ukraine, rather than Russia, interfered in the 2016 US election.

Mr Trump reportedly became more convinced of Ukraine's culpability after a private meeting with Mr Putin at the G20 summit in Hamburg in July 2017.

"Putin told me," Mr Trump subsequently said to a former White House official, according to the Washington Post.

Meanwhile, the impeachment of Mr Trump was in limbo after the House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to proceed to a trial in the Senate.

Mr Trump will be tried over allegations that he attempted to coerce Ukraine into launching a corruption investigation into Joe Biden, his political rival.

However, as Congress broke up for its Christmas recess Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat Speaker of the House, declined to send the two articles of impeachment to the Senate.

Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, said they were at an "impasse" with the two parties at loggerheads over the format of the trial.

Democrats want to call White House officials as witnesses. Some Republicans want no witnesses, others want to call Mr Biden.

Mr Trump called for an "immediate trial"  and said the delay showed Democrats have "zero proof of anything."

Fewer than half of Americans want Mr Trump removed from office, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday.