The Republican primary candidate for the 2016 elections, Donald Trump, arrived at Liberty University on January 18, 2016, one week before the frst primaries in Iowa. He was introduced to the students by Jerry Falwell Jr., the university's president and son of Jerry Falwell Sr., who followed in his father's footsteps and echoed Reagan's visit to the campus in 1980. During the speech, where Trump was portrayed by the popular conservative broadcaster Sean Hannity as the “defender of Christianity,” the candidate pledged to defend believers in the United States and around the world. In that same speech, Trump explicitly responded to the dangers of the nuclear deal with Iran and even vowed to cancel it. The support he received from Falwell Jr. on the eve of the frst primaries held in Iowa on February 1, 2016, was of signifcant value. Falwell Jr.'s political stance and support of Trump were extensively discussed in the American media, mainly in terms of the damage such support could have on Republican Senator Ted Cruz from Texas, whose father was an Evangelical pastor and should have received this portion of the Republican Party voters in the primaries. “This support [for Trump, K.B.] is a blow to Ted Cruz, less than a week before the primaries in Iowa, in which he needed the support of conservative Christians.”