Franklin Graham has defended his judgmental language towards Muslims, gay people and political opponents by saying Jesus himself used harsh words sometimes.

In an interview with WBTV – a South Carolina based channel – Graham described transgender people as 'weirdos that want to force themselves into girls' locker rooms and to women's bathrooms' and called on Trump not to tone down his rhetoric towards immigrants.

'Jesus wasn't real loving sometimes. He called the Pharisees vipers, snakes, whitewashed tombs,' he said.

'So, you have to understand the world in which we live is dangerous.'

Asked whether Trump should tone down his aggressive rhetoric to unite America, Graham disagreed and said the country should 'look to God for healing' instead.

'No, I'm not going to tell him to tone it down,' Graham said. 'I mean, my goodness, he got to where he is by being who he is.'

The son of evangelist Billy Graham also repeated his attacks on former President Barack Obama for not backing police 'the way he should have' in the Black Lives Matter protests.

And he seemed to repeat Donald Trump's call for tougher police action.

'It sends a message that 'I'm not going to stand by and let y'all do this. Y'all want to riot and burn your streets? Well guess what? We're going to come in there with federal officers if need be and we're going to put a stop to it.''

But in a softer moment he admitted his 98-year-old father struggles to hear or see well.

'Communication is very difficult with him,' Franklin Graham said.

'He kind of shuts down. Maybe one or two word kind of sentences.'

He added: 'Of course, you'd like to see him like he was 20 years ago. But this is part of life.'