If Donald Trump While his campaign is increasingly infused with Christian trappings as he moves toward a third Republican presidential nomination, his support is as strong as ever among evangelicals and other conservative Christians.
“Trump supports Jesus, and without Jesus, America will fall,” said Kimberly Vaughn of Florence, Kentucky, as she joined other supporters of the former president at a campaign rally near Dayton, Ohio.
Many of the T-shirts and hats worn and sold at the March rally featured religious slogans such as “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president” and “God, Guns & Trump.” One man’s shirt read, “Make America Godly Again,” with the image of a luminous Jesus placing his supportive hands on Trump’s shoulders.
Many attendees said in interviews that they believed Trump shared their Christian faith and values. Several people mentioned their opposition to abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, especially transgender expressions.
No one expressed concern about Trump’s past behavior or his current criminal charges, including allegations that he tried to conceal hush money payments to a porn actor during his 2016 campaign. Supporters saw Trump as representing a religion of second chances.
And for many, Trump is a champion of Christianity and patriotism.
“I believe he believes in God and our military men and women, in our country, in America,” said Tammy Houston of New Lexington, Ohio.
“I put my family first, and on a larger scale, America comes first,” said Sherrie Cotterman of Sidney, Ohio. “And I’d take a president any day of the week who openly knows he needs the power of God over his own.”
In many ways this is a familiar story.
According to AP VoteCast, about 8 in 10 white evangelical Christians supported Trump in 2020. Pew Research Center’s validated voter survey found a similar share supported him in 2016.
But this is a new campaign, and that support has remained sustainable — even though Republican voters had several conservative Christian candidates to choose from in the early primaries, none of whom faced the legal troubles and misconduct allegations that Trump faced. is struggling with. According to AP VoteCast, Trump won between 55% and 69% of white evangelical voters during the Republican primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Trump even criticized one rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, for including strict abortion restrictions in law.
Trump was the only Republican candidate to face dozens of criminal charges, ranging from allegations that he conspired to overturn his 2020 election defeat to his current trial on charges that he falsified corporate records by illegally using hush money to influence the election of 2016, to porn actor Stormy Daniels. .
Trump was also the only Republican candidate with a history of casino ventures and two divorces, as well as allegations of sexual misconduct – one of which was upheld by a civil court ruling.
The Republican primaries still overwhelmingly chose Trump.
This has frustrated a minority of conservative evangelicals who see Trump as an unrepentant poser, using the Bible and prayer sessions as photo props. They see that he has no real faith and that he is facing credible, serious allegations of misconduct as he campaigns with inflammatory rhetoric and authoritarian ambitions.
Karen Swallow Prior, a Christian author and literary scholar who has criticized fellow evangelicals’ embrace of Trump, said this support is known in 2024 but has “intensified.”
In the past, she said Trump supporters hoped but were not certain that he shared their Christian faith.
“Now his supporters believe themselves,” she said. “Despite the fact that Trump is clearly hesitant on abortion and he’s hesitant on LGBTQ issues, those things are just ignored, they’re just erased from the story.”
At the Ohio rally, several attendees mentioned their belief that Trump has followed the Christian path of conversion and starting a new life.
“We all came from sin. Jesus sat with sinners, so he sits with Trump,” Vaughn said. “It’s not about where Trump came from, it’s about where he’s going and where he’s trying to take us.”
The Ohio rally, like other Trump events, included a recording of the national anthem sung by some of those convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, whom Trump called “patriots.”
At the entrance to the meeting, a group handed out pamphlets calling on attendees to “trust Jesus Christ for your salvation” and support the “J6 patriots.”
Jody Picagli of Englewood, Ohio, said her Catholic faith and views on abortion are central.
“I am a strong supporter of the right to life,” she said. “That’s huge for me. And just morals. I think the moral compass is wrong right now. And we need religion and church here.”
She acknowledged that with the Supreme Court turning the abortion issue over to the states, a future President Trump may not have any influence over abortion laws.
“But I know he will never go to an abortion clinic like our vice president did,” she said, referring to Kamala Harris’ tour of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota in March.
Robert Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute and author of books on white supremacy in American Christianity, said the strong evangelical support for Trump is not surprising. But he said that in a 2023 PRRI survey, fewer than half of white evangelicals said abortion was a critical issue for them personally. More than half said five others are a critical problem, including human trafficking, public schools, rising prices, immigration and crime.
“One of the biggest myths about white evangelical support for Trump is the idea that it’s really about abortion and they’re going to hold their nose and vote for Trump,” Jones said.
He added that Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants “invading the country and changing our cultural heritage” resonates with his audience.
The slogan “Make America Great Again” reflects an “ethno-religious vision of a white Christian America just beneath the surface,” Jones said.
He acknowledged that racial boundaries are not absolute, with Trump attracting black supporters such as Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.
The Ohio meeting included a large majority of white attendees, but some black and other ethnic groups were also represented.
Trump’s rallies adopt the symbols, rhetoric and agenda of Christian nationalism, which typically includes the belief that America was founded to be a Christian nation and wants to privilege Christianity in public life.
Trump approved a Bible edition that includes America’s founding documents and the lyrics of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”
“This is a Bible specifically for a kind of white evangelical audience that sees itself as the rightful heirs of the country,” Jones said, citing a 2023 PRRI survey in which about half of white evangelicals agreed that God America was intended to be a promised land for European Christians.
At the Ohio meeting, some attendees said they believed the nation or its founding documents, such as the Bill of Rights, had Christian origins, although historians dispute such claims.
Some Trump supporters expressed hope for a more Christian America.
Thomas Isbell of Greensboro, North Carolina, who has set up sales booths at many Trump rallies, said his “God, Guns & Trump” shirts are a top seller.
“It is a Christian country,” he said, adding that if he were president, he would only allow public worship by Christians.
“We are not going to build a temple for any other god in our country,” he said.
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Associated Press religion reporting is supported by the AP’s partnership with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
