Equating Donald Trump with the all-powerful creator is more than common among his followers. “God, guns and Trump,” using the magnate's last name as a synonym for guts, is one of the slogans read on the T-shirts worn by the former president's worshipers or embodied on the stickers displayed on their pickup vehicles.
The terms “faithful” and “worshippers” do not imply any misrepresentation. This is what happens in the United States with the cult of personality of a convert who has found financing for his campaign with the sale of Bibles or who likes publications in which he is compared to Jesus Christ. And at his rallies portraits of the Messiah appear wearing the cap of his MAGA movement (“Make America great again”).
Trump emerged in 2016 as the battering ram of Christian nationalism. This old term, but today fashionable as a symbol of ultramontane patriotism, refers to a very relevant part of practicing evangelicals, erected as the pillar of Trumpism. Both in those elections and in 2020, they voted for him with percentages greater than 80%. Polls indicate that they will still be there in 2024.
In reality, historians consider that the character already existed, but needed to provide it with content. That ideology was in the pulpits of the preachers of the extreme right, who have gained much greater relevance than they previously enjoyed.
“Christian nationalism believes that the American nation was, is, and must remain a Christian nation, that the identity of the United States as a Christian nation is not only a historical fact, but a moral imperative, an ideological goal, and a political program for the future,” writes Paul D. Miller, a professor at Georgetown University, in the book The religion of American greatness: what's wrong with Christian nationalism (2022).
In his extensive volume, Miller highlights the surprising fact that 65% of his compatriots think that it is quite or very important for citizens to be Christians to be “true Americans.”
His idea is that “God gave the United States an essential role in human history.” According to this white, Baptist, Republican theologian, “American nationalism is infused with the rhetoric and symbols of Christianity.” He clarifies that “the political right is much more indebted to nationalism than to conservatism and Trump recognized this reality.”
From the beginning he courted them and assured them that, under his rule, “our Christian heritage will be appreciated, protected and defended like never before, believe me.” They believed him, despite his sins (divorces or affairs with porn actresses like the one that will initially bring him to trial on Monday).
The war on abortion plays a key role for radical evangelicals. It is their great flag. Trump clarified this week that he does not want a federal ban on abortion and for the states to set the rules. There were conservatives who felt betrayed by that lack of decision, but the Republican candidate knows where he is stepping.
He is clear that this issue mobilizes a lot against him and will cover escape routes for votes. Christian nationalists understand his position and will continue to stand by him. They accept that this is what is called tactics to get to the White House and that, once installed, it will amend itself like other times.
They do not forget that no one has given them so much and, as Trump himself stressed, they owe him the vast conservative majority of the Supreme Court that repealed the ruling (Roe v. Wade), which for almost half a century allowed the termination of pregnancy to be legal at a general level.
The new Supreme Court has made it easier for Arizona to recover an 1864 regulation that effectively eliminates the possibility of abortion, a law that dates back to John Wayne's Wild West. The mythical Hollywood actor embodies the macho in Christian nationalism, points out Professor Kristin Du Mez in her work Jesus and John Wayne (2021).
His work recalls the promise made in 2016 by the Republican candidate to achieve a Supreme Court that “protects the unborn and guarantees religious freedom.”
In a telephone conversation, Du Mez adds: “Evangelical support for Trump was not an aberration or simply a pragmatic choice. Rather, it was the culmination of evangelicals' acceptance of militant masculinity, an ideology that enshrines patriarchal authority and tolerates the cruel display of power." This explains why the former president calls the coup plotters of January 6, 2021, who responded to his call to remain in the presidency, patriots, heroes and political prisoners.
Professor John Fea, from Messiah University, author of Believe me: the evangelical road to Donald Trump (2018), emphasizes in an interview that Christian Catholicism in the era of Trumpism is a response to the fact that “the United States becomes more realistic, more diverse, and Christianity is no longer the dominant expression it was half a century ago.”
The enemy has mutated. “The fight is not against the Soviet Union. Now pluralism and the threat to identity as a white Christian nation are being fought,” says Fea. And Trump, brandishing God and weapons, leads the crusade of the 21st century.
