{"id":657,"date":"2025-09-23T13:11:55","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T17:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/?p=657"},"modified":"2025-09-23T13:11:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T17:11:55","slug":"the-critical-role-christianity-plays-in-trumpism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbump.net\/o\/the-critical-role-christianity-plays-in-trumpism\/","title":{"rendered":"The critical role Christianity plays in Trumpism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I remember being in Des Moines in August 2015 when Donald Trump made one of the first major appearances of his 2016 presidential bid: A stop at the Iowa State Fair. He emerged from a Trump-branded helicopter in a nearby parking lot, talking to reporters and meeting fans. One woman gave him a copy of “The Art of the Deal,” asking him to sign it. He did so, telling her<\/a> it was “the second-best book ever.” The best, of course, was the Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, this just seemed like an obvious bit of pandering. But it was pandering that became a central element of his politics. Despite his \u2026 let’s say, sinful background, he positioned himself as the candidate of the religious right and, in short order, they welcomed him as their champion<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Charlie Kirk was killed earlier this month, it was inevitable that the moment would become a rallying point for the political right. What’s been striking about that energy, though, is that it has flowed both to Donald Trump and to Christianity itself \u2014 a reflection of Kirk’s own embrace of the religion. There’s no reason to think that Kirk’s religiosity was insincere or calculating in the way that Trump seems to have been. But it’s probably the case that Kirk could not have become the force in right-wing politics that he was without it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few weeks ago, I wrote about recent Gallup polling<\/a> showing that Americans had shifted to the right on a number of moral issues over the past few years. That article included a version of the chart below, showing the relatively rapid erosion of self-identified Christians in the U.S. over the past few decades \u2014 an erosion that seems to have stalled since the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n