Jerry Falwell Jr.

In March 2020, the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was spreading quickly in the United States, leading to the widespread closures of schools and universities.

Under Falwell Jr., Liberty University has come under scrutiny for its authoritarian control over employees and students, for its nepotism toward Falwell family-owned businesses in the school's investments, and for the increasing influence of Falwell's wife Becki in school affairs. A 2019 Politico article described the University as a "dictatorship" in which Falwell ruled through fear; it also reported that the University sold merchandise promoting Donald Trump's presidential campaign; that Falwell Jr. had crude discussions about his sex life at work; and that Falwell Jr. showed other Liberty employees provocative photos of his wife.

Asked in a January 2019 interview, "Is there anything President Trump could do that would endanger that support from you or other evangelical leaders?", Falwell answered, "No."

On March 23 (after spring break), without the knowledge of city officials, Falwell reopened Liberty University (located in the city of Lynchburg, Virginia) to students to physically return to the campus despite calls for the campus to stay closed to limit the spread of COVID-19. “It’s fortunate that this disease, this flu, doesn’t have a high mortality rate for young people, because they’re the ones that are not worried about it,” said Falwell. “And I’m not worried about it.” He also blamed the media for exaggerating the threat of COVID-19, saying, “They are willing to destroy the economy just to hurt Trump.”

I want the residents in this community to know that at no time did I or the City Manager endorse having the students return to Liberty University’s campus or any of the other college or university campuses in our community. In fact, it is quite the opposite. When we asked President Falwell to close his campus, he explained that he had to remain open for on-campus international students who had not gone home, some lab classes and the School of Aviation. President Falwell also noted that the University would be moving to an on-line platform for instruction. ...

I was very surprised and disappointed to later learn of President Falwell’s most recent decision to allow students back on campus. We are in the midst of a public health crisis. I am concerned for the students, faculty and employees at Liberty University, and I am also very concerned for the residents of the Lynchburg community. Liberty University is an important part of this community; however, I believe it was a reckless decision to bring students back on campus at this time. It is unfortunate that President Falwell chose to not keep his word to us and to this community.

Marybeth Davis Baggett, a professor at Liberty University, has protested against Falwell's reopening of the university. In an op-ed published by The Washington Post and Religion News Service, Baggett called Falwell's decision a "foolhardy decision [that] tracks Falwell’s conspiratorial thinking about COVID-19 and smacks of defiance." She continued, "[Falwell's] public comments on the pandemic have manifested bravado, self-congratulation and callousness in the extreme, as ... he spewed far-fetched, unsubstantiated and misleading information about the coronavirus outbreak. ... By continuing to flout the danger of this novel coronavirus, Falwell also encourages reckless behavior in the university’s students."

In 2019, Reuters reported that Falwell asked Trump fixer Michael Cohen for a personal favor: to help get rid of photos described by Cohen as being "personal" and of the sort that would typically be kept “between husband and wife.” Falwell's lawyers refused to comment. Most of the photos were later discovered to be of Falwell's wife.

According to Brandon Ambrosino, writing in Politico in 2019:

At Liberty, Falwell is “very, very vocal” about his “sex life,” in the words of one Liberty official -- a characterization multiple current and former university officials and employees interviewed for this story support. In a car ride about a decade ago with a senior university official who has since left Liberty, “all he wanted to talk about was how he would nail his wife, how she couldn’t handle [his penis size], and stuff of that sort,” this former official recalled. Falwell did not respond to questions about this incident.

In April 2017, Falwell referred to Trump as the "dream president" for evangelicals, and cited "uniting with Israel" and appointing "people of faith" in his administration as the reason why evangelicals support Trump.

On January 26, 2016, Falwell announced his endorsement of Donald Trump for the Republican Nomination in the 2016 Presidential Election; causing some Liberty University alumni and other Christians to express concern that Falwell had "sold his soul." On July 21, 2016 at the RNC convention in Cleveland, Ohio, Falwell Jr. called Trump "America's blue collar billionaire" and "one of the greatest visionaries of our time" in his endorsement of the candidate he felt most likely to defend the "right to bear arms," "stop Iran...from becoming a nuclear power," and "appoint conservative pro-life justices to the Supreme Court."

In an August 19, 2016 editorial in The Washington Post, Falwell compared Trump to Winston Churchill: "We need a leader with qualities that resemble those of Winston Churchill, and I believe that leader is Donald Trump." A group called the "Red Letter Christians" criticized Falwell for the pivotal role he played in "forging the alliance between white evangelicals and Donald J. Trump, who won 81 percent of their vote." Trump, who is a personal friend of Falwell's, gave the commencement address in 2017 at Liberty University, Lynchburg which is "at the heart of pro-Trump evangelical Christianity".

In June 2016, Falwell expressed support for Israel when Liberty University moved to invest $5 million of its endowment in Israel. Falwell stated, "Liberty is glad to be part of supporting the only democracy that's a close ally of the United States (in an area) that is in such turmoil right now."

In November 2016, Falwell said that President-elect Donald Trump offered him the position of United States Secretary of Education but that he turned down the offer citing personal reasons and because he did not want to leave Liberty University for more than two years. In January 2017, Falwell said that he had been asked by President Trump to head a task force on reforms for the United States Department of Education. In June 2017, Falwell confirmed to the Chronicle of Higher Education that he would be one of 15 college presidents participating in the task force. The task force was never formed.

Falwell stated during one of the University's Convocations that he thought that, if, speaking of the 2015 San Bernardino attack, "some of those people had got what I have in my back pocket right now," that it would not have happened. He said that he was astounded that President Barack Obama's answer to the problem was more gun control. He "always thought that, if more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in and killed them."

Falwell was sued over a Miami Beach, Florida hostel, which he had invested in along with Giancarlo Granda, a pool attendant at the Fontainebleau Hotel. The lawsuit was first filed in 2015; it was dismissed and then refiled in August 2017. Falwell has denied any relationship, business or otherwise, with Granda, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and insisted that the pictures of him at the hostel were altered.

By March 13, almost all of Virginia's prominent universities had announced that they were moving their classes to online only, discontinuing in-person classes. Nevertheless, Falwell announced on March 13 that in-person classes at Liberty University would resume following spring break (March 14–22, 2020) in defiance" of "nationwide calls for mandatory school closures."

As part of a succession plan the elder Falwell laid out before his death, Jerry Jr. was to be entrusted with Liberty University while Jerry Sr.'s other son, Jonathan Falwell, inherited the ministry at Thomas Road Baptist Church. The decisions were rooted in each's personality: Jerry Jr. had aggressive business instincts, and Jonathan was a more charismatic and morally upstanding character. This succession plan took effect when Jerry Sr. died in 2007.

From 1987 until 2007, Falwell served in private practice in Virginia and as the lawyer for Liberty University and its related organizations. He joined the Board of Trustees of the university in 2000.

Jerry Lamon Falwell Jr. (/ˈ f ɔː l w ɛ l / ; born June 17, 1962) is an American lawyer and university administrator. He serves as the president of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, appointed in 2007 upon his father's death.

Jerry Falwell Jr. was born on June 17, 1962, the eldest son of Jerry Sr. and Macel Falwell (née Pate). He attended private schools in the Lynchburg area, attending Lynchburg Christian Academy (later renamed as Liberty Christian Academy) where he graduated in 1980, and attended Liberty University where he obtained a B.A. in religious studies in 1984. Falwell then attended the University of Virginia School of Law, where he obtained a J.D. (a law degree) in 1987.