THE CASH COMMENTARY FOR APRIL 2, 2026

                                                                    CASH MICHAELS  

        AN OPEN LETTER TO FRANKLIN GRAHAM

                                             By Cash Michaels  

To Evangelist Franklin Graham:

First, please allow me to wish you and yours Almighty GOD’s most precious blessings during this Holy Week, when Christians around the world commemorate the solemn crucifixion, and celebrate the joyful resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.   

I have a special place in my heart for men/women of the cloth and the vital service they provide our communities. Ministers are those special breed of servant-leaders whose singular job is to bring souls to Christ, souls that seek salvation from a world darkened and corrupted by sin. Ministers are the Lord’s anointed vessels through which we hear His Word, and commit our lives to serving GOD, doing His Will, and combating evil wherever it may rear its ugly head.

Ever since I was a child, I’ve been raised to love GOD with all of my heart, and fight the sin of evil and injustice, and I’m so grateful that GOD Almighty has given me the heart and voice to do it with.

But as a Christian, I just don’t understand where you as a man of GOD are coming from when it comes to your unabashed support of Donald Trump, and I probably never will.

Yes, normally I’m all for supporting the president of the United States, the leader of the Free World and most powerful man on this planet, when he has exhibited some degree of decency, honesty and determination to respect and serve we the people, and the rule of law.

And of course, if the president is a man who truly loves GOD, and counts on His spiritual wisdom and guidance to see him through the inevitable tough challenges of the office, then there is no question this is a selfless leader of the people who undoubtedly deserves our prayers as he leads us.

So yes, I support the president I’ve just described above.

But you, Evangelist Graham, a nationally prominent man of GOD, do not. Instead, you support Donald Trump, and I’m confused as to why. If you and I read and understand the same Bible, and believe in and understand the same Christian GOD, then I remain confused, sir.

Recently at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), you spoke, and among the things you said was, “God loves you. He loves his country. And I love Donald Trump! Is he perfect? No. But I love that guy! I love him. And we’ll only have one chance at this. We’ll never get another president like Donald Trump! Never! 

“Thank you! And that’s why it’s important that we do everything that we can to try to get him reelected! He stands not only for religious freedom, he stands up for Christians, like no president we’ve ever had.”

For the record, by now you certainly know that Trump cannot be re-elected to office (not legally anyway), so you obviously misspoke. But according to a statement from your spokesman, Mark Barber, “President Donald Trump isn’t on the ballot, his policies are.” Mr. Graham intended to say the president’s policies should be reelected—not that the president should be reelected.”

So I’m compelled to ask, Evangelist Graham, exactly what policies of the Trump Administration are you urging conservatives to “re-elect”?

Is it the policy of starting wars, like the one the guy you “love” recently started with Iran for reasons that in the opinion of most observers, are dubious as best?

Am I to assume since you “love” Donald Trump, and apparently “love” his policies by proxy, then you must also love what Secretary of War Pete Hegeseth recently prayed for during a “Dept. of War” Christian worship service, “Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation.”

Hegeseth, who is clearly unhinged, sir, also asked GOD for “overwhelming violence.”

Apparently another man of GOD did not appreciate Sec. Hegeseth’s reckless prayer. His name is Pope Leo XIV, and during his Palm Sunday Mass homily at the Vatican last Sunday, the leader of the Catholic Church said the Iran War started by the president you told attendees at a partisan political convention you “love” was “atrocious.”

"This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” the pontiff continued."(Jesus) does not ⁠listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: 'Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands ⁠are full of blood.”

I’m not Catholic, but given the choice of listening to either Pete Hegeseth, Pope Leo or Donald Trump on the subject of war, I choose Leo hands down. Not because I “love” the man, but because I love GOD, and believe that Pope Leo is carrying out His “policies”, just as Hegeseth is carrying out Trump’s.

For me, it is an easy choice.

Evangelist Graham, please tell me, what other Trump public policies do you want to see “re-elected”? Perhaps you want to see more policies like his so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill,” you know, the law Trump’s Republican Congress passed last year that tremendously helped rich people, and deliberately hurt poor people in this country by slashing government spending on Medicaid (health insurance) and SNAP (food assistance).

As someone who leads a notable global faith-based charitable nonprofit organization, Samaritan’s Purse, which is supposed to be dedicated to helping the poor, how can you possibly “love” a Trump policy that further hurts the poor? I don’t understand. 1 John 3:17 is one of many Bible passages that tells us, “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?”

Then there are the Trump public policies on voting, where we see he is trying to limit our right through his insane Save America Act; Trump’s policies on race, where his administration is actively destroying civil rights law that guided employment, college campuses, scientific research, museum and educational history, etc.; Trump’s demeaning policies on immigration, where some of the poorest people on the planet make their way our great and prosperous country seeking freedom and opportunity, only to be treated like criminals and forced to be rounded up and caged like animals.

Whatever happened to Christ’s commandment in Matthew 25:35, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” 

Or did you not get to that part of the Bible yet?

I could go on about Trump’s lies and divisiveness, his viciousness and pure hatred towards those who opposed him and rightfully brought him to justice, and of course his insufferable self-idolatry, but all any of it would prove is that this man is no different than any of those evil kings from the Old Testament, who Almighty GOD preferred to destroy rather than shamefully pat on the head like you’re doing with Trump.

Of course I don’t expect you to ever hate President Trump, but I do expect you, as a professed man of GOD, to hate the sins he’s clearly committed, the sins he’s obviously hiding, and the pain that he’s caused, and continues to cause innocent people..

You once said about Trump when he talked about going to Heaven, “We all have the promise of eternal life if we repent of our sins, trust Him by faith, and make Him the Lord of our lives” So has Trump repented recently? I’ve seen no evidence of this.

I guess that’s what separates you from your legendary father, Evangelist Billy Graham,”America’s pastor”, a great man of GOD who sought to unite people with his worldwide ministry, not choose political sides. Pres. Jimmy Carter once said of your father “His reputation is above reproach or suspicion.”

In 1954, Time Magazine called your father “the best-known, most talked-about Christian leader in the world today, barring the Pope.”

A devout man of GOD who counseled presidents from both sides of the political divide, not “love” one or his policies over the other. Your father once joined with Pres. Eisenhower in denouncing Communism, and helped him become a Presbyterian when he learned that “Ike” had never been baptized.

A far cry from the “love” you bestow on Donald Trump today.

Evangelist Billy Graham was a preacher of the highest integrity. During the ’60’s civil rights movement, upon advice from his friend, Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr.,  your father refused to allow his crusade audiences segregated in the Deep South, saying that Jesus was the GOD of all men. Dr. King once said, “Had it not been for the ministry of my good friend Dr. Billy Graham, my work in the Civil Rights Movement would not have been as successful as it has been.”

Dr. King also said that when it came to politics, “I feel that someone must remain in the position of (political) nonalignment, so that he can look objectively at both parties and be the conscience of both - not the servant or master of either.”

Given King’s relationship with both presidents Kennedy and Johnson, I think history shows that he walked the walked the walk. Dr. King never lowered himself ever to say he “loved” any president to get what he wanted. He paid due respect, but did the work irrespective of political party, and publicly criticized Pres, Johnson, for instance, over the Vietnam War.

Historian Grant Wacker, who has researched your father extensively, says you have “ … politicized the message in a way that [your] father, at least in his later years, would find abhorrent, and that aspect of Franklin Graham’s work will harm the legacy.”

Where is your voice, Evangelist Graham, on the issues of the day, on this despicable war, on the murders of American citizens in the name border security by federal agents, on the crass and wonton racism promoted by the president you so love?

Americans are suffering, Mr. Graham, suffering at the hands of a brattish, dangerous narcissist who craves ruling the world at any and all costs, and believes he has the power to do it. You told Trump in an Oct. 15, 2025 letter  that “God requires us to turn from our sins and, by faith believe in our heart that Jesus came to earth, died on the cross for our sins, was buried, and God raised Him to life on the third day.”

I see absolutely no signs, sir, that Pres. Trump has even tried to turn from his evil ways, or renounce the wickedness he continues to haunt the nation and the world with. 

Why aren’t you joining the likes of Bishop William Barber, Rev.(and US Senator) Raphael Warnock, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde and other nationally respected members of the clergy in speaking out against the unquestionable evil that so many see in this country from Trump and his ungodly policies? Doesn’t cause for you to be a Democrat or a liberal to speak to and oppose the inhumanity of this man?

Is God telling you to support Trump? Then why isn’t He telling these other Christian ministers to support Trump the same way?

Perhaps the answer lies in the power that apparently you and other conservative Christian nationalists feel that you have through Trump, and that power is a strong weapon against those you politically don’t like.

If that’s true, it’s sad, because I believe that the GOD we’re all suppose to serve expects more, and better of us. I’m sure you’ve heard all of the above criticism before about your political leanings. The question is, why aren’t you listening? 

A good friend of mine who knew I would be writing this open letter to you, Evangelist Graham, sent me something I think is extremely worthy to end this missive to you with.

“Two people you should never trust: a preacher telling you how to vote, and a politician telling you how to pray!”

Please tell me Evangelist Franklin Graham, which one are you?

        Happy Easter!

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THE CASH STUFF FOR APRIL 2, 2026

 FEDERAL JUDGE REJECTS 

NCNAACP ARGUMENT,

UPHOLDS VOTER ID

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

In a 134-page ruling, a federal judge normally sympathetic to the NC NAACP’s opposition against the use of voter photo ID in North Carolina elections, last week rejected the civil rights organization’s arguments in a case that has been before the federal court for several years.

U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs, originally appointed to the bench by Pres. Barack Obama, ruled last week that despite her position that voter ID has a disparate impact on African-Americans hasn’t changed, the law governing it has.

“This case is not about whether North Carolina law will require that voters show photo identification when they go to the polls,” Judge Biggs wrote. “That question was settled on November 6, 2018, when approximately 55% of North Carolina’s registered voters enshrined a photo voter identification requirement in the State Constitution.”

Saying that “ …we must accept the will of the majority of voters on this issue unless or until the people of North Carolina decide otherwise, Biggs continued, “Instead, the central issue before this Court is whether Plaintiffs have shown that the North Carolina General Assembly, when designing the constitutional amendment’s implementing legislation, North Carolina Senate Bill 824 (hereinafter ‘S.B. 824’), violated the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and § 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” the order continued. “In making this determination, the Court must follow the law of the United States Supreme Court and the Fourth Circuit.”

Judge Biggs originally held a trial on the voter ID law two years ago in May 2024. But she noted that while the lawsuit aiming to stop the voter ID law was filed seven years ago, much has changed since then.

“Since that time, the law of the United States Supreme Court and Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals related to the issues presented by this case have undergone, and continue to undergo, dramatic change. Consequently, this Court, having given careful consideration to the preliminary injunction record, the limited evidence presented at trial, and the arguments of counsel, concludes that it is compelled by controlling case law to render Judgment in favor of the Defendants on both Plaintiffs’ Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment claim and Plaintiffs’ § 2 claim under the Voting Rights Act.”

The NC NAACP has not commented on Judge Biggs’ ruling, but a jubilant Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger, who recently lost in his re-election bid during the Republican primary and last week decided not to further challenge the results, praised the ruling.

“Finally. After seven years, we can put to rest any doubt that our state’s Voter I.D. law is constitutional,” Berger, R-Rockingham, said in a statement. “This is a monumental win for the citizens of North Carolina and election integrity efforts.”

In another federal court ruling, a judge has rejected challenges to changes to North Carolina's law governing same-day voter registration.

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WHITE RALEIGH TEEN COULD

GET FIVE YEARS IN ALLEGED

MINORITIES MURDER PLOT

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

A white Raleigh teenager could face five years in federal prison for allegedly threatening on Instagram to kill African-American and Hispanic people in a mass shooting, federal authorities say.

Eric Constantine Byrd, 19, made his first appearance in federal court last week where he sat handcuffed in his street clothes. Byrd is charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce to injure another person.

The FBI Raleigh Joint Terrorism Task Force was alerted by officials in Washington, DC after Meta, the social platform company,  forwarded several of Byrd’s threatening posts to them. 

The charge results from threats Byrd allegedly made online between Feb. 9th and March 6th using the hashtag signal #active to indicate his intention to become an active shooter. Prosecutors say during that time, Byrd posted his white supremacist/neoNazi intentions to murder blacks, Hispanics, homosexuals among others, and become a well-known mass shooter.

“Planning on getting #active on my local [slur against Black people] and [slur against Hispanic people],” one post reads. “I’m just trying to find the time to do it which idk when yet [shrugging emoji]. I’m not a p—y I will record it! #NOLIVESMATTER,” he allegedly posted.

Byrd also promoted the prospect of killing himself after a racial mass shooting, if not killed by "someone else". Several of the young white supremacist’s posts feature pictures of him holding guns, according to court documents.

Reportedly, when the FBI began investigating Byrd and went to his home in Raleigh, the teen’s parents admitted that their son, who lived with them, “had issues.” Subsequent to that, according to a criminal complaint, his parents revealed that he did purchase a firearm, but didn’t “have access to it.”

“After some hesitation, Byrd’s mother escorted an FBI [agent] to an upstairs bedroom,” the complaint continues. “The firearm was located in a blue box in the closet of what was later determined to be Byrd’s bedroom.”

Raleigh police had to be called to the home in January because of an alleged incident after Byrd “lost his mind.” 

“Byrd admitted that if he had ammunition for his firearm during the aforementioned January 2026 incident with his parents, he would have ‘probably’ killed them,” the complaint states. It was later determined in a search of the Raleigh teen’s emails that he had purchased an AK-47 rifle in December (though the FBI believes he may have sold it), along with 1,000 rounds of 9 mm ammunition.

  Byrd also admitted in online posts that he enjoyed watching other people suffer.

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THE CASH COMMENTARY FOR MARCH 26, 2026

CASH MICHAELS

WHY MARK ROBINSON, WHY?

           by Cash Michaels

Alright, let’s see a show of hands.

How many of you originally believed former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson when he swore up and down in 2024 that CNN’s pornography allegations against him were false and nothing but a wicked political attack? How many? Let's see your hands. Alright, Mrs. Robinson, you can put your hand down now. 

And before I continue, let me first state for the record, none of us are perfect. All of us have fallen short of the glory of GOD one way or another. But that’s to varying degrees. In “Brother” (as in Christian, NOT Black) Mark Robinson’s case, especially after he admitted on a 90-minute podcast last week that he indeed suffered from an “obsession with pornography;” that he did post online on the “Nude Africa” porn forum under an assumed name that “I’m a black Nazi”; that he supported the reinstatement of slavery and called slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a “commie bastard,” there's no question his is a special case that deserves expert attention.

Check that - some EXTRA expert professional attention!

“Certifiably sick” is the category you normally check off for such pronounced symptoms of diminished moral capacity. And to think this nutcase was vying to become our next governor. 

Regarding his admitted obsession with pornography, Robinson said, “I’m thinking that maybe I need to get a good therapist (no, chocolate Hugh Hefner, you need a GREAT therapist!). Of course, a Christian therapist, I think, would be best (yeah, that Satanist you’ve been checkin’ in with isn’t working out too well). But I’d like to find out why, throughout my entire life, I’ve been such a carnal person. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand why it’s been that way.”

Yes, this man truly needs deep, deep mental therapy for himself for knowing he had this serious problem and still running for statewide public office.

         Honestly,  I hope he gets it.

However, Charlotte Observer op-ed writer Paige Masten observed, “Even in his honesty, Robinson remained defensive, and he seemed to believe that he did something righteous by lying. Even though he wanted to own up to it, he said, other people would be affected, so it would be “selfish” to be truthful."

In other words, Robinson’s admission of contrition comes with a “but.”

That “but” was that this deluded tough guy also admitted that he lied about his perverted obsession in order to protect …Donald Trump. And was willing to fight to the end to protect him.

“President Trump and I had become very good friends,” Robinson explained, apparently not realizing that you don't become "very good friend" with the crook-in-chief unless you're a billionaire, something Mark Robinson never has, and never will be in this lifetime. “And I realized how important it was for President Trump to win that race. And I knew that we were—not only was I in the fight for my life, that the country literally was in the fight for its life,” Robinson told Pastor Josh Hall on his “After the Call” podcast.

“And so I’d make the exact same decision (now), I’d fight the exact same way, because I always knew, I always knew there would be time for this (acknowledging the truth). But in those eight weeks (after the CNN allegations), there wasn’t time for that. What there was time to try to protect as many people as I could and do whatever I could to make sure that the fire that I was drawing didn’t get drawn to them as well.”

Any seasoned, scholarly, highly recognized university researcher out there who’s been looking long and hard for evidence of true MAGA madness, well there it is. Talk about a crackpot in serious denial.

A conservative Black man who admittedly and proudly castrated himself publicly just to help save the candidacy of a convicted, proven racist and criminal con man running for the presidency. You just can’t beat that kind of sick, off-the-charts madness!

Look at this for a moment…Mark Robinson risked his entire reputation and future, no matter how tattered it might be, NOT to spare his wife, nor his children, nor his church nor his community any more shame or pain, but to spare another  man who could care less whether he lived or died, and certainly has treated Robinson as such immediately after the allegations came out, and every minute of every day since.

I mean does Mark Robinson (who looks like a black Roger Ailes if you think about it) have a cushy job somewhere in the Trump Administration or Republican Party that rewards him for his extraordinary blind loyalty and self-sacrifice for his so-called "very good friend"? Of course not! C’mon, Trump has pardoned people who have actually committed crimes far worse than what Mark Robinson has done to himself, and they’ve gotten the royal treatment afterwards. And yet, Robinson’s unbridled loyalty to Trump ultimately admits him to the Damned Fool Hall of Fame.

Trump once lauded Mark Robinson as “Martin Luther King on steroids” in terms of his leadership capabilities and commanding presence. Surely someone like that could have been useful to the Trump Administration in some capacity, perhaps as a liaison with the so-called white right-wing Christian community Robinson was already very popular with.

But apparently Robinson was seen as too much damaged goods to touch. So now we have a grown man who once aspired to the highest elected office in this state, who is now tossed to the side by the political party he championed, and by its titular leader who wants absolutely nothing to do with him any more.

Please don’t get me wrong - honest contrition is good for the soul. Sincerely falling on your sword to spare supporters who believed in you, who've fought for you, who've stood up for you against all odds, is hard, but the right thing to do. It is what Almighty GOD would have us to do, because, as the Good Book says, “The truth shall set you free.”

But what Mark Robinson did last week in his admission of lying to protect Donald Trump, wasn’t brave, courageous, or at all laudable.

It was cowardly and damned stupid, because the man admittedly covered up for someone who is destroying this country, and almost did that years earlier with his selfish handling of the COVID pandemic crisis during his first term. Instead of saying that he was wrong because Trump is wrong, Mark Robinson would rather take the punishment for protecting a known and proven creep he still supports.

Why protect a man capable of openly and despicably celebrating the death of another human being as Trump did last weekend after it was reported that former FBI Director Robert Mueller, an honorable and decent man of unquestionable public service, had died? Grant you, Trump had hard feelings for Mueller after he led the investigation into the 2016 presidential election, and found evidence of Russian influence, but no Trump campaign criminal collusion.

And yet our president disparagingly said on his social media platform, “Good, I’m glad he’s dead!” The indecency of that sentiment is something we should all be embarrassed by.

Or the shocking rant Trump performed last week in front of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, telling our former enemy-now-close-ally in front of television cameras that they should remember Pearl Harbor when it comes to being sneaky.

Let us not forget starting a war Trump promised Mark Robinson and other MAGA mini minds like him he would never do. The resulting cascade of problems - from high gas prices to the very real prospect of a world war given the growing instability of Trump’s “excursion” into Iran should prove just how selfish the untrustworthy the mad MAGA leader is even to his base.

How do you even give this reprehensible sack of pus and bones so much as a thought when he’s shown long before now that he’s not worth protecting, because he has no capacity for human decency for other people? Why would Mark Robinson gut himself wide open for Donald Trump?

And it’s not just Robinson who is suffering behind his foolishness, but his family, who has certainly suffered because of their association with him.

All of this tells me that Mark Robinson should truly, and I mean this, truly go hide his ignorant face somewhere never to be seen or heard from again. I don’t know why he's decided now was the time to come out with this nonsense apology after the shameful trail of hatred he proudly championed while he was our divisive lieutenant governor. 

But I’m sorry, Mark Robinson. Honest contrition is one thing. Dishonest ignorance is something else. I’m on the side of those who never, and I mean never, want to see or hear from the likes of you ever again!

Unfortunately, there are many more mega-mad MAGA sycophants like you out there, and all I can say here and now is in November’26, expect the Trump foolishness to be fixed!

Now go back to feeling sorry for yourself, Mark Robinson! The rest of us have serious work to do. 

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