Mormons Baptized Donald Trump's Parents and Grandparents After They Died, MormonLeaks Reveals

Members of the Mormon church posthumously baptized President Donald Trump's parents and grandparents, according to leaked documents from the whistle-blowing organization MormonLeaks, which aims to expose corruption in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

According to the documents on the MormonLeaks website, the Mormon church baptized Trump's grandfather Friedrich, who died in 1918, and his grandmother Elisabeth Marie Christ, who died in 1966, in 2015 and 2016. Trump's parents Mary Ann MacLeod and Frederick Christ Trump were also baptized, but the ordinances were not made available to the public.

Baptisms for the dead, as they are called in Mormonism, are common in the Mormon church, as Mormons believe that those who do not get baptized into the church while alive can still make it to the highest level of heaven if baptized after birth. It is possible that the decision to posthumously baptize Trump's relatives was made by a Trump supporter or by distant relatives of the Trump family, members of MormonLeaks explained.

There was no immediate indication that President Trump knew about the baptisms or had anything to do with them.

"These baptisms are performed based on genealogical records that are compiled by members of the Mormon church. That being said, the mere collection of a genealogical record does not mean the person will be baptized in the temple. The next step would be for someone to submit the person's name for baptism," Ryan McKnight, the founder of MormonLeaks, explained to Newsweek.

"Typically this is done for the immediate relatives of the person submitting the name. However, there is nothing stopping a person from submitting the names of famous people or the relatives of famous people. There are many dead celebrities and the dead relatives of celebrities whose names have been submitted and their temple work has been done."

The revelation about the Mormon church's baptism of Trump's family comes as the president traveled to Utah to meet with Mormon leaders this week. Many Mormon leaders have been critical of Trump, and the church's main newspaper even called on Trump to step out of the race for president after the now-infamous Access Hollywood tape showed Trump bragging about sexual assault.

Mormon political leaders like Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona and Utah's Governor Gary Herbert have also been vocal about their opposition to Trump's policies.

According to McKnight, it's likely the church's top leadership is unaware that Trump's relatives have been baptized.

"The names that are submitted are done at a very low level in the church that it is very unlikely that the institution had any knowledge or say in the process," McKnight said.

"The vast majority of Mormons would not even know that this ordinance occurred. The information is stored in a database that all Mormons have access to, but you would have to specifically search for a particular name to know if the work has been done."