Just days after the Orlando shooting, Donald Trump has published a photograph of himself standing, smiling, besides an American preacher who has claimed that homosexuals "pave the way" for the Antichrist.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee spent much of this week asserting himself as a defender of gay rights, after 49 people were murdered at a gay club in the worst American mass shooting of modern times.

But on Friday he posted online a message in which Robert Jeffress, a Dallas right wing preacher said he was "honoured to pray" for Mr Trump.

The message, uploaded to Mr Trump's Twitter account, came with a photograph showing the preacher and presidential candidate grinning and giving the camera the thumbs up.