Did evangelist Franklin Graham say President Donald Trump is just befriending prostitutes like Jesus would to defend him from criticism in the Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal affairs? No, that's not true: this story originated from a satire website designed to look like a business news site.
The story originated from an article published on April 19, 2018 titled "Graham: Trump Befriends Prostitutes, Like Jesus" (archived here) which opened:
Even though yet another woman has come forward to say she slept with President Donald Trump, while he was married to his second wife Marla Maples, he still maintains support from so-called Values Voters.
Trump is facing lawsuits from porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playmate Karen McDougal. Now, former Playmate Barbara Moore has come forward to admit she had a sexual relationship with Trump in the 1990s.
The relevant part of the article is this bit:
Evangelist Franklin Graham defended Trump's liaisons with sex workers.
"Trump is like Jesus," said Graham in Charisma magazine. "The Lord also befriended prostitutes. I think Trump was trying to save them."
We were unable to locate that quote anywhere on the website of Charisma magazine, which makes sense because the website The Business Standard News (at bizstandardnews.com) is a fake news website that publishes satirical parody articles according to the about page:
The Business Standard News is a satirical site designed to parody the 24-hour news cycle. The stories are outlandish, but reality is so strange nowadays they could be true.
The site has been in operation since at least July 25, 2015 when it published a satirical article claiming the KKK had endorsed Donald Trump. The articles on the site, the Whois record for the domain name and the @bizstandardnews twitter account all identify "Jamal Whiteman" as the author behind the site.
We wrote about bizstandardnews.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
