Ben Lowry: Donald ​Trump turns a question about his relationship with God into an excuse to boast about himself

I am surprised by the number of people whom I respect who think that he is a bit uncouth but not that bad as a politician and leader. I think, in contrast, that his behaviour is almost beyond parody and belief. Last week I wrote how I used to say he was like a 12-year-old but came to see he is far less mature than that (click here for that article about how the US presidential election gets worse and worse).

​There was an example this week that would be almost comical if not so repellent. Mr Trump, a man who has patently not been religious at any point in his life, indeed is the antithesis of a traditional Christian, was asked in a fawning interview on Fox News: “What’s your relationship with God like and how do you pray?”

He replied: “OK. So, I think it’s good. I do very well with the evangelicals, I love the evangelicals, and I have more people saying they pray for me; I can't even believe it, and they are so committed and they’re so believing, they say: ‘Sir, you’re going to be ok. I pray for you every night.’

“I mean everybody, I can’t say everybody, almost everybody who sees me they say it, it is such a beautiful thing.”

What I would say about that is: have you ever seen such vanity?

He doesn’t even mention God. He turns it into the extent to which Christians worship him.

How contemptible, yet evangelicals adore this wretch.

Click here for Ben Lowry’s main column about D-Day

• Ben Lowry (@BenLowry2) is News Letter editor