Trump is doing everything he can to end the war. Don’t trust the fake news, — interview with the U.S. President’s top pastor

Mark Burns is a well-known evangelical pastor in the United States, once described by Time magazine as "Donald Trump’s top pastor." In April, at the invitation of Ukraine’s Chief Rabbi Moshe Azman, Burns visited Ukraine for the first time. He witnessed firsthand the consequences of Russian aggression in Bucha, Irpin, Borodianka, and Kryvyi Rih.

In an interview with "Telegraf", the pastor shared how the trip shattered his misconceptions about Ukrainians and the war, and emphasized the vital role of spiritual diplomacy.

"There are a lot of fake narratives about Ukraine"

— Pastor Burns, have your trips directly to war-affected cities changed your perspective and understanding of what is truly happening in Ukraine?

— Fake news has done a great job of spreading their narrative of lies towards the American people, and that happens both on the left and the right.

There was a time when journalism was just about reporting the truth. But instead, many journalists today are essentially what I would call domestic and foreign terrorists because they promote a narrative that can cause a lot of harm to innocent people.

Right now, President Trump is the target of the fake news—and he has been for the last ten years. I was with him before he announced he was running for president [in 2016], and I saw firsthand how the left in America portrayed him as a racist and a person who doesn't care about people. That is completely the contrary.

And the same goes for me. Fake news or the media are very good at creating false narratives and they've done the same with Ukraine. For a long time all I knew about your country was the narrative that Ukraine was full of neo-Nazis, that its people were racist, hated churches, didn't allow religious freedom and were a bunch of corrupt individuals.

Now, I'm not talking about the government of Ukraine — I'll leave that to the professionals. I'm talking about the people. And they're contrary to that. I've seen ordinary people being targeted by Putin and the Russian army. That's when my heart began to change significantly.

Soldiers who are on the front lines told me: "We don’t want American money. We just want weapons to defend ourselves. We will buy our own weapons, but we just want the ability to defend ourselves. But more importantly than weapons, we want peace."

That's the message from these soldiers and some of the generals in your high command that I've met. They all say the same thing.

Because this isn’t about being pro- or anti-Zelenskyy. It’s not about whether you think Zelenskyy disrespected the Oval Office, or whether you think Trump ambushed him. It's irrelevant to me. I am a strong MAGA supporter of President Trump. I am a strong "America First" supporter. My opinion on that matter has not changed. I believe that God has ordained me to support President Trump's agenda. And to push what God has ordained him to do in America and around the world.

Being on the ground in Ukraine has allowed me to cut through the noise of the fake news media, which is once again designed to portray Ukrainians as corrupt, racist, neo-Nazi sympathizers. These are some of the characteristics that comes from the news to those of us in America. And those of us who are the conservative right.

And it's easy to push for not supporting Ukraine if you think the Ukrainians don't allow religious freedom or support anti-Semitism. It took me going there to see the reality. Ukraine is a sovereign nation. And the Ukrainians are desiring peace more than ammo. This is what truly matters.

"President Trump’s desire is to bring a peaceful solution as fast as possible"

— Have you spoken to President Trump about your trip to Ukraine? And if not, are you planning to?

— I've already communicated with the highest levels of government here in America. I've shared what I've seen on the ground in Ukraine and tried to paint a humanitarian picture. Again, I'm not privy to all the information that the President and his special envoys and advisers have. That's not my job.

My assignment is to show the world that there are peaceful, innocent people in Ukraine. Just like God told me to show the world that Donald Trump was not a racist, even though it was not popular to be a black Republican supporting him back in 2015. But it was the right thing to do because he was the least racist man you would ever know.

And in the same way, it's not necessarily popular to support Ukraine. Because the image of President Zelenskyy in America is not so great. Just like, to my understanding, there are many people who don't like President Trump [in Ukraine]. But that's because of the fake news between both sides.

My goal is to cut through the noise and to remind the people that President Trump did not start this war. He inherited it from Biden. And he's made it very clear that Biden could have stopped it, but he didn't.

President Trump’s desire is to bring a peaceful solution as fast as possible. And to do that, you have to communicate with all sides involved. President Trump has become the mediator in this situation, and I know that many Ukrainians may not understand that. But my message to the Ukrainian brothers and sisters: President Trump is not your enemy.

— You’ve mentioned fake news that basically brainwash people's minds. What can be done to raise greater awareness among Republican politicians, public figures, and opinion leaders about the reality on the ground in Ukraine? Should they follow your example and come here?

— We're having more and more conversations right now. I am using the platform that God has given me. Because in the end, I serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob through his son, Jesus, the Messiah. My allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America is second in that order. I have to do what is right and not necessarily what is popular.

No one is paying me to do this. I'm not a lobbyist. I don't represent any government. To me, this is akin to what peaceful figures like the Pope, Bishop Desmond Tutu, and others have done to promote peace.

I've been on the ground in Ukraine, and I'm constantly getting messages from there. I've been communicating with people who were directly at the ceremony in the church when the bombing took place. And yet you have people in America saying, "This is just propaganda. It's the Ukrainians attacking the Ukrainians. It's a false flag [operation]."

And it angers me when people repeat what some conspiracy theorists on Reddit or Telegram accounts might have said, spreading false narratives.

Russia attacked Ukraine. Ukraine didn’t attack Russia, to my understanding. That's what I believe, based on my communications with people on the ground and senior leadership within the military. I don't have access to all the intelligence that President Trump has. But these senior Ukrainian generals have made it clear: more than ammunition, they want peace. They didn't start this war.

I'm not here to argue the politics. I'm here to bring awareness that innocent people are dying. 34 people were killed on Palm Sunday [in Sumy]. Two of them were children. This is pure terrorism. And we should call it for what it is, terrorism. To me, that is no different from somebody strapping a bomb to themselves and walking into a restaurant and detonating it.

That's what Putin is doing when he allows his military to bomb non-military institutions like churches and open markets when people simply walking to attend services, to celebrate the beginning of Holy Week, the most holy week of our faith in the Christian community. To do that intentionally sends a strong signal to me and the rest of the world.

Where all politics goes out the window, your humanitarian side needs to kick in. I am governed and canon by the word of God, the 66 books we call from Genesis to Revelations. That's where my thought process is derived from. Am I perfect? Absolutely not.

Am I innocent of sin? Absolutely not. I am guilty of sinful natures. But God is able to look beyond Mark Burns' faults and my past failures and look at my needs.

God has given me this international platform to bring peace, to draw attention. How do we do this? We have more conversations like this. And we encourage people to come to Ukraine, to see for themselves.

This isn’t about Democrats or Republicans. Wars are happening all over the world—and what we need are people who are willing to stand up for what’s right, not just for what’s popular.

"We should speak to one another as human beings"

— What is the significance of spiritual diplomacy in such challenging times? I read your posts about traveling to Ukraine — you shared some photos with the hashtag #spiritualdiplomat. Could you elaborate on what that means?

— In every nation—whether it's a friendly or enemy one—there are spiritual leaders governed by their faith, just like I am. In every nation, there are spiritual leaders—Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Sikh, and others—who stand on common values like peace, prosperity, non-violence, and communication. There are other versions of me around the world who are close to the government or leadership of their country.

This is a kind of quiet diplomacy that goes on all the time. And it's not politics. It's based on humanity and humanitarian desires to bring peace. To look at my fellow brothers and sisters—regardless of skin color, race, religion, or the country they're from—and know that this is a human being who desires to live.

We may disagree on many things, but we should speak to one another as human beings, respect one another, and meet in the middle on the things we do agree on—peace, non-violence, prosperity, and goodwill amongst all men. That gives people like me the opportunity to communicate with other spiritual leaders and see what’s really happening on the ground, beyond the noise of fake news.

Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, Moshe Azman brought me to Ukraine. Spiritual diplomacy means that we're more aligned to our faith than to our political parties.

I'm speaking for Mark Burns. I'm not speaking for the President or the White House. My thoughts have been made very clear and very well known. And my prayer is that the Holy Spirit, the Hand of God that protected President Trump in those two assassination attempts, will continue to minister to him.

And I can tell you firsthand, he's doing everything that he can to bring a swift end to the war. I don't care what the fake news is telling you. I keep telling to my Ukrainian brothers and sisters: President Trump desires peace among all things.

"Many people use faith as a reason to do harm on innocent people"

— You know what’s shocking to me? Last year, for example, the Russian Orthodox Church declared Russia’s war against Ukraine a "holy war." It seems that Russia is using religion as a cover — a justification for its atrocities. This has nothing to do with a faith in God. What’s your opinion on that?

— There are so many people who use faith as a reason to harm innocent people. Look at those who call for jihad, look at ISIS and other terrorist organisations who force their religious belief system on people and leave them no choice. If you don't follow them, they will either kill you or take away your rights.

We saw the same thing in America when white southerners justified slavery by using the Old Testament and the Bible. The Ku Klux Klan often quoted the wrath of God and used The Scriptures as a justification to hang black people from the tree.

Look at the First and Second Crusades, how the Popes atoned for all the Crusaders as long as they killed Muslims. That's the same thing that the Russian Orthodox Church, to my understanding, is doing to the Russian people. This is unholy. This is not the will of God.

And this is new information that I'm learning. If this is the case, I openly condemn what they're doing. That is not God.

— Russia is pouring a lot of money into spreading fake news about Ukrainian churches and so-called attacks on religion. But as I understand it, during your visit to Ukraine, you saw firsthand that these claims aren’t true.

— I do want to be clear. People are trying to report me about the issues with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, I am learning about it and hope that it’s not true.

Everybody should have a right to worship in freedom. Even though I may disagree with you theologically, I still will fight for your right to worship in peace. And I believe that's the way that God would have us to do.

I'm willing to talk to anybody that has a desire to bring peace and prosperity, not push political propaganda. I'm pretty sure at some point, Russian propaganda will start attacking me because I've been very vocal in my support for Ukraine, not because somebody paid me to do it. I don't work for the CIA, I've heard so many things about myself.

I came at the request of Chief Rabbi Azman, who loves Ukraine. He's a peaceful man who runs a wonderful synagogue in Kyiv. And his desire is to see people free.

Spiritual diplomats like me are ones that are able to begin to communicate with each other, get past the fake news, and really begin to report what's actually true around the world.

For me, it’s about glorifying Jesus. For others, it may be the Prophet Muhammad or whomever they believe, that's their right to do so. I preach the love of Jesus Christ. And that transcends race, religion, nationality.

I'm here to push and promote the free and innocent people of Ukraine. And I pray that this evil war will come to an end as fast as possible.