David Cay Johnston won a Pulitzer Prize some years ago. He considers himself to be a student of Donald J. Trump, having covered him for 30 years.

He sat down for an interview with Salon magazine. Much of his interview has been posted online. I want to break out a few segments of it in the days ahead. Today, I want to post some comments he made about the president’s baffling appeal among Christians.

Johnston told Salon the following:

I think it is very important for religious Americans to know that Donald Trump says that his personal philosophy of life is revenge. He has called anyone who turns the other cheek — which is a fundamental teaching of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount — a fool, an idiot or a schmuck. Trump is a man who says things that are absolutely contrary to the teachings of the New Testament. He also denigrates Christians. Yet you see all of these ministers endorsing him.

This lies at the heart of one of the most bizarre aspects of the “base” that continues to hang tightly onto the president.

Yes, I get that he possesses enormous power to appoint judges who will rule from the bench favorably in the eyes of evangelical voters.

Yet they continue to give him a pass on some of his own many personal failings. The serial philandering. The sexual assault to which he has admitted. The hideous mocking of people with disabilities.

He has acknowledged as well that he’s never sought forgiveness. As Johnston noted in his remarks to Salon:

I’ve followed Donald for 30 years. I don’t see any evidence that he has changed, and he certainly hasn’t repented, which is a fundamental Christian obligation.

Someone will have to explain to me in detail how this liar continues to enjoy the support among those who profess their own deep religious convictions.

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Here is the rest of the Salon interview.