Trump and the Evangelicals

 My utter disbelief not only continues but is amplified. Trump has just won the Iowa primary by virtually 50%, the largest ever majority vote in any primary. I have watched a number of his devoted followers proclaiming him as the ‘best president ever’ and besides wondering what is wrong with the state education in America that its citizens are so easily bamboozled and seduced into a cult-like worship of a deeply flawed and malevolent man, I have looked around for answers. And I may have stumbled on to one important factor. Religion, or rather, the evangelical wing of one religion. As a happy atheist, I have to admit that religion is always top of my list of suspects in local or global dissent, upheavals, war. But, in my quest to answer this puzzling Trump question, I have read several opinion pieces on the power and nature of the evangelicals; they are not comforting!

Apparently, in a poll published on 4^th January 2024, more Republicans said that Trump is a man of 

Joe Biden

faith than said the same of Joe Biden, a lifelong practising Catholic; or of Mitt Romney, a devout Mormon or of the apparently fervently evangelical, Mike Pence. So what IS it about Trump, an irreligious non-Church goer, that inspires this devotion? Jill Filipovic, writing in the New Statesman, [12/18 Jan 2024] suggests that it is Trump’s authoritarianism which inspires; his oft-proclaimed intention to impose his will on the country, as in the threatened retribution for vocal critics, from the White House,

Mike Pence

appeals strongly to evangelicals who tend to be drawn to chiefly authoritarian groups/families. Filipovic suggests that evangelism has become more of an identity than a mere religion and that evangelicals lean naturally to a wider authoritarian view of society as personified in Trump. He recognises, and uses, his strong support among white evangelicals [84% of white evangelicals support Trump according to the Pew Research Centre] and when in power, he obligingly returned favours to this base. He placed religious fanatics on the Supreme Court and promoted suitably fervent judicial

Mitt Romney

appointees in lower courts. The Supreme Court obligingly overturned Roe v Wade, thus ending the federal rights to abortion throughout the U.S., not a widely popular act. National anti-abortion laws are not the mark of a modern liberal society and this was not, and is not, a cause dear to Trump’s heart either, but is of real value to his white evangelical base which he carefully tends.

Trump's lasting effect on the Supreme Court.
Neil Gorsuch; Amy Coney Barrett; Brett Kavanaugh.

Trump, above all, craves adoration, approval, and power and the evangelicals heap these on him. In return, having apparently few, if any, principles, he accommodates his base. In the evangelical world, people believe they are waging a spiritual war against demonic enemies of Christianity and America. Trump embodies the us-vs-them mentality of this cosmic battle between the godly and the satanic and uses it, along with his saviour status, to his full advantage in falsely portraying the criminal prosecutions against him, as the work of an evil, corrupt political system. For a base that has heard for decades that Christians are being persecuted by secularists and that conservatives are under siege by out-of-control liberals, Trump embodies all their fears and their grievances and inspires in them the belief that he, and only he, can deal with their dark fears..

Filipovic suggests that evangelical leaders also preach ‘a prosperity gospel’; wealth comes to those who pray and having wealth is a sign of moral righteousness. This admiration of wealth seen in terms of moral goodness might seem a particularly dangerous aspect of American belief but it fits Trump’s

Fathers' Day photo of Barron Trump with Melania and Donald

purposes, and identity, like a glove. He is not religious but he has wealth, inherited and acquired somehow, so he is smart and blessed. He is clearly the Boss at home and at work, positions he maintains, as of right, by any method needed. His wife clearly has less personal power than he and is publicly subservient: compared to earlier political wives, like Barbara Bush or Hilary Clinton, she does not voice strong independent opinions, but, importantly, she is decorative, modest but happy to talk publicly about her clothes and appearance. She is, axiomatically, a ‘good mother’ to Barron, their young son. The Trump couple give every appearance of being a successful traditional American family, much admired by the base, both evangelicals and M.A.G.A. acolytes.

The Post Script below gives one contemporary example of Trump’s numerous current legal problems, usually created by his own intemperate, often criminal, behaviour, and surprisingly unimportant to his evangelical admirers.

Trump in one of many court appearances.

Donald living up to expectations in  prayer

The New York Times in October 2018, published an attack on Trump which disclosed evidence to support the accusations of ‘outright fraud’ and ‘dubious tax schemes’ against him. Eventually he responded with a $100 million lawsuit against the three reporters who wrote that article plus two subsequent ones, and against Mary Trump, his niece and the source of the family-based information. Yesterday, the judge presiding, ordered Trump to pay the legal fees of the journalists involved, of almost $400,000 to ‘send a message to those who want to misuse the judicial system to try and silence journalists'.

Mary Trump, Donald's niece.

In all, Trump faces 91 felony counts across two state courts and two different federal districts, any one of which could produce a prison sentence. He is also dealing with a civil suit in New York that could force drastic changes to his business empire, including closing down his operations there. Meanwhile, he is the leading Republican candidate in the Presidential race, though lawyers in several states are seeking to have him disqualified from the Presidency.

Evangelicals saluting the flag

Trump supporters: Evangelicals; MAGA fans; white
non-college educated white men.

The unqualified and passionate Trump support among evangelicals and others, does continue to baffle and frighten.