For 1st commencement address, Trump picks Liberty University

WASHINGTON (AP) — For his first commencement address as president, Donald Trump has picked Liberty University, the Christian school whose leader was among Trump's earliest and most vocal supporters.

Trump's remarks Saturday on the Lynchburg, Virginia, campus will mark his first extended public appearance since he fired James Comey as FBI director this week.

The president largely has stayed out of public view since Tuesday, when he removed the head of the agency investigating Russia's role in the 2016 election, along with possible ties between Trump's campaign and the Russian government.

Trump lashed out at Comey on Friday, tweeting that Comey "better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"

Trump's chief spokesman refused to comment Friday on whether active listening devices are in the Oval Office or elsewhere in the building. That nondenial drew comparisons to the secretly taped conversations and telephone calls that led to President Richard Nixon's downfall in the Watergate scandal in the 1970s.

Trump had earlier criticized Comey as a "showboat" and a "grandstander," and the president's warning prompted new accusations of interference with the FBI's Russia investigation.

In his weekly address to the nation, Trump said he was "delighted to be participating first hand in the excitement" as students and faculty celebrate Liberty's more than 18,000 graduates.

The commander in chief typically addresses graduates of one of the U.S. military service academies, and Trump is scheduled to speak at the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut on Wednesday.

"To young Americans at both schools, I will be bringing a message of hope and optimism about our nation's bright future," Trump said.

Jerry Falwell Jr., Liberty's president, helped Trump win an overwhelming 80 percent of the white evangelical vote.

A recent Pew Research Center survey marking Trump's first 100 days in office, a milestone reached on April 29, found three-quarters of white evangelicals approved of his performance as president while just 39 percent of the general public held the same view.

Christian conservatives have been overjoyed by Trump's appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, along with Trump's choice of socially conservative Cabinet members and other officials, such as Charmaine Yoest, a prominent anti-abortion activist named to the Department of Health and Human Services.

But they had a mixed response to an executive order on religious liberty that Trump signed last week. He directed the IRS to ease up on enforcing an already rarely enforced limit on partisan political activity by churches.

He also promised "regulatory relief" for those who object on religious grounds to the birth control coverage requirement in the Affordable Care Act health law. Yet the order did not address one of the most pressing demands from religious conservatives: broad exemptions from recognizing same-sex marriage.

Still, Falwell, who endorsed Trump in January 2016 just before that year's Iowa caucuses, praised Trump's actions on issues that concern Christian conservatives.

"I really don't think any other president has done more for evangelicals and the faith community in four months than President Trump has," Falwell told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Falwell became a key surrogate and validator for the thrice-married Trump during the campaign, frequently traveling with Trump on the candidate's plane and appearing at events. Falwell often compared Trump to his later father, the conservative televangelist Jerry Falwell, and argued that while Trump wasn't the most religious candidate in the race, he was the man the country needed.

Trump has spoken at Liberty University before. He courted Christians there in January 2016 with a speech that drew laughs from some in the audience when referred to one of the Bible's books as "Two Corinthians" instead of the more common "Second Corinthians." In that speech, Trump promised: "We're going to protect Christianity, and I can say that. I don't have to be politically correct."

Newly elected U.S. presidents often give their first commencement addresses at the University of Notre Dame, the country's best-known Roman Catholic school.

Presidents Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush did so during their first year in office. But this year, Vice President Mike Pence will speak at Notre Dame's graduation, becoming the first vice president to do so.

Notre Dame spokesman Paul Browne declined to say whether Trump had been invited to the May 21 ceremony, saying it was against school policy to reveal who had turned down offers.

AP Religion Writer Rachel Zoll in New York and Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Washington and Brian Slodysko in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

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