In May of 2017, Donald Trump signed an executive order that supposedly weakened the Johnson Amendment. While it didn’t technically prohibit pastors from endorsing candidates from the pulpit if they wanted to hold on to their non-profit status, Trump’s order told the IRS to back off from enforcing their own rules...

...But the knowledge that the IRS likely wouldn’t punish non-profits for playing politics gave Liberty University’s president and pool boy enthusiast Jerry Falwell, Jr. the green light he needed to break the rules.