US evangelicals back Trump
The not-so-religious and former president is an unlikely model for practising Christians,
As a casino-owning playboy who has been married three times and faced multiple sexual misconduct allegations over the years, Donald Trump is an unlikely role model for America’s evangelical Christians.
But a huge number of these devoutly religious people believe not only that he is the best choice for president this November, but increasingly that he was chosen by God to save America from sliding into damnation.
Not a bad rep for a man who plays golf on Sundays.
And he was to have the ears of evangelicals on yesterday, when he was to address a group of religious broadcasters.
In 2015, when Mr Trump rode his golden escalator into the presidential race, he seemingly had little to offer the country’s religious right.
But over time he secured what many thought was a wary transactional support, with the offer to appoint antiabortion judges to the Supreme Court, a possible chance to remove the single biggest thorn for right-wing Christians.
When America went to the polls in 2016, 77 percent of white evangelicals voted for Mr Trump, according to Pew Research.
Three new Supreme Court justices later, that support had grown to 84% by the 2020 election.
But with the federal right to abortion overturned when the Trump-packed Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade in 2022, what does this voting bloc still see in a man who looks uncomfortable when people pray, and has floundered when asked to name his favourite biblical verse?
Tim Alberta, who has written extensively on the evangelical right and its support for Mr Trump, says the community fears it is under mortal siege in a country that is far less white, far less religious and much more tolerant of different lifestyles than in decades past.
“If you consider the fact that the culture wars have swung so sharply against them, and that the country is changing so dramatically in such a short period of time, you start to understand why there is this fear, this anxiety,” he said during a round of interviews to promote his book “The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory.”
“If you believe that the Barbarians are at the gates, then you think to yourself: ‘Maybe we need a Barbarian to protect us.’ That’s the evangelical relationship with Donald Trump in a nutshell.”
For this group, who account for just 14.5% of the population but 28% of voters, it doesn’t matter that Mr Trump is not religious. They feel he is on their side.
“I can say, from all of the people I meet with and talk to, and from personal experience even in my own family with lifelong Democrats, Mr Trump has this appeal,” said Troy Miller, president of National Religious Broadcasters, who invited Mr Trump to speak to the body yesterday.
“People feel he understands them. Even though some of his life stuff doesn’t fit into their personal lifestyle or morality, they still feel like he gets them,” he told USA Today.
To an outside observer, it is notable that the non-religious Trump is far and away preferred over alternatives who are church-going Christians. Joe Biden is a practising Catholic but, Pew Research found, attracts just 14% support among white evangelicals. Even Republicans within the evangelical fold lose out against Mr Trump.
‘‘ If you believe that the Barbarians are at the gates, then you think to yourself: ‘Maybe we need a Barbarian to protect us’.
TIM ALBERTA
AMERICAN JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR