When President Donald Trump visits Utah on Monday, he comes as the least popular Republican commander in chief in recent decades to meet with Mormonism’s highest-ranking officials.
In 2016, when the “Access Hollywood” tape of Trump bragging about groping women became public, the LDS Church-owned newspaper, the Deseret News, said he should drop out of the race. On Election Day, far fewer Utahns voted for him — about 45 percent — than cast ballots for favorite son Mitt Romney, John McCain or George W. Bush.
Outspoken Mormon politicians, including Romney and outgoing Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., have soundly criticized Trump, condemning both the president’s style and positions on refugees and immigration.