Trump directly appealed to Christian nationalism in his campaign, and "his various supporters and endorsers also made the connection between voting for Trump and the United States as a Christian nation" ("Make America Christian Again" pg 152). Christian nationalism drove the vote for Trump (Perry). They believed that America was made for them, white ‘Christians’ and believed that Donald Trump was the one who was going to take it back for them. Perry and Whitehead wrote that “Within the burgeoning literature seeking to explain Donald Trump’s surprising victory in the 2016 Presidential election, scholarship has consistently focused on a confluence of five key factors: white working-class economic anxieties, misogyny, anti-black prejudice, fear of Islamic terrorism, and xenophobia” (Edgell 2017; Ekins 2017)" (pg 149). Trump is not a religious man, and many of his actions, language and much of his campaign do not align with Christianity. Christian Nationalism was a driving force in the 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump, and his campaign used and supported a lot of Christian nationalist rhetoric. Although most Christian nationalists are White Evangelicals, not all are, and Trump, like most Christian nationalists, isn’t very religious. Understanding the religious support for his presidency is much more helpful when understanding that it is not religion itself that drove the election. Christianity, in terms of Christian Nationalism, is a dog whistle for “people like me”—white Christians who share those same prejudiced, white supremacist beliefs. Christian really means those that are “ethnically white, culturally conservative, native-born, and likely protestant” (Perry). In their article “Make America Christian Again,” Whitehead and Perry argue that fear drives Christian nationalism, which had a big impact on why Trump was elected. His racist, sexist and anti-immigration campaign and rhetoric appealed to these people as he could eliminate their fears. Christian Nationalism is a cultural framework but isn’t synonymous with religion.
Trump's connection to evangelicalism is through Evangelical Christian nationalists and the religious right. Trump is not a religious man, and many of his actions, language and much of his campaign do not align with Christianity. While it may seem counterintuitive, this is why Trump appealed to Evangelicals—religion is not front and center, but a strategy used in their white supremacist ideals. “Trump represents a prime example of this trend in that he is not traditionally religious or recognized (even by his supporters) to be of high moral character, facts which ultimately did little to dissuade his many religious supporters. In this way, the Christian nation myth can function as a symbolic boundary uniting both personally religious and irreligious members of conservative groups (Braunstein and Taylor 2017)” (150-151).
This image is a perfect example of Trump's strategic use of religion and why he was not only a perfect representative of Christian nationalism but also gained so much Evangelical support. Religion is just a cover for white supremacy. When this photo was taken Trump never even opened the bible. He took a photo and left.
