Jerry Falwell Jr praises Trump's Twitter attacks, calls president 'a bold leader willing to speak his mind'

Reuters

Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr has defended Trump's Twitter attacks against his opponents, praising 'a bold leader who's willing to speak his mind'.

Leading evangelical and Trump supporter Jerry Falwell Jr has defended the president's Twitter attacks against his opponents, calling him 'a bold leader who's willing to speak his mind'.

Falwell Jr, the president of the Christian institution Liberty University, was speaking with host Jeanine Piro on Fox News.

'The left is melting down,' Falwell said. 'It's incredible to watch how they still haven't gotten over how Donald Trump won and when he hits them back on Twitter, I actually appreciate that.'

Falwell also praised Trump's pro-Christian rhetoric at Celebrate Freedom Rally in Washington DC on Saturday, while accusing Barack Obama of having only favoured Muslims. 'He was not bashful at all about talking about his Christian faith,' Falwell said. 'He is all about religious liberties...he is interested in defending the liberties of Christians, not just Muslims, like out last president.' Trump has heightened his attacks on the media in the past week. He tweeted an outburst against the hosts of MSNBC's 'Morning Joe', calling them 'crazy', 'psycho', 'low IQ', 'dumb as a rock' and mocking the appearance of host Mika Brzezinski. On Sunday the President posted edited footage of his appearance on a TV wrestling match, depicting him beating to the floor an opponent marked as 'CNN', captioning the Tweet '#FraudNewsCNN'.

Speaking at the at Celebrate Freedom Rally, Trump said: 'The fake media is trying to silence us, but we will not let them. The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House. But I'm president, and they're not.'

Falwell lamented a supposed decline in American leadership: 'We've gone from world leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. I'm glad to see...we're finally getting back to a bold leader who's willing to speak his mind'.

Falwell is an established ally of Trump's: he endorsed him in the presidential election, and it was announced in February that he would lead an education reform task force for the Trump administration. Trump previously called Falwell 'one of the most respected religious leaders in our nation'.