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Donald Trump is known for many things: bankrupt casinos, claims of infidelity, bragging about sexual assault, actual sexual assault, hush money payments to porn stars, and winning or losing the presidential election.
Unless the topic is the road to hell, that’s not what a Sunday church sermon is about.
But there’s another thing Trump is known for. It has significantly stronger and more persistent support among white evangelical Christian voters.
How does he do that?
How will Mr. Trump convince voters, who claim to consider their faith in his direction when voting, to say, “Yeah, that’s my type”?
I asked someone who knew. The consensus is that many evangelicals don’t need Trump to be a man of faith or even a good person if they feel he supports them. .
Trump takes on the persona given to him by evangelical voters
Troy Miller, president of the National Association of Religious Broadcasters, plans to have President Trump speak at the organization’s International Christian Media Convention in Nashville on Thursday.
“What I can tell you from personal experience with all the people I’ve met and talked to, and even my family who are lifelong Democrats, is that Trump has this appeal. I feel like they understand me,” Miller told me. “Even if parts of his life don’t apply to their personal lifestyle or morals, you still feel like he understands it.”
Mr. Trump is leaning strongly toward that. Last month, while campaigning in Iowa ahead of the state’s caucuses, he posted an unusual self-aggrandizing video on his social media website that cast him as a messianic figure.
The video began with the following narration: “And then on June 14, 1946, God looked down at the paradise he had planned and said, ‘We need a steward.'” In other words, God gave us Trump. ”
The Bible takes a dark view of such displays of ego and pride. And the video has upset some evangelical pastors in Iowa.
“We did nothing”:Trump is a coward. He admitted so at the NRA gun show.
Still, Trump easily won there, with support from 53% of voters who identify as evangelicals.
Lack of voter accountability helps Trump’s cause
Mr. Trump does not have to worry about being held accountable by his evangelical supporters. They haven’t shown that trend since he emerged as the Republican front-runner in 2016.
Brad Atkins, a Baptist preacher with a church of more than 3,000 members in Spartanburg County, was one of more than 100 faith leaders to endorse Trump last week ahead of South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary. It was a person.
Mr. Atkins, who is well versed in Republican presidential politics, cited Mr. Trump’s “White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative” as one of the reasons he supports Mr. Trump. The appointment of a Supreme Court justice who overturned constitutional protections for abortion was another.
“Regardless of how much he professed his faith, he always relied on his faith,” Atkins said.
After Trump left office, one of his jurors found in a civil suit that he sexually assaulted author E. Jean Carroll, and a second jury attacked him for the assault. He was ordered to pay $83 million in damages for attempting to do so.
I had to ask. Atkins didn’t seem impressed at all.
“I think everyone has a past that affects their present,” he said. “Everyone probably has a lot of regrets from the past that they don’t want to talk about.”
Is Trump’s relationship with evangelical voters a contract?
In a sense, this is a clear acceptance of the Christian concept that we are all sinners. In another sense, President Trump shows no remorse for anything he does to others, which is a huge passing grade for a man.
But it’s consistent. Atkins told the Financial Times in the midst of the 2016 Republican primaries that Trump’s “indiscretions are much more prominent than other candidates,” but that they too have had indiscretions in the past. He said he was certain it was.
Border reform in an election year?Solving the border crisis is bad for Trump and good for Biden. That’s the problem.
John Fee, a history professor at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, describes it as a “contractual relationship” between President Trump and his evangelical supporters.
“He delivers for them. They tolerate him,” said Fee, who contributed an essay to the book in 2020.The spiritual danger of Donald Trump: 30 evangelicals speak about justice, truth, and moral integrity”
It wasn’t always like that.
What about Biden and his Catholic faith?
Of course, not all evangelicals support Trump. And Fee said some of them supported Joe Biden in 2020 because of his record as a moderate Democrat who worked in bipartisanship.
“I think Biden disappointed voters by pushing to the left on social issues,” Fee said.
The Democratic Party, with Biden now its front-runner, has vowed to strip abortion rights, rallying its support base in November and making Trump its top target.
“I don’t think President Trump cares one bit about abortion, whether it’s pro-choice or pro-life,” Fee said. “This is a matter of a political wedge that he can use to gain power.”
And questions about Trump’s character no longer matter.
“Personality politics in American evangelicalism is over,” Fee said. “It’s all policy-driven.”
Former religious commentators have changed their mind about President Trump
Eight years ago, when Trump became the Republican nominee, the NRB held a debate among prominent evangelicals to consider whether they could or should support Trump as a presidential candidate.
Conservative broadcaster and commentator Erick Erickson cited Trump’s extramarital affairs, extorting money from fans and giving workers no pay as reasons why evangelicals rejected Trump during the 2016 debate. I mentioned my business plan.
Added to that, Erickson said, was Trump’s own claim that he never asked God for forgiveness during that year’s campaign. Erickson called this a failure of “Christianity 101.”
Mr. Erickson’s harsh criticism was washed away by evangelical support for Mr. Trump that year. The experts reversed course in 2019 and supported President Trump’s bid for a second term.
AP Votecast, a survey of American voters conducted by the University of Chicago’s National Center for Public Opinion Research and media partners including the USA TODAY Network, found that Mr. Trump had the support of eight in 10 white evangelical Christian voters in 2020. , which reflects Trump’s support. From that group 4 years ago.
When it comes to religion and politics, a contract seems to be a contract. No matter what happens with the rest of his life, Trump will continue to gain support from evangelicals as long as he looks like a winner.
Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ChrisBrennan
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