Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th president of the United States, has strong support among white evangelical Christians, particularly among those who do not attend church regularly. Trump also maintains strong support with Christian nationalists, and his rallies take on the symbols, rhetoric and agenda of Christian nationalism. Trump described his 2024 presidential campaign as a "righteous crusade" against "atheists, globalists and the Marxists".
Characteristics
Some Christian Trump supporters view him as divinely ordained and "chosen by God", and some compare him to Jesus, with opposition to him seen as spiritual warfare. Trump shared and played a video entitled "God Made Trump" at several of his rallies, explicitly comparing him to a messianic figure in religious terms. Trump is frequently described among some of his Christian supporters as an Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) hero, with Cyrus the Great or David frequently mentioned. The New York Times describes his supporters seeing him as one of several "morally flawed figures handpicked by God to lead profound missions aimed at achieving overdue justice or resisting existential evil". This framing has been described as "vessel theology" which allows for support of Trump and excuses his prior sexual misconduct and adultery. Trump has strong support with members of the dominionist New Apostolic Reformation, and many Trump administration officials are aligned with the group.
Christian support for Donald Trump is often regarded as theologically and morally puzzling given his personal background as a thrice‑married, wealth‑oriented, reality‑television business mogul with a publicly flamboyant lifestyle - as well as his sexual assault scandals, impeachments, indictments, and lawsuits. This perceived inconsistency arises from the apparent tension between traditional Christian moral expectations—particularly within conservative evangelical and other historically orthodox Protestant circles—and the political allegiance many adherents have shown toward Trump throughout his public career and presidency.
Outside of his celebrity persona and business endeavors, Donald Trump's personal religiosity faces heavy dispute due to contrasts between his public Christian identity and observed behaviors - Critics highlight superficial knowledge, irregular practices, and a few public blunders. When asked for his favorite Bible verse during a Bloomberg interview on August 26, 2015, Trump refused to cite one replying it was "very personal" and declining specifics - when asked whether he prefers The Old or New Testament he vaguely answered "probably... equal" On July 18, 2015, during the Family Leadership Summit, Frank Luntz asked Trump if he'd ever asked God for forgiveness; Trump responded, "I'm not sure I have. I just go and try to do a better job from there. I don't think so. I think if I do something wrong, I think I just try and make it right. I don't bring God into that picture. I don't."
Donald Trump selected Mike Pence as his 2016 running mate to help bolster support among the Christian right and evangelical voters, who were skeptical of Trump's personal history. Pence, then Indiana's governor, brought impeccable credentials as a devout evangelical, vocal advocate for traditional values like opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, and a self-described "Christian, conservative, and Republican—in that order."
Christian support for Trump has been the subject of The 'Republican Jesus' meme - which satirizes Republican policies such as Rugged Individualism, Supply-Side Economics, Nativism, and anti-immigrationism as incompatible with the actual teachings of Jesus.
In May 2021, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the World Trade Center attack in New York, Donald Trump alongside country music singer Lee Greenwood published The 'God Bless the U.S.A. Bible'. It has the U.S. flag on its leather cover and includes texts of the Declaration of Independence, the original Constitution before amendments, The Bill of Rights, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the chorus of Greenwood's song "God Bless the USA" in Greenwood's own handwriting.
The Bible has been a subject of criticism due to idolatry, and mixing religion with political branding and personal profit for a President campaign product. Critics also argue that putting Trump's own name on a Bible, and bundling it with American Civil Religion are idolatric
The Trump Prophecy is a 2018 Christian drama film that tells the Mark Taylor, a retired firefighter from Orlando, Florida living with PTSD who claims to have received a divine message that Donald Trump would become president of the United States in April 2011 after his wife prays for him.
Don Colossus is a 22-foot golden statue of Donald Trump, unveiled at the Trump National Doral Miami. Evangelicals leaders gathered to pray in front of the statue, which critics compared to The Golden Calf from Exodus.
Polling According to 2016 election exit polls, 26% of voters self-identified as white evangelical Christians, of whom more than three-fourths in 2017 approved of Trump's performance, most of them approving "very strongly" as reported by a Pew Research Center study. In contrast, approximately two-thirds of non-white evangelicals supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, with 90% of Black Protestants also voting for her, even though their theological views are similar to those of evangelicals. According to Yale researcher Philip Gorski, "the question is not so much why evangelicals voted for Trump then—many did not—but why so many white evangelicals did." Gorski's answer was simply "because they are also white Christian nationalists and Trumpism is inter alia a reactionary version of white Christian nationalism."
A Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) post‑2024 election survey of about 5,700 U.S. adults found that 25% of all voters agreed with the statement “God ordained Donald Trump to be the winner of the 2024 presidential election.” Among white evangelical Protestants, that figure was 60%, and among Hispanic Protestants it was 45%.
A Pew Research Center survey of roughly 6,000–8,900 adults found that about 32% of Americans said Trump's election must be part of God's plan, though only around 4–5% said God chose him because of his policies. Among white evangelicals, that share rose to about 60–63% saying his election was part of God's plan, even if not necessarily his policies.
A December 2019 survey found 21.4% of respondents said Trump was anointed; among white evangelicals it was 29%, and among white Pentecostals as high as 53%
A Premier Christian News poll from October 16, 2025, found a quarter of Americans believe Trump's rise is a part of God's plan
A Christianity Today study found 72% of white evangelical Christians approve of Trump's job performance within the first 100 days back in office, whereas majorities in other large religious groups (white nonevangelical Protestants, white Catholics, etc.) do not reach that level of approval.
However, most Americans largely believe Donald Trump is not personally religious - An April 2026 Pew Research Center survey found 70% of U.S. adults said Trump is "not too" or "not at all" religious, up 8 points from fall 2024.
Analysis Israeli philosopher Adi Ophir sees the politics of purity in the white Christian nationalist rhetoric of evangelical supporters, such as the comparison of Nehemiah's wall around Jerusalem to Trump's wall keeping out the enemy, writing, "the notion of the enemy includes 'Mexican migrants', 'filthy' gays, and even Catholics 'led astray by Satan', and the real danger these enemies pose is degradation to a 'blessed—great— ... nation' whose God is the Lord."
Theologian Michael Horton believes Christian Trumpism represents the confluence of three trends that have come together, namely Christian American exceptionalism, end-times conspiracies, and the prosperity gospel, with Christian Americanism being the narrative that God specially called the United States into being as an extraordinary if not miraculous providence and end-times conspiracy referring to the world's annihilation (figurative or literal) due to some conspiracy of nefarious groups and globalist powers threatening American sovereignty. Horton thinks that what he calls the "cult of Christian Trumpism" blends these three ingredients with "a generous dose of hucksterism" as well as self-promotion and personality cult.
Evangelical Christian and historian John Fea believes "the church has warned against the pursuit of political power for a long, long time", but that many modern-day evangelicals, such as Trump advisor and televangelist Paula White, ignore these admonitions. Televangelist Jim Bakker praises prosperity gospel preacher White's ability to "walk into the White House at any time she wants to" and have "full access to the King." According to Fea, there are several other "court evangelicals" who have "devoted their careers to endorsing political candidates and Supreme Court justices who will restore what they believe to be the Judeo-Christian roots of the country" and who in turn are called on by Trump to "explain to their followers why Trump can be trusted in spite of his moral failings", including James Dobson, Franklin Graham, Johnnie Moore Jr., Ralph Reed, Gary Bauer, Richard Land, megachurch pastor Mark Burns and Southern Baptist pastor and Fox political commentator Robert Jeffress.
For prominent Christians who fail to support Trump, the cost is a loss of presidential access and a substantial risk of criticism, a lesson learned by Timothy Dalrymple, president of the flagship magazine of evangelicals Christianity Today, and former chief editor Mark Galli, who were condemned by more than two hundred evangelical leaders for co-authoring a letter arguing that Christians were obligated to support the impeachment of Trump.
Historian Stephen Jaeger traces the history of admonitions against becoming beholden religious courtiers back to the 11th century, with warnings of curses placed on holy men barred from heaven for taking too "keen an interest in the affairs of the state." Dangers to the court clergy were described by Peter of Blois, a 12th-century French cleric, theologian and courtier who "knew that court life is the death of the soul" and that despite believing that participation at court was "contrary to God and salvation," the clerical courtiers justified it with comparisons to Moses being sent by God to the Pharaoh. Pope Pius II opposed the clergy's presence at court, believing it was difficult for a Christian courtier to "rein in ambition, suppress avarice, tame envy, strife, wrath, and cut off vice, while standing in the midst of these [very] things." The history of warnings of the corrupting influence of power on holy leaders is recounted by Fea who compares it to behavior of Trump's court evangelical leaders, warning that Christians risk "making idols out of political leaders."
Jeffress claims that evangelical leaders' support of Trump is moral regardless of behavior that Christianity Todays chief editor called "a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused." Jeffress argues that "the godly principle here is that governments have one responsibility, and that is Romans 13 [which] says to avenge evil doers." This same biblical chapter was used by Jeff Sessions to claim biblical justification for Trump's policy of separating children from immigrant families. Historian Lincoln Muller explains that this is one of two interpretations of Romans 13, which has been used in American political debates since its founding, and is on the side of "the thread of American history that justifies oppression and domination in the name of law and order."