Controversial GOP front runner, business mogul Donald Trump recently lashed out at Bob Vander, president of the Family Leader. President of the Family Leader, Vander Plaats, opposed to abortion and gay marriage, has decided to endorse Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) for president instead of Trump. As an influential evangelical Iowan, Bob Vander Plaats experienced what it was like to be friends with Donald Trump. The New York billionaire invited Vander Plaats and his family to visit New York several times, refusing to allow them to pay to stay at one of his hotels and lavishing kindness.
Trump lambastes Bob Vander Plaats
On Tuesday, Trump thrashed Vander Plaats on Twitter, calling him “phony” and “a bad guy.” The attacks came as Trump announced that Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. had endorsed him. “It’s Donald Trump exposed: He wants to be your friend when he thinks he can get something in return for that friendship,” Vander Plaats said Tuesday in an interview. “In Iowa, we look at friendship as what we can do for our friends, not what our friends can do for us.”
Vander calls Trump proud and arrogant
Vander Plaats said he has seen others receive the same sort of treatment from Trump. Trump once praised Fox News’s Megyn Kelly but is now trying to have her removed as a moderator for the upcoming GOP debate because he believes she asks unfair questions. The Republican establishment was once slammed by Trump but now appears to be in his good graces. “It just shows a guy that gets tossed about to and fro too easily,” Vander Plaats said. “I think that kind of pride and arrogance leads to unstable temperament and judgment.”
Vander’s endorsement was based on abortion and gay marriage
Vander Plaats said he endorsed Cruz over Trump because the billionaire businessman’s record on abortion and gay marriage is “a mixed bag.” He said that he was concerned when Trump said at a forum with evangelicals in Iowa last summer that he does not seek forgiveness from God. According to the Washington post, the final straw came when Trump appeared to mock the physical disability of a New York Times reporter. Vander Plaats said he was also dismayed to hear Trump joke that he could shoot someone and still not lose support.
