Fact check: Trump falsely claims ‘insurance reasons’ prevented him from entering St. John’s Church

WASHINGTON — More than two weeks after his controversial photo-op outside a Washington, DC, church, President Donald Trump offered a new explanation last week for why he didn’t enter St. John’s Episcopal Church. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday Trump said there were “a lot of insurance reasons” for why he couldn’t go in.

That isn’t true.

Facts First: “There were no insurance reasons” why Trump could not have entered St. John’s Church, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington told CNN on Friday. She said only a small room in the basement of the church, a nursery, had been damaged in a fire the day prior, and “the main sanctuary was not harmed at all.”

Trump has faced criticism not only because police used force to clear peaceful protesters out of the way before the photo-op but because he merely brandished the Bible without opening it, offering a prayer, or going into the building.