Why Some Evangelicals Support Donald Trump
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Why Some Evangelicals Support Donald Trump
Donald Trump's unusually strong support among many American evangelical Christians has been one of the most studied relationships in contemporary American politics. Since his emergence as a presidential candidate in 2015 and 2016, researchers, journalists, religious leaders, and polling organizations have attempted to explain why a politician whose personal history and public style differ in important respects from traditional evangelical expectations of personal morality nevertheless attracted enduring support from a large majority of white evangelical Protestant voters.
There is no single explanation. The available research instead identifies a combination of longstanding Republican partisan identification, policy agreement, concern about abortion and the federal courts, religious-liberty disputes, perceptions of cultural displacement, attitudes toward immigration and national identity, Christian nationalism, political mobilization by evangelical leaders, and the belief that political effectiveness can be more important than a politician's personal religious devotion.
The phenomenon also should not be generalized to all evangelicals. Political preferences vary substantially by race, ethnicity, education, generation, denomination, church attendance, and theological outlook. Black evangelicals, for example, have generally voted very differently from white evangelicals, while Hispanic evangelicals have exhibited political patterns that cannot simply be treated as identical to either group.
Longstanding Republican Alignment
Evangelical support for Trump developed within a political realignment that began decades before his presidential campaigns. White evangelical Protestants had become an important Republican constituency by the late twentieth century through political conflicts involving abortion, school prayer, feminism, LGBTQ rights, education, religious liberty, and changing cultural norms.
Organizations associated with the religious right helped connect conservative Protestant voters with Republican candidates beginning especially in the 1970s and 1980s. By the time Trump entered presidential politics, many white evangelical voters already possessed a strong Republican partisan identity.
This history helps explain why support for Trump cannot be understood solely as enthusiasm for Trump personally. For many voters, presidential elections involve a choice between competing political coalitions. Opposition to Democratic candidates and policies has repeatedly been identified as an important component of evangelical Republican voting.
During the 2016 campaign, surveys found that opposition to Hillary Clinton was especially important for many evangelical Trump voters. After Trump took office, however, research suggested that support became increasingly affirmative as evangelical voters credited his administration with delivering policy outcomes they favored.
Abortion, the Supreme Court, and Religious Liberty
Policy considerations have consistently been among the strongest explanations offered by evangelical Trump supporters.
Abortion has been particularly significant. Many conservative evangelicals regarded the composition of the Supreme Court and federal judiciary as crucial to the future of abortion policy. Trump's promise to appoint conservative judges therefore gave voters a concrete policy reason to support him despite reservations about his character or personal conduct.
Trump ultimately appointed three Supreme Court justices—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—as well as numerous lower federal court judges. For conservative Christian voters who considered judicial appointments a high priority, these appointments became an important demonstration that supporting Trump could produce policy results.
Religious liberty was another recurring concern. Evangelical supporters frequently cited disputes involving contraception mandates, religious schools, faith-based organizations, public religious expression, LGBTQ nondiscrimination rules, and the ability of religious institutions or business owners to act according to their beliefs.
For such voters, Trump was often evaluated less as a religious role model than as a political advocate capable of protecting their institutions and policy interests.
Political Representation and the Protector Role
One recurring theme in the research is the distinction between religious devotion and political representation.
Polls repeatedly found that many white evangelical Trump supporters did not consider Trump particularly religious or regard his personal conduct as exemplary. Nevertheless, they often believed that he defended people like them or fought for their political interests.
This distinction helps explain why controversies surrounding Trump's conduct did not necessarily produce large-scale abandonment by evangelical voters. Some supporters explicitly argued that the presidency should be evaluated primarily according to public policy rather than private morality.
Others described Trump as an unusually aggressive defender in a political environment they regarded as hostile to conservative Christianity. His combative political style, willingness to confront political opponents, criticism of established institutions, and resistance to what supporters described as political correctness could therefore be interpreted as assets rather than liabilities.
This produced what some scholars describe as a protector model of political leadership: voters may support a leader who does not personally embody all of their religious values if they believe that leader will defend their community against perceived political or cultural threats.
Christian Nationalism and American Identity
Christian nationalism has become another major area of research into evangelical support for Trump.
In this context, Christian nationalism generally refers to beliefs that connect American national identity with Christianity and favor a privileged public role for Christianity in American institutions and political life. It is distinct from ordinary Christian religious belief and is not held by all evangelicals.
Research has nevertheless repeatedly found a relationship between stronger Christian nationalist beliefs and support for Trump. Surveys have also found substantial overlap among Christian nationalism, Republican identification, white evangelical Protestant identity, and frequent religious participation.
Trump's language concerning restoring America, protecting Christianity, immigration, national borders, patriotism, and cultural decline has resonated with some voters who believe that traditional Christian influence in American society is disappearing.
Some supporters have consequently interpreted political conflicts not merely as disagreements about taxes, regulation, or government programs but as disputes over the identity and moral direction of the nation.
A smaller but highly visible charismatic Christian movement has gone further, interpreting political events through ideas such as prophecy and spiritual warfare. Within these circles, Trump has sometimes been compared to biblical figures such as Cyrus, the Persian ruler described in the Hebrew Bible who served divine purposes despite not belonging to the religious community he assisted.
Such interpretations allow supporters to argue that a political leader need not be personally devout in order to serve what they regard as a providential purpose.
Cultural Change, Status, and Perceived Threat
Another major explanation concerns perceptions of cultural change.
Some white evangelical voters believe that American institutions have become less receptive or increasingly hostile to conservative Christian values. Changes involving same-sex marriage, gender and sexuality, abortion, public education, immigration, racial politics, and secularization have contributed to a broader perception among some conservatives that their cultural influence has declined.
Researchers have described this in terms including cultural displacement, status politics, group threat, nostalgia, and perceived marginalization.
Trump's promise to challenge political establishments and reverse social and institutional trends therefore appealed to some voters who believed traditional religious or cultural norms were losing influence.
This does not mean that every evangelical supporter holds identical views or experiences the same anxieties. Economic conditions, class, education, geographic location, political ideology, media consumption, and personal religious commitments interact in different ways.
Nevertheless, a recurring theme across the literature is that Trump successfully presented himself to many conservative Christians as someone willing to contest social changes that previous Republican leaders had either failed or been unwilling to stop.
Immigration, National Security, and Economic Concerns
Evangelical support for Trump has also been connected to political issues that are not primarily theological.
Immigration and border enforcement became especially important during Trump's campaigns. Many evangelical supporters shared broader Republican concerns about undocumented immigration, border security, crime, national sovereignty, and economic competition.
National security and terrorism were important concerns during the 2016 campaign, while inflation, employment, economic security, and immigration featured prominently in later elections.
Research therefore cautions against explaining evangelical voting exclusively through abortion or religion. Evangelical voters participate in the same broader political environment as other Americans and may make decisions based on combinations of economic, foreign-policy, immigration, cultural, and partisan considerations.
The relative importance of these issues varies substantially among individuals.
Church Attendance and the Meaning of "Evangelical"
The political meaning of the term "evangelical" has itself become a subject of debate.
During the 2016 Republican primaries, some studies suggested that Trump initially performed particularly well among people who described themselves as evangelical but attended religious services infrequently. This contributed to arguments that Trump's evangelical support might primarily represent culturally conservative voters rather than deeply involved church members.
Subsequent research complicated that interpretation. Trump developed strong support among regular white evangelical churchgoers as well, and polling during later elections frequently found high levels of support among both frequent and less-frequent attenders.
Researchers also use different methods for defining evangelicals. Some surveys rely on denominational affiliation, some ask respondents whether they consider themselves evangelical or born again, and others classify respondents according to theological beliefs.
Consequently, claims about "the evangelical vote" can produce different results depending on how evangelical identity is defined.
Trump-era politics may also have influenced the identity itself. Research has suggested that some politically conservative Americans became more likely to adopt the evangelical label while some Christians uncomfortable with its political associations became less willing to use it.
Evangelical identity in contemporary America can therefore function simultaneously as a theological, cultural, and political identity.
Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity Within Evangelical Christianity
The close relationship between Trump and white evangelical Protestants should not be interpreted as representing evangelical Christianity as a whole.
Black evangelical and Protestant Christians have historically exhibited very different partisan and electoral patterns. Black Protestants have generally supported Democratic presidential candidates by large margins even though many hold comparatively traditional theological beliefs.
Researchers studying this difference emphasize the importance of historical experience, racial identity, civil rights, economic policy, policing, immigration, and different understandings of the relationship between Christianity and American history.
Hispanic evangelicals represent another distinctive constituency. Some surveys have shown growing Republican support among Hispanic Protestant voters, but Hispanic evangelical politics remain internally diverse.
These differences demonstrate that theology alone does not determine political behavior. Race, class, ethnicity, education, regional history, partisan identification, and cultural experience all interact with religious belief.
Educational differences have also become visible among white evangelicals, with some research finding stronger Trump identification among evangelicals without college degrees than among those with college degrees.
Evangelical Leaders and Political Mobilization
Trump's relationship with evangelical voters was strengthened through an organized network of pastors, activists, campaign advisers, media personalities, and political organizations.
During the 2016 campaign, prominent evangelical leaders endorsed Trump and participated in private meetings intended to improve relations between the candidate and religious conservatives. Trump later established an evangelical advisory network and maintained unusually direct relationships with a number of prominent religious leaders.
These networks helped communicate Trump's promises concerning abortion, judicial appointments, religious liberty, Israel, taxation, school policy, and other issues to conservative Christian audiences.
Vice President Mike Pence also played an important role during Trump's first administration. Pence's longstanding evangelical identity and connections with conservative Christian organizations gave some religious voters additional confidence that their priorities would receive attention within the administration.
Grassroots church and political networks subsequently contributed to voter registration, turnout efforts, campaign events, and political messaging.
Israel and Christian Zionism
Israel policy became another important element of Trump's appeal to portions of the evangelical community.
Christian Zionism has a long history among American evangelicals, particularly among Christians whose theology assigns religious significance to the modern state of Israel.
Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move the United States embassy there was welcomed by many evangelical leaders. His administration's policies toward Israel and Iran further strengthened support among Christian Zionists.
Some supporters interpreted these developments through biblical prophecy, while others supported Israel primarily for geopolitical, historical, or moral reasons.
The issue illustrates how foreign policy and religious belief can overlap within evangelical political behavior.
Character, Morality, and the Transactional Argument
Trump's personal conduct generated one of the most visible tensions within evangelical politics.
Before Trump's political rise, religious-right organizations frequently emphasized the importance of character in political leadership. Critics therefore accused evangelical Trump supporters of abandoning standards they had previously applied to political figures.
Supporters responded in several ways. Some argued that allegations about personal morality were less important than policies affecting abortion, courts, religious liberty, or national governance. Others argued that all political candidates are morally imperfect and that elections require choosing between realistic alternatives rather than ideal religious representatives.
Another argument presented support as explicitly transactional: evangelicals would provide political support while Trump would deliver policy outcomes.
Over time, however, some research and reporting suggested that the relationship became more than purely transactional. Trump developed a strong personal political identity among segments of the evangelical electorate, while evangelical imagery and rhetoric became increasingly visible within the broader Trump movement.
Dissent Among Evangelicals
Evangelical support for Trump has never been unanimous.
Numerous evangelical pastors, theologians, writers, academics, and organizations have opposed him or criticized the political alliance surrounding him. Their objections have included concerns about character, immigration policies, racial rhetoric, treatment of political opponents, truthfulness, nationalism, democratic institutions, refugees, and the close identification of Christianity with one political movement.
The evangelical magazine Christianity Today became particularly prominent in this debate when it called for Trump's removal from office following his first impeachment, provoking strong disagreement among evangelical leaders and readers.
Other Christians have distanced themselves from the evangelical label because they believe it has become too strongly associated with partisan politics.
These disagreements illustrate an important distinction between evangelical theology and evangelical political identity. People who share many religious beliefs can reach sharply different political conclusions about how those beliefs should shape citizenship and voting.
From 2016 to the Second Trump Administration
The evangelical relationship with Trump evolved considerably after 2016.
During the early Republican primaries, many evangelical leaders and voters preferred other Republican candidates. Once Trump secured the nomination, opposition to Hillary Clinton, concern about the Supreme Court, abortion, religious liberty, and partisan loyalty helped consolidate evangelical support.
During Trump's first presidency, judicial appointments and other policy decisions strengthened his relationship with many conservative Christians. By the 2020 election, some surveys suggested that evangelical voters were supporting Trump more affirmatively than they had four years earlier.
The pattern continued in 2024. White evangelical Protestants remained one of Trump's strongest electoral constituencies, although the broader religious electorate continued to display substantial differences by race, denomination, and religious affiliation.
Support has not remained completely static. Surveys during Trump's second administration indicate that white evangelicals continue to view him substantially more favorably than Americans overall while also showing declines from the exceptionally high levels recorded near the beginning of his second term.
This combination of continued support and changing intensity illustrates why evangelical attitudes toward Trump are better understood as dynamic rather than permanent or unanimous.
Conclusion
Evangelical support for Donald Trump cannot be reduced to a single cause. It developed from the intersection of religion, partisan politics, cultural identity, public policy, institutional networks, and changing perceptions of American society.
For many white evangelical supporters, abortion, judicial appointments, and religious liberty provided powerful policy incentives. Longstanding Republican identification made support for a Republican presidential nominee more likely, while opposition to Democratic policies reinforced that alignment.
Christian nationalism and beliefs about America's religious identity help explain another portion of the relationship, particularly among voters who see political struggles as contests over the country's cultural and moral character. Perceptions of declining Christian influence, demographic change, immigration, and cultural conflict have further strengthened support among some voters for a political leader presented as a defender of their community.
At the same time, evangelical Christianity remains politically diverse. Black evangelicals, Hispanic evangelicals, younger Christians, college-educated evangelicals, pastors, theologians, and individual congregations have often responded differently to Trump. Some have supported him enthusiastically, some pragmatically, some reluctantly, and others have strongly opposed him.
The relationship between Trump and American evangelicalism is therefore best understood not as a simple alliance between one politician and one religious community but as part of a broader transformation in the relationship among religion, partisan identity, cultural conflict, and political power in the United States.
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Election Results, Polling, Voting Behavior, and Electoral Demographics
1. [The Trump Coalition | Council on Foreign Relations Study Group | Council on Foreign Relations | September 2026]
Examines groups that supported Trump in 2024, including white working-class evangelicals, and discusses immigration, economic security, religion, foreign policy, and cultural concerns within the coalition.
2. [White evangelicals remain among Trump’s strongest supporters, but less so than a year ago | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | February 9, 2026]
Examines white evangelical attitudes during Trump’s second term, finding continued majority support for his job performance and policies even as approval and confidence in his ethical conduct declined from early 2025.
3. [How voting patterns changed in the 2024 election: A detailed analysis | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | June 26, 2025]
Reports that white evangelical Protestants remained one of Trump’s strongest constituencies in 2024 and examines changes in religious voting patterns between the 2020 and 2024 elections.
4. [Analyzing the 2024 Presidential Vote: PRRI’s Post-Election Survey | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | December 2024]
Finds very high Trump support among white evangelical Protestants and explores relationships among church attendance, Christian nationalism, authoritarian attitudes, partisanship, and presidential voting.
5. [White evangelical voters show steadfast support for Donald Trump's presidency | Associated Press | Associated Press | November 2024]
Examines why roughly eight in ten white evangelical voters backed Trump in 2024, highlighting religious liberty, conservative social policy, immigration, the economy, abortion, and cultural concerns.
6. [Religion and the 2024 Presidential Election | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | November 8, 2024]
Reviews preliminary election results showing that white evangelical Protestants remained a central component of Trump’s religious coalition while other religious groups followed markedly different voting patterns.
7. [Challenges to Democracy: The 2024 Election in Focus | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | October 2024]
Examines the relationship among religion, partisanship, economic concerns, abortion, immigration, Christian nationalism, and presidential voting preferences during the 2024 campaign.
8. [White Protestants and Catholics support Trump, but voters in other U.S. religious groups prefer Harris | Gregory A. Smith | Pew Research Center | September 9, 2024]
Documents large differences in 2024 voting preferences by religion, including particularly high support for Trump among white evangelical Protestant registered voters.
9. [What election polls show about Christian support for Trump, Harris | Kelsey Dallas | Deseret News | August 21, 2024]
Reviews polling on the religious vote and notes that white evangelicals continued to support Trump strongly even though personal religious devotion was not the main basis of their support.
10. [An Unsettled Electorate: How Uncertainty and Apathy Are Shaping the 2024 Election | Daniel A. Cox | Survey Center on American Life / American Enterprise Institute | June 2024]
Finds white evangelical Protestants remained Trump’s most loyal major religious constituency heading into the 2024 election while documenting differences by education, gender, generation, and religious affiliation.
11. [Religious values, Biden and Trump voters and the 2024 election | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | June 6, 2024]
Shows that Trump-supporting white evangelicals were considerably more likely than many other voters to favor government policies that support religious values and beliefs.
12. [Was there an enthusiasm gap? Examining support for Donald Trump among evangelicals and nonevangelicals | Alondra S. Pagán Márquez; Paul A. Djupe; Matthew Mettler; Jeffery J. Mondak | Politics and Religion | June 5, 2024]
Tests whether evangelical Trump supporters were unusually reluctant and finds little evidence that their support was systematically less enthusiastic than that of non-evangelical Trump supporters.
13. [On Trump and Biden, US voters’ views differ sharply by religion | Gregory A. Smith | Pew Research Center | April 30, 2024]
Finds particularly high Trump support among white evangelical voters and shows that frequent church attendance within the group was associated with somewhat higher support.
14. [Poll: Christians rate Trump more favorably than Biden | Kelsey Dallas | Deseret News | March 15, 2024]
Reviews Pew polling showing particularly favorable views of Trump among white evangelical Protestants and compares attitudes across other Christian and religious groups.
15. [Iowa and the zombie myth about white evangelical support for Trump | Robert P. Jones | Religion News Service | January 17, 2024]
Challenges the argument that Trump’s strongest evangelical supporters are primarily nominal or non-churchgoing evangelicals, presenting polling showing substantial support among frequent churchgoers.
16. [Trump doubled his voting base in Iowa. Here's who voted for him | The Guardian | The Guardian | January 17, 2024]
Examines Trump’s dramatically increased support among Iowa evangelical caucus participants compared with 2016 and discusses the role of abortion, policy achievements, and transactional politics.
17. [What the early primaries tell us about Trump’s changing base | The Washington Post | The Washington Post | 2024]
Shows how evangelical Republicans moved much more decisively toward Trump in the 2024 primaries than they had during his first presidential campaign.
18. [Some Evangelical Voters Aren’t Sold On Trump. Will That Help DeSantis? | Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux; Daniel Cox | FiveThirtyEight | May 18, 2023]
Examines divisions among white evangelicals ahead of the 2024 Republican primaries, including differences by education and disagreements over abortion policy.
19. [Data suggests Trump’s evangelical voting bloc may grow stronger by 2024 | Mya Jaradat | Deseret News | September 20, 2021]
Examines Pew findings that evangelical self-identification and favorable attitudes toward Trump became increasingly correlated during his presidency.
20. [Trump wins white evangelicals but Catholics are split, AP survey finds | Associated Press | PBS NewsHour | November 6, 2020]
Reports AP VoteCast results showing that roughly eight in ten white evangelical voters supported Trump in the 2020 election.
21. [Update: Evangelicals, Trump and the Election | Frank Newport | Gallup | October 2020]
Explains Trump’s evangelical support as partly rooted in longstanding white Protestant Republican identification and partly reinforced by abortion, courts, religious liberty, school choice, and Israel.
22. [White Evangelicals Are Actually for Trump in 2020, Not Just Against His Opponent | Kate Shellnutt | Christianity Today | October 14, 2020]
Uses polling to show a shift from the heavily anti-Clinton motivation evident in 2016 toward more affirmative support for Trump after four years of his presidency.
23. [Evangelicals at base of Trump hopes for Pennsylvania repeat | Mark Scolforo | Associated Press | September 19, 2020]
Examines evangelical mobilization in Pennsylvania and the importance of Mike Pence, abortion policy, and conservative courts to Trump’s reelection strategy.
24. [White evangelical Trump approval slips, but eight-in-ten say they would vote for him | Gregory A. Smith | Pew Research Center | July 1, 2020]
Finds that although Trump’s job approval declined during the pandemic, his electoral support among white evangelical Protestants remained very strong.
25. [A third of Trump’s support in 2016 came from evangelicals — and he hasn’t lost them yet | Philip Bump | The Washington Post | June 5, 2020]
Quantifies the electoral importance of white evangelicals to Trump’s coalition and examines whether temporary declines in approval threatened that relationship.
26. [White Evangelical Protestants Attitudes Toward Donald Trump, 2015–2019 | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | January 3, 2020]
Tracks the transformation from evangelical skepticism during the Republican primaries to sustained high favorability after Trump became the party nominee and president.
27. [Religious Identity and the 2020 Presidential Election | Frank Newport | Gallup | 2020]
Reviews religious voting patterns and places white evangelical support for Trump within the broader historical alignment between highly religious white Protestants and the Republican Party.
28. [Despite Chaos and Controversy, Trump Favorability Stable Throughout 2019 | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | 2020]
Finds white evangelical Protestants to be among Trump’s most consistently favorable constituencies throughout the impeachment period.
29. [Evangelical approval of Trump remains high, but other religious groups are less supportive | Philip Schwadel; Gregory A. Smith | Pew Research Center | March 18, 2019]
Tracks Trump approval across religious traditions and finds consistently high support among white evangelical Protestants, including frequent church attendees.
30. [Why Evangelicals Voted Trump: Debunking the 81% | Ed Stetzer; Andrew MacDonald | Christianity Today | October 2018]
Uses survey research to show that evangelical motivations were diverse, with the economy, health care, national security, immigration, religious liberty, courts, abortion, and opposition to Clinton all contributing.
31. [Will evangelicals come out for Trump's Republican party in November? | Ben Jacobs | The Guardian | May 20, 2018]
Explores whether conservative judges, opposition to Clinton, abortion, and continuing policy alignment would sustain evangelical mobilization during the 2018 midterms.
32. [White Evangelical Support for Donald Trump at All-Time High | Robert P. Jones | Public Religion Research Institute | April 18, 2018]
Reports exceptionally high Trump favorability among white evangelical Protestants and examines differences by gender and educational attainment.
33. [Year One: American Views on President Trump | Barna Group | Barna Group | 2018]
Surveys religious groups during Trump’s first year and documents especially high levels of prayer for and political engagement with the president among evangelicals.
34. [Our Present Political Moment, in Numbers | Barna Group | Barna Group | 2018]
Reviews religious participation in American politics after Trump’s election and examines the relationship between evangelical identity and political mobilization.
35. [Stark Partisan Divisions Over Russia Probe, Including Its Importance to the Nation | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | December 7, 2017]
Shows that evangelical evaluations of Trump remained strongly connected to partisan identification even amid controversies surrounding his first year.
36. [Declining Confidence in Trump, Lower Job Ratings for Congressional Leaders | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | November 2, 2017]
Finds that despite declining national approval, white evangelical Protestants continued to approve of Trump at substantially higher rates than other major religious groups.
37. [Among white evangelicals, regular churchgoers are the most supportive of Trump | Gregory A. Smith | Pew Research Center | April 26, 2017]
Finds that Trump’s post-election support was not confined to nominal evangelicals and was particularly strong among regular churchgoers.
38. [Notional Christians: The Big Election Story in 2016 | Barna Group | Barna Group | December 1, 2016]
Analyzes religious voting patterns and argues that shifts among less-theologically committed Christians also played an important role in Trump’s victory.
39. [White Evangelicals Grade Trump, Republicans, and the Media | Kate Shellnutt | Christianity Today | November 23, 2016]
Reviews post-election Pew data showing evangelical assessments of Trump’s campaign conduct, priorities, and incoming administration.
40. [Trump Elected President, Thanks to 4 in 5 White Evangelicals | Christianity Today | Christianity Today | November 2016]
Reviews the 2016 evangelical vote and notes that many Trump supporters described themselves as voting against Clinton or for Republican political goals rather than enthusiastically embracing Trump personally.
41. [Top 10 Stats Explaining the Evangelical Vote for Trump or Clinton | Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra; Jeremy Weber | Christianity Today | November 4, 2016]
Compiles polling on evangelical voting intentions, enthusiasm, candidate evaluations, policy preferences, and the importance of opposition to the competing presidential candidate.
42. [Trump Ends Evangelicals and Catholics Together | Kate Shellnutt | Christianity Today | October 28, 2016]
Examines differences between evangelical and Catholic voting behavior and the strength of Trump’s appeal among conservative Protestant voters.
43. [Latest Survey: Most Evangelicals Are Not Voting Trump | Christianity Today | Christianity Today | October 2016]
Highlights how definitions of evangelicalism, race, church attendance, and theological belief produced different estimates of Trump support before the 2016 election.
44. [The Faith and Ideology of Trump and Clinton Supporters | Barna Group | Barna Group | October 10, 2016]
Examines the religious and ideological characteristics of each candidate’s coalition and reports strong Trump support among several conservative Christian constituencies.
45. [Many evangelicals favor Trump because he is not Clinton | Gregory A. Smith | Pew Research Center | September 23, 2016]
Finds that opposition to Hillary Clinton was a major motivation among white evangelical Trump supporters, alongside terrorism, the economy, immigration, leadership, and desire for political change.
46. [Evangelicals Rally to Trump, Religious ‘Nones’ Back Clinton | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | July 13, 2016]
Documents growing white evangelical support for Trump during the general-election campaign despite reservations voiced by numerous evangelical leaders.
47. [Evangelical Christians rallying behind Donald Trump, poll finds | Scott Bixby | The Guardian | July 13, 2016]
Reports Pew polling showing strong white evangelical movement toward Trump once he became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
48. [The evangelical vote: will 94 million Americans sit out this year’s election? | Brian Vines | The Guardian | June 21, 2016]
Explores uncertainty among evangelical voters during the 2016 campaign and the tension between traditional Republican loyalty and concerns about Trump.
49. [Trump, Clinton, or Neither: How Evangelicals Are Expected to Vote | Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra | Christianity Today | May 5, 2016]
Reviews surveys showing widespread evangelical reservations about both major-party candidates before many conservative Christians ultimately moved toward Trump.
50. [Actually, Most Evangelicals Don’t Vote Trump | Darren Patrick Guerra | Christianity Today | March 18, 2016]
Examines Republican primary results and cautions against treating self-identified evangelical voters as a politically uniform constituency.
51. [8 Charts on Which Evangelicals Will (and Won’t) Vote Trump on Super Tuesday | Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra | Christianity Today | February 29, 2016]
Uses polling and primary results to examine differences between highly observant evangelicals and people who primarily self-identify with the evangelical label.
52. [Voters Want a Different America | Barna Group | Barna Group | 2016]
Examines dissatisfaction with both presidential candidates and shows how candidate favorability differed among evangelicals, born-again Christians, nominal Christians, and other religious groups.
53. [America’s Faith Segments Are Divided on Presidential Race | Barna Group | Barna Group | 2016]
Shows that Trump initially lagged other Republican candidates among some highly engaged evangelical and practicing Christian voters during the Republican nomination contest.
Christian Nationalism, Biblical Narratives, and Spiritual Warfare
54. [Why Trump’s Spiritual Adviser Dedicated a Golden Statue to the President | Isaac Chotiner | The New Yorker | May 12, 2026]
Interviews evangelical pastor Mark Burns about his support for Trump and explores the religious symbolism, loyalty, and claims of divine purpose surrounding Trump among some charismatic Christian supporters.
55. [Christian Nationalism and the Vote for Donald Trump in the 2024 Presidential Election: A State-Level Analysis | Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry | Nations and Nationalism | June 3, 2025]
Finds that state-level Christian nationalist sentiment was associated with higher Trump vote shares in 2024 even after accounting for political, economic, demographic, and religious characteristics.
56. [Character Matters? Christian Nationalism and Insistence on Ethical Political Leaders | Samuel L. Perry; Andrew L. Whitehead | Review of Religious Research | January 9, 2025]
Examines how Christian nationalists evaluate the importance of political leaders’ ethics and how those expectations coexist with strong Trump support.
57. [Evangelical leader Lance Wallnau pitches Trump to followers as divinely chosen for presidency | Chrissy Hallowell; Arden Farhi; Clare Hymes | CBS News | September 4, 2024]
Examines charismatic leader Lance Wallnau’s effort to persuade evangelical voters that Trump can be regarded as a divinely useful political leader despite objections to his personal conduct.
58. [Pro-Trump Christian extremists use scripture to justify violent goals | Hannah Allam | The Washington Post | July 13, 2024]
Investigates a militant fringe within pro-Trump Christian nationalist movements and the use of biblical and spiritual-warfare language in political rhetoric.
59. [Axios Explains: Christian nationalism on the march | Axios Staff | Axios | June 24, 2024]
Reviews Christian nationalist beliefs and their increasing political visibility, including the movement’s substantial overlap with Trump supporters and parts of the Republican coalition.
60. [From Trump Bibles to Trump rallies: Mixing faith and politics | Kelsey Dallas | Deseret News | April 11, 2024]
Explores the religious atmosphere at some Trump rallies and discusses how political loyalty, Christian symbolism, abortion, and perceptions of Trump as a defender of faith interact.
61. [Christian nationalists embrace Trump as their savior – will they be his? | Adam Gabbatt | The Guardian | April 7, 2024]
Explores religious imagery surrounding Trump, Christian nationalism, abortion, the courts, and the belief among some supporters that an imperfect political figure can serve a providential purpose.
62. [The peril radicalizing some evangelicals goes beyond Christian nationalism | Matthew D. Taylor | Religion News Service | April 4, 2024]
Examines charismatic and Christian nationalist movements supporting Trump and argues that spiritual-warfare theology is an important part of some activists’ political worldview.
63. [The overlap of Trumpism and Christian nationalism | Philip Bump | The Washington Post | February 29, 2024]
Discusses polling demonstrating a strong correlation between support for Christian nationalist ideas and favorable attitudes toward Trump.
64. [First of Its Kind Survey Maps Support for Christian Nationalism Across All 50 States | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 28, 2024]
Reports that Christian nationalist beliefs are particularly associated with Republican identification, white evangelical Protestantism, frequent church attendance, and support for Trump.
65. [How Iowa evangelicals rallied around Trump’s ‘holy war’ | Alex Woodward | The Independent | January 15, 2024]
Examines Trump’s appeal to evangelical Iowa caucus voters through cultural grievance, legal persecution narratives, Christian nationalist themes, and claims that he serves a larger religious purpose.
66. [‘Ordained by God’: Trump’s legal problems galvanize Iowa evangelicals | Meryl Kornfield; Colby Itkowitz; Hannah Knowles; Marianne LeVine | The Washington Post | January 14, 2024]
Examines how some evangelical voters interpreted Trump’s legal battles through biblical narratives of persecution and struggle while also emphasizing his Supreme Court appointments.
67. [‘God Made Trump’ video denounced by Iowa faith leaders | Samuel Benson | Deseret News | January 8, 2024]
Examines religious portrayals of Trump as providentially chosen and the disagreement among Christian leaders over whether such imagery is appropriate.
68. [Trump boosts a hard-right Christian worldview that paints the election as 'spiritual warfare' | Associated Press | Associated Press | 2024]
Examines Trump campaign outreach to religious conservatives and the language of spiritual warfare used by some supporters who view electoral politics through a theological lens.
69. [Christian Nationalism in Support for Donald Trump | Anna Maccaroni | Perspectives, University of New Hampshire | 2023]
Reviews scholarship connecting Trump support with Christian nationalism, demographic anxiety, Republican political identity, immigration concerns, and perceptions of cultural displacement.
70. [Does it Matter if the President Isn’t Pious? White Evangelicals and Elite Religiosity in the Trump Era | Politics and Religion | Politics and Religion | 2022]
Finds that perceptions of religious-group threat were associated with greater willingness among white evangelicals to interpret Trump’s election as part of God’s plan.
71. [The Devil That You Know: Christian Nationalism and Intent to Change One's Voting Behavior For or Against Trump in 2020 | Samuel L. Perry; Andrew L. Whitehead; Joshua B. Grubbs | Politics and Religion | April 21, 2021]
Examines how Christian nationalism influenced whether 2016 Trump voters intended to remain with him or change their presidential vote in 2020.
72. [White evangelicals think Trump is divinely ordained. He’ll do almost anything to keep it that way | Sarah Posner | Los Angeles Times | June 14, 2020]
Analyzes religious symbolism, political outreach, and beliefs among some evangelical supporters that Trump’s presidency has a providential role.
73. [Millions of Americans Believe Trump Is Fighting Literal Demons | Emily Brumfield-Hessen | Foreign Policy | June 10, 2020]
Examines charismatic spiritual-warfare beliefs among some Trump supporters and how ideas about supernatural conflict can reinforce political loyalty and conspiracy narratives.
74. ['Unparalleled privilege': why white evangelicals see Trump as their savior | Adam Gabbatt | The Guardian | January 11, 2020]
Explores the analogy some supporters draw between Trump and the biblical King Cyrus, along with the political importance of courts, abortion, and LGBTQ issues.
75. [From King Cyrus to Queen Esther: Christian Zionists’ discursive construction of Donald Trump as God’s instrument | Sean Durbin | Critical Research on Religion | 2020]
Examines Christian Zionist portrayals of Trump as a divinely useful political instrument because of policies toward Israel and Iran.
76. [Christian Nationalism and Donald Trump | Frederick Clarkson | Political Research Associates | April 6, 2018]
Reviews research arguing that Christian nationalist beliefs help explain evangelical support for Trump beyond ordinary measures of religious commitment.
77. [Make America Christian Again: Christian Nationalism and Voting for Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election | Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry; Joseph O. Baker | Sociology of Religion | January 25, 2018]
Finds Christian nationalist beliefs independently associated with voting for Trump after accounting for partisanship, economic dissatisfaction, prejudice, immigration attitudes, and other factors.
78. [Does the 'Cyrus prophecy' help explain evangelical support for Donald Trump? | James S. Gordon | The Guardian | March 23, 2017]
Explores the biblical King Cyrus analogy used by some Christians to argue that God can employ a religiously imperfect political leader to accomplish desired outcomes.
79. [Why electing Donald Trump was a triumph for the prosperity gospel | Michael Schulson | The Washington Post | November 30, 2016]
Examines Trump’s relationships with prosperity-gospel preachers and similarities between his language of wealth, winning, personal success, and themes found in prosperity theology.
80. [The Theology of Donald Trump | Michael Horton | Christianity Today | March 16, 2016]
Analyzes theological and cultural themes underlying Trump’s appeal to self-identified evangelical voters, including power, success, pragmatism, and American religious culture.
Policy Priorities: Abortion, Courts, Religious Liberty, Immigration, and Israel
81. [For many white evangelicals, the Supreme Court makeup solidifies their support for President Trump | JP Keenan; Ivan Pereira | ABC News | October 16, 2020]
Examines the importance of Trump’s judicial appointments, particularly the Supreme Court, for voters concerned about abortion and religious liberty.
82. [Nothing will make White evangelicals ditch Trump | The Washington Post | The Washington Post | October 1, 2020]
Argues that partisan media, conservative judicial nominations, abortion, religious-liberty disputes, and perceptions of cultural hostility helped maintain strong evangelical loyalty.
83. [Will SCOTUS defeats boomerang to shore up evangelical support for Trump? Here’s how they could. | Eugene Scott | The Washington Post | July 6, 2020]
Examines how unfavorable Supreme Court rulings could reinforce evangelical perceptions that conservative Christians face cultural or legal threats requiring continued political mobilization.
84. [Could Supreme Court rebukes of Trump policy cost him critical support from white evangelical voters? | Seema Mehta | Los Angeles Times | June 26, 2020]
Examines evangelical disappointment with several Supreme Court decisions and the central role conservative judicial appointments played in the Trump-evangelical alliance.
85. [More Americans say Trump administration has helped evangelicals than other groups | Justin Nortey | Pew Research Center | May 11, 2020]
Reports widespread perceptions that evangelical Christians benefited from Trump administration policy and examines attitudes toward the administration’s treatment of different religious groups.
86. [Trump Pledges to Protect ‘Right to Pray’ in Public Schools | Collin Binkley; Elana Schor | Christianity Today / Associated Press | January 16, 2020]
Examines school-prayer and religious-freedom initiatives promoted by Trump as he worked to maintain support among conservative Christian voters.
87. [Faith and freedoms: why evangelicals profess unwavering love for Trump | Tom McCarthy | The Guardian | July 7, 2019]
Examines abortion, judicial appointments, religious exemptions, Israel policy, and perceptions that Trump delivered promises made to evangelical voters.
88. [Extreme abortion laws shine light on Trump’s courting of religious right | David Smith | The Guardian | May 13, 2019]
Explores abortion politics and conservative judicial appointments as central components of Trump’s relationship with the religious right.
89. [As Trump picks Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, evangelicals rejoice: ‘I will vote for him again’ | Julie Zauzmer | The Washington Post | July 9, 2018]
Shows how Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh reinforced support among evangelicals who prioritized abortion, religious liberty, and a more conservative federal judiciary.
90. [Why Rank-And-File Evangelicals Aren’t Likely To Turn On Trump Over Family Separation | Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux | FiveThirtyEight | June 2018]
Uses polling on immigration and border policy to explain why criticism of family separation did not necessarily translate into broader evangelical abandonment of Trump.
91. [Pastors at embassy opening highlight evangelicals' deal with The Donald | The Guardian | The Guardian | May 15, 2018]
Examines the Jerusalem embassy move as an example of Trump delivering a policy strongly favored by many Christian Zionists and conservative evangelical leaders.
92. [Most white evangelicals approve of Trump travel prohibition and express concerns about extremism | Gregory A. Smith | Pew Research Center | February 27, 2017]
Shows broad white evangelical support for Trump’s initial travel restrictions and demonstrates the interaction between partisanship, religion, immigration, and national-security concerns.
93. [Views of Trump’s executive order on travel restrictions | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | February 16, 2017]
Documents large religious differences in support for Trump’s travel policy, with white evangelical Protestants considerably more supportive than most other religious constituencies.
94. [Thrilling Christian conservative audience, Trump vows to lift ban on politicking, appoint antiabortion judges | Michelle Boorstein; Julie Zauzmer | The Washington Post | June 22, 2016]
Reports on Trump’s outreach to conservative Christians through promises involving religious liberty, the Johnson Amendment, abortion, and Supreme Court appointments.
Evangelical Identity, Partisanship, Culture, and Status
95. [Are Trump and Harris particularly Christian? That's not what most Americans would say | Associated Press | Associated Press | September 2024]
Reports polling showing that many evangelical Trump supporters do not regard him as especially religious but nevertheless see him as representing or defending their political and religious interests.
96. [Trump has changed what it means to be evangelical | Shadi Hamid | The Washington Post | June 17, 2024]
Examines evidence that evangelical identity has increasingly functioned as both a religious and political identity during the Trump era.
97. [Donald Trump, Tim Keller and the state of evangelicals today: A conversation with John Inazu | Eboo Patel | Deseret News | March 28, 2024]
Discusses divisions within American evangelicalism and contrasts approaches to Christianity, politics, pluralism, and Trump.
98. [How Americans see presidential candidates’ religiosity | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | March 15, 2024]
Examines perceptions of Trump’s personal religiosity and finds that many white evangelical supporters distinguish between whether he is personally devout and whether he defends their interests.
99. [5 facts about religion and Americans’ views of Donald Trump | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | March 15, 2024]
Shows that white evangelical Protestants had particularly favorable views of Trump while relatively few supporters described him as very religious, underscoring the importance of representation and policy.
100. [Is Trump religious? Why religious voters support Trump | Samuel Benson | Deseret News | January 5, 2024]
Examines why many religious conservatives support Trump despite questions about his personal religiosity, emphasizing the distinction between choosing a religious leader and choosing a political advocate.
101. [Tim Alberta’s new book — what does it say about evangelicals? | Kelsey Dallas | Deseret News | December 21, 2023]
Discusses Tim Alberta’s argument that partisan and cultural identities increasingly influence how some evangelicals determine who they regard as religious allies.
102. [‘Political Evangelicals’? More Trump Supporters Adopt the Label | Kate Shellnutt | Christianity Today | September 16, 2021]
Discusses Pew findings suggesting that evangelical self-identification became increasingly associated with political identity among some white Trump supporters.
103. [During Trump presidency, more White Americans adopted than shed evangelical label | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | September 15, 2021]
Finds that Trump-friendly white Americans were disproportionately likely to begin identifying as evangelical between 2016 and 2020, illustrating interaction between religious and political identity.
104. [Are the 81 Percent Evangelicals? | Bonnie Kristian | Christianity Today | December 2020]
Examines problems with treating the widely cited white evangelical Trump vote as representative of all evangelicals and discusses differing definitions of evangelical identity.
105. [White Evangelicals See Trump as Fighting for Their Beliefs, Though Many Have Mixed Feelings About His Personal Conduct | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | March 12, 2020]
Finds that many white evangelicals regarded Trump as someone who fought for their beliefs even though considerably fewer described him as especially religious, honest, or morally exemplary.
106. [White Evangelical Protestants’ Support for Trump in the Viewpoint of Status Politics | Son Byung-Kwon | American Studies Institute | 2020]
Examines Trump support through the historical development of evangelical political participation and perceptions that conservative Christians had lost cultural status.
107. [Why Evangelicals Support Trump Out of Fear, Not Faith | David French | TIME | June 27, 2019]
Argues that fears concerning religious liberty, cultural marginalization, progressive politics, and loss of institutional influence contributed to evangelical attachment to Trump.
108. [Born Again with Trump: The Portrayal of Evangelicals in the Media | Eun-Young Julia Kim | Journal of Religion and Society | 2019]
Analyzes more than one hundred media articles and concludes that discussions of evangelical Trump support frequently center on competing visions of what America should be.
109. [How does Pew Research Center measure the religious composition of the U.S.? | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | July 5, 2018]
Explains why different definitions of “evangelical” produce different political findings and challenges claims that Trump’s support came primarily from nonreligious people adopting the evangelical label.
110. [Fear, Power, Nostalgia, and the 81 Percent | Kristin Kobes Du Mez | Christianity Today | June 29, 2018]
Reviews historian John Fea’s explanation of evangelical Trump support through recurring themes of fear, pursuit of political power, and nostalgia for a Christian America.
111. [American Evangelical Support for Donald Trump: Mostly American, and Only Sort-of ‘Evangelical’ | John G. Stackhouse Jr. | Religion & Culture Forum, University of Chicago | February 2, 2018]
Argues that the phenomenon is best understood in the particular context of white American cultural and political identity rather than evangelical theology alone.
112. [‘Exvangelicals’: why more religious people are rejecting the evangelical label | Josiah Hesse | The Guardian | November 3, 2017]
Examines how association between evangelicalism and pro-Trump politics prompted some Christians to distance themselves from the evangelical label.
113. [Donald Trump is no saint, but I know why evangelicals love him | Josiah Hesse | The Guardian | September 5, 2017]
Argues that Trump’s self-presentation as a cultural outsider willing to defy political correctness resonates with some evangelicals who similarly perceive themselves as marginalized.
114. [How We Got Here: Spiritual and Political Profiles of America | Barna Group | Barna Group | 2017]
Examines the theological and political characteristics of different religious groups and how those patterns corresponded with the 2016 vote.
115. [Polls show evangelicals support Trump. But the term ‘evangelical’ has become meaningless. | Thomas S. Kidd | The Washington Post | July 22, 2016]
Explores competing definitions of evangelical identity and argues that political self-identification can complicate attempts to interpret polling about evangelical Trump supporters.
116. [Defining Evangelicals in an Election Year | Leith Anderson; Ed Stetzer | Christianity Today | April 2016]
Discusses how evangelical identity can be measured by beliefs rather than political self-identification and explains why definitions matter when interpreting Trump’s support.
117. [Where is Trump’s evangelical base? Not in church. | Geoffrey Layman | The Washington Post | March 29, 2016]
Examines evidence from the Republican primaries suggesting that Trump initially performed especially well among self-identified evangelicals who attended religious services less frequently.
118. [Most Christians View Their Faith as a Force for Good | Barna Group | Barna Group | March 16, 2016]
Examines perceptions of cultural hostility toward Christianity, a concern that helped provide context for support for candidates promising to protect Christian institutions.
119. [Americans Struggle to Talk Across Divides | Barna Group | Barna Group | March 9, 2016]
Documents religious, cultural, racial, and partisan divisions during the election campaign and places evangelical political conflict within broader American polarization.
Campaign Networks, Religious Leaders, and Mobilization
120. [Why are some Evangelicals drawn to — and sticking by — Trump? This pastor weighs in | Scott Detrow; Kathryn Fink; Ashley Brown; Tyler Bartlam | NPR | October 30, 2024]
Uses an interview with a North Carolina Pentecostal pastor to explore how policy, religious identity, cultural conflict, and perceptions of politics as a spiritual struggle influence evangelical support.
121. [The Kingmaker: The ‘unsung hero’ of Trump’s 2016 election is back | Samuel Benson | Deseret News | April 15, 2024]
Profiles evangelical voter-mobilization networks that helped produce high conservative Christian turnout for Trump and continued organizing ahead of 2024.
122. [Which candidate will evangelicals support in 2024? This man will help decide | Samuel Benson | Deseret News | October 2, 2023]
Profiles evangelical organizer Chad Connelly and examines how pastors, grassroots networks, abortion, biblical-worldview politics, and turnout influence Republican campaigns.
123. [The room where it happened: How evangelical leaders used a Closed-Door meeting to change sentiment for Donald J. Trump | J. Derrick Lemons | The Australian Journal of Anthropology | October 17, 2022]
Examines a pivotal 2016 meeting in which evangelical leaders interacted with Trump and considers how elite religious networks helped shift attitudes toward his candidacy.
124. [This Election, Evangelical Supporters Have More Faith in Trump | Kate Shellnutt | Christianity Today | September 18, 2020]
Reports from Evangelicals for Trump campaign events and examines how policy accomplishments and relationships with evangelical leaders produced greater enthusiasm than in 2016.
125. [WATCH: Trump launches 'Evangelicals for Trump' initiative | Jonathan Lemire; Elana Schor | Associated Press / PBS NewsHour | January 3, 2020]
Describes Trump’s organized outreach to evangelical voters and highlights conservative judges, abortion, religious freedom, and direct access to the administration.
126. [Trump fights to keep evangelicals on his side ahead of 2020 | Joan E. Greve | The Guardian | December 28, 2019]
Examines Trump’s efforts to reinforce evangelical support following criticism from Christianity Today and other dissenting evangelical voices.
127. [‘Brought to Jesus’: the evangelical grip on the Trump administration | Julian Borger | The Guardian | January 11, 2019]
Examines evangelical influence within the administration, including Israel policy, courts, social issues, Christian Zionism, and the King Cyrus interpretation of Trump.
128. [‘Toxic Christianity’: the evangelicals creating champions for Trump | Harriet Sherwood | The Guardian | October 21, 2018]
Examines Liberty University and the development of a conservative Christian political culture strongly aligned with Trump and Republican politics.
129. [Trump to reportedly meet evangelical leaders to discuss Stormy Daniels | Amanda Holpuch | The Guardian | April 6, 2018]
Examines evangelical leaders’ concerns about whether personal scandals could weaken Christian voter turnout despite continued policy alignment.
130. [Evangelicals are planning a high-profile meeting with Trump | Sarah Pulliam Bailey; Julie Zauzmer | The Washington Post | April 6, 2018]
Describes continuing institutional ties between Trump and prominent evangelical advisers despite concerns about personal scandals and midterm turnout.
131. [Omarosa calls Pence’s faith ‘extreme,’ but that’s why evangelicals like him — and Trump | Eugene Scott | The Washington Post | February 13, 2018]
Examines Pence’s role in reassuring conservative Christians and strengthening the religious credentials of the Trump administration.
132. [Evangelicals scratch Donald Trump’s back – and he’s returning the favor | Daniel José Camacho | The Guardian | July 13, 2017]
Discusses reciprocal political relationships between Trump and conservative evangelical leaders, including access to the administration and policy concessions.
133. [Trump makes play for evangelicals by noting his problems in Mormon-rich Utah | Tom Hamburger; Sean Sullivan | The Washington Post | August 11, 2016]
Examines Trump’s effort to mobilize evangelical turnout by arguing that conservative Christians needed to participate politically to protect their interests.
134. [Who’s Who of Trump’s ‘Tremendous’ Faith Advisers | Kate Shellnutt; Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra | Christianity Today | June 22, 2016]
Profiles Trump’s evangelical advisory board and the religious leaders who helped establish connections between his campaign and conservative Christian institutions.
135. [Trump warns evangelical leaders: ‘Clinton will be worse than Obama’ | Ben Jacobs | The Guardian | June 21, 2016]
Examines Trump’s argument to conservative Christian leaders that preventing a Clinton presidency was sufficient reason to unite behind his candidacy.
136. [Trump makes inroads with evangelicals, undermining Cruz | Jenna Johnson; Robert Costa | The Washington Post | January 26, 2016]
Describes Trump’s growing evangelical support during the Republican primaries and the importance of endorsements from Jerry Falwell Jr., Robert Jeffress, and other conservative Christian figures.
137. [Jerry Falwell Jr. Endorses Donald Trump; Here’s How Other Evangelicals Compare | Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra | Christianity Today | January 26, 2016]
Examines Falwell’s influential endorsement while contrasting it with skepticism toward Trump among pastors and other evangelical leaders.
138. [Trump Bible reference falls flat as he tries to woo evangelicals at Liberty | Ben Jacobs | The Guardian | January 18, 2016]
Reports on Trump’s Liberty University appearance and his early effort to appeal directly to evangelical voters despite limited familiarity with evangelical language and practices.
Race, Gender, Education, and Intra-Evangelical Divisions
139. [The Gathering Storm in the Evangelical Field: Education, Christian Nationalism, and Racial Inequality | David Sikkink | Sociology of Religion | November 3, 2025]
Finds significant divisions within evangelicalism by education and Christian nationalism, with similar divisions appearing in attitudes toward Trump.
140. [Defensive racism and Christian righteousness in the time of Trump | Sophie Bjork-James | Women’s Studies International Forum | November–December 2023]
Uses interviews and ethnographic research with conservative white evangelicals to examine race, moral identity, Christian nationalism, and politics during and after Trump’s presidency.
141. [An Emerging Schism Among White Evangelicals | Daniel A. Cox; Ruy Teixeira | American Enterprise Institute / Survey Center on American Life | June 2023]
Finds continued strong Trump support among white evangelicals while identifying an education divide, with voters lacking college degrees generally expressing warmer attitudes toward him.
142. [White Evangelical Trump Support Fracturing | Survey Center Staff | Survey Center on American Life | April 7, 2023]
Reports declining Trump favorability among some college-educated white evangelicals while finding greater stability among evangelicals without college degrees.
143. [Racial Attitudes and Political Preferences Among Black and White Evangelicals | Politics and Religion | Cambridge University Press | 2022]
Compares Black and white evangelicals and demonstrates how racial attitudes and racial identity help explain their sharply different presidential voting patterns.
144. [Changes in Americans’ prejudices during the presidency of Donald Trump | Mark J. Brandt and colleagues | Nature Human Behaviour | 2022]
Reports longitudinal evidence that explicit racial and religious prejudice changed differently among Trump supporters and opponents during his presidency.
145. [Who Wears the MAGA Hat? Racial Beliefs and Faith in Trump | Amanda Graham; Francis T. Cullen; Leah C. Butler; Alexander L. Burton; Velmer S. Burton Jr. | Socius | March 9, 2021]
Finds associations between Trump support and several political and racial attitudes, while identifying evangelical Christianity as one characteristic of Trump’s broader coalition.
146. [White evangelical support for Trump goes beyond his policies, supporters and historians say | Shayna Freisleben | CBS News | November 2, 2020]
Explores policy agreement alongside evangelical traditions emphasizing patriarchal leadership, toughness, cultural struggle, and particular ideas about masculinity.
147. [Latino Evangelicals Narrowly Favor Trump | Alejandra Molina | Christianity Today / Religion News Service | October 6, 2020]
Examines growing Trump support among Latino evangelicals while demonstrating that evangelical political behavior differs substantially across racial and ethnic groups.
148. [Black and White evangelicals once talked about ‘racial reconciliation.’ Then Trump came along. | Sarah Pulliam Bailey | The Washington Post | August 21, 2020]
Examines racial divisions within evangelical Christianity and how white evangelical support for Trump strained relationships with many Black evangelical Christians.
149. [Straying from the Flock? A Look at How Americans’ Gender and Religious Identities Cross-Pressure Partisanship | Erin C. Cassese | Political Research Quarterly | December 2, 2019]
Examines how gender and evangelical religious identity interact with partisan loyalty when political leaders violate traditional expectations regarding personal morality.
150. [Billy Graham Center Explains Survey on Evangelical Trump Voters | Jeremy Weber | Christianity Today | October 18, 2018]
Reviews research finding diverse motivations among evangelical Trump voters and emphasizes differences between white and nonwhite evangelical Christians.
151. [Evangelicalism has had a race, gender and age problem for years. Pence’s appearance before Southern Baptists highlighted it. | Eugene Scott | The Washington Post | June 13, 2018]
Explores demographic divisions within evangelicalism and the relationship between conservative Christian institutions, Republican politics, Pence, and Trump.
152. [In US evangelical capital, a new progressiveness and differing views on Israel | Josiah Hesse | The Guardian | May 19, 2018]
Explores generational changes among evangelicals and differing views of Israel, prophecy, and conservative Christian political activism.
153. [How Trump And Race Are Splitting Evangelicals | Perry Bacon Jr.; Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux | FiveThirtyEight | March 2, 2018]
Examines racial divisions within evangelical Christianity and the interaction among Trump support, immigration, cultural politics, race, and fears of losing influence.
Morality, Dissent, Criticism, and Consequences
154. [How Donald Trump Is Teaching Christians to Abandon Empathy | Isaac Chotiner | The New Yorker | April 1, 2025]
Interviews Southern Baptist theologian Albert Mohler about his evolution from criticizing Trump in 2016 to supporting him in 2020 and 2024, particularly because of differences between the parties on social policy.
155. [Evangelicals Made a Bad Trade | The Atlantic | The Atlantic | January 2025]
Argues that evangelical support for Trump evolved from an initially transactional alliance over abortion, courts, and religious liberty into a deeper political identification with Trump and his movement.
156. [A new movement aims to remake evangelicals’ relationship to politics | Michelle Boorstein | The Washington Post | August 4, 2024]
Profiles evangelicals seeking alternatives to intense partisan identification, providing a counterpoint that illustrates the diversity of evangelical reactions to Trump-era politics.
157. [A Year After the Election, Trump’s Effect on Evangelical Churches Lingers | Christianity Today | Christianity Today | November 2021]
Examines how pastors’ handling of Trump and the 2020 election affected church attendance, giving, evangelism, political division, and congregational relationships.
158. [White evangelicals are hailing the Trump era. Will their alliance with him stunt their influence going forward? | Eugene Scott | The Washington Post | December 18, 2020]
Reviews what conservative evangelicals believed they gained through Trump, including judges, abortion policy, and religious-liberty measures, while examining possible long-term consequences.
159. [Why Evangelicals Disagree on the President | Timothy Dalrymple | Christianity Today | November 2, 2020]
Explores theological and political reasons evangelicals reached sharply different conclusions about Trump even while sharing many core religious beliefs.
160. [How evangelicals see President Trump | PBS NewsHour | PBS NewsHour | January 2, 2020]
Presents contrasting evangelical perspectives on Trump, including arguments based on abortion and policy outcomes as well as concerns about character and partisan identification.
161. [Evangelical magazine Christianity Today calls for Trump’s removal after impeachment | Vivian Ho | The Guardian | December 19, 2019]
Reports Christianity Today’s break with Trump and the contrasting reactions of evangelical leaders who continued to support him.
162. [Why do US evangelicals support Trump? They’re giving Christianity a bad name | Tim Farron | The Guardian | June 5, 2019]
Presents a critical evangelical perspective on the alliance while examining political power, cultural conflict, and partisan identity.
163. [Dozens of evangelical leaders meet to discuss how Trump era has unleashed ‘grotesque caricature’ of their faith | Sarah Pulliam Bailey | The Washington Post | April 16, 2018]
Covers an evangelical gathering concerned about the close public association between their religious identity and Trump-era partisan politics.
164. [In an age of Trump and Stormy Daniels, evangelical leaders face sex scandals of their own | Sarah Pulliam Bailey | The Washington Post | March 30, 2018]
Examines changing conversations about sexual ethics, institutional accountability, and political morality within evangelical Christianity during Trump’s presidency.
165. [Evangelicals’ support for Trump will cost them — spiritually | Elizabeth Bruenig | The Washington Post | March 27, 2018]
Presents a critical perspective on evangelical defenses of Trump and contrasts them with earlier religious-right arguments that presidential character mattered.
166. [Would Billy Graham be disgusted by evangelicals today? | Michelle Boorstein; Sarah Pulliam Bailey; Julie Zauzmer | The Washington Post | February 21, 2018]
Uses Billy Graham’s legacy to examine how evangelical political engagement evolved toward much stronger identification with Republican partisan politics.
167. [Under Trump, America’s religious right is rewriting its code of ethics | Randall Balmer | The Guardian | February 18, 2018]
Examines changing evangelical judgments about presidential character and the extent to which political priorities altered earlier expectations regarding personal morality.
168. [‘He’s not God’: In the wake of porn-star allegations, most evangelicals stand by Trump | John Wagner; Michelle Boorstein | The Washington Post | January 29, 2018]
Shows how many evangelical supporters separated judgments of Trump’s personal morality from evaluations of his anti-abortion and religious-liberty policies.
169. [Evangelical Christians ‘uncritical’ in support for Trump, UK bishop says | Harriet Sherwood | The Guardian | December 28, 2017]
Reports criticism from Bishop Paul Bayes while illustrating international Christian disagreement over American evangelical support for Trump.
170. [Evangelicals, Trump and the politics of redemption | Peter Wehner | Religion News Service | August 11, 2017]
Presents a critical evangelical interpretation of the alliance while discussing political power and the willingness of religious leaders to defend Trump.
171. [Evangelical Christian leaders: travel ban violates religious beliefs on refugees | Lois Beckett | The Guardian | January 30, 2017]
Highlights evangelical opposition to one Trump policy, demonstrating that evangelical political attitudes were not completely uniform even during his early presidency.
172. [Trump Won. Here’s How 20 Evangelical Leaders Feel. | Emily Lund | Christianity Today | November 11, 2016]
Collects reactions from evangelical pastors, theologians, authors, and institutional leaders following Trump’s election victory.
173. [After Trump, Should Evangelical Christians Part Ways? | Mark Galli | Christianity Today | November 10, 2016]
Explores political divisions within evangelical Christianity exposed by the 2016 election and competing understandings of Christian public engagement.
174. [The New Evangelical Moral Minority | Alec MacGillis | The New Yorker | November 7, 2016]
Examines the conflict between traditional evangelical standards of personal morality and the political calculations that led many conservative Christians to support Trump.
175. [Has Trump caused white Evangelicals to change their tune on morality? | William A. Galston | Brookings Institution | October 19, 2016]
Examines polling showing a dramatic change among white evangelicals in attitudes toward whether politicians can behave immorally in private life while performing their public duties ethically.
176. [Why Trump Tape Caused Only One Evangelical Leader to Abandon Him | Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra | Christianity Today | October 10, 2016]
Reviews evangelical responses to the Access Hollywood recording and the calculations that led many previously committed supporters to remain with Trump.
177. [‘Still the best candidate’: Some evangelicals still back Trump despite lewd video | Sarah Pulliam Bailey | The Washington Post | October 8, 2016]
Explores why some evangelical leaders continued supporting Trump after release of the Access Hollywood recording, emphasizing abortion, courts, religious liberty, and opposition to Hillary Clinton.
Broad Historical and Academic Interpretations
178. [Why White Evangelicals Stuck with Trump | Myriam Renaud | University of Chicago Divinity School | February 11, 2021]
Synthesizes polling suggesting that policy priorities, abortion, religious freedom, group conformity, church involvement, and targeted political outreach helped maintain Trump’s evangelical support.
179. [The White Evangelical Alliance with Donald Trump | Thomas S. Kidd | Yale University Press | August 27, 2020]
Provides historical context for the white evangelical-Republican alliance and explores why opposition from prominent evangelical critics failed to substantially weaken Trump’s support.
180. [The allegiance of white American evangelicals to Donald Trump | Kenneth R. Bieber Jr.; Jaco Beyers | Exchange | May 2020]
Examines evangelical loyalty to Trump through themes including Christian nationalism, political expediency, authoritarianism, biblical analogies, and perceptions of Trump as a protective leader.
181. [Why Trump is reliant on white evangelicals | Jason Husser | Brookings Institution | April 6, 2020]
Analyzes the demographic and electoral importance of white evangelicals within Trump’s coalition and explains their longstanding Republican alignment.
182. [Practices of relation: Gorski and Perry | Philip S. Gorski; Samuel L. Perry | The Immanent Frame / Social Science Research Council | April 2, 2020]
Presents two scholars’ approaches to understanding Trump support through white Christian nationalism and the fusion of religious, racial, and national identity.
183. [Who Wants to Make America Great Again? Understanding Evangelical Support for Donald Trump | Michele F. Margolis | Politics and Religion | July 11, 2019]
Finds that devout white evangelical support for Trump fits longer-term Republican voting patterns and identifies negative partisanship as an important explanatory factor.
184. [Making sense of evangelicals' support for Trump | Michael Massing | The Guardian | June 7, 2019]
Explores feelings of cultural marginalization and hostility toward conservative Christians as one factor, alongside abortion, same-sex marriage, partisan identity, and other political disagreements.
185. [2016 U.S. Presidential Election and Evangelical Religious Right Support for Trump: A Sociology of Religion Study | Korean Association for the Sociology of Religion | 2019]
Examines nationalism, economic anxiety, immigration, race, gender, and culture-war politics as factors contributing to evangelical support in 2016.
186. [The Unexpected Orthodoxy of Donald J. Trump: White Evangelical Support for the 45th President of the United States | Gerardo Martí | Sociology of Religion | December 20, 2018]
Argues that some evangelicals evaluated Trump less through personal piety than through his willingness to defend the group’s political identity, institutions, and policy priorities.
187. [How can Christians support Donald Trump? | Diane Winston | Religion News Service | December 17, 2018]
Explains evangelical support through decades of Republican alignment, conservative policy objectives, cultural anxiety, social marginalization, and the biblical idea that flawed leaders may serve useful purposes.
188. [Racketeering in religion: Adorno and evangelical support for Donald Trump | Christopher Craig Brittain | Critical Research on Religion | October 14, 2018]
Uses Theodor Adorno’s analysis of religious populism to interpret the relationship between Trump’s political style and some forms of evangelical political support.
189. [How Martin Luther Paved the Way for Donald Trump | Michael Massing | The Nation | May 14, 2018]
Places evangelical support for Trump within a long historical discussion of Protestant authority, politics, individual conscience, and religious culture.
190. [Christianity and Democracy after Trump | Taylor & Francis | Political Theology | 2018]
Explores the relationship between evangelical support for Trump, populism, Christian nationalism, and democratic political commitments.
191. [Why evangelicals voted for Trump: A critical cultural sociology | Philip Gorski | American Journal of Cultural Sociology | October 2017]
Argues that white Christian nationalism and a particular tradition of religious nationalism help explain why Trump appealed to some evangelicals beyond ordinary Republican partisanship.
192. [Dollar and Cross: Why Evangelical Support for Donald Trump is Unsurprising | Julian D. Jacobs | Brown Political Review | May 26, 2017]
Argues that evangelical Republican alignment and economic and social conservatism make Trump’s strong support less anomalous than his personal behavior might initially suggest.
193. [Myths Debunked: Why Did White Evangelical Christians Vote for Trump? | Myriam Renaud | University of Chicago Divinity School | January 19, 2017]
Uses polling to argue that terrorism, economic issues, immigration, and other concerns were more prominent for many evangelical voters than commonly assumed single-issue explanations.
194. [US election: Why did evangelicals vote for Donald Trump? | Michael Bird | ABC News Australia | November 16, 2016]
Discusses abortion, Supreme Court appointments, religious freedom, party loyalty, cultural concerns, and opposition to Clinton as factors influencing evangelical voters.
195. [Why Evangelicals Like Trump | Mugambi Jouet | The New Republic | May 13, 2016]
Examines authoritarianism, populism, cultural conservatism, immigration, and anti-establishment politics as possible components of Trump’s evangelical appeal.
196. [Why Evangelicals Support Trump | Bill Federer | RealClearPolitics | March 6, 2016]
Presents an early explanation emphasizing evangelical perceptions of cultural pressure, political frustration, and a desire for a forceful political defender.
197. [Why so many evangelicals have faith in Donald Trump | Jenna Johnson; Sarah Pulliam Bailey | The Washington Post | January 18, 2016]
Examines Trump’s early appeal to evangelical voters, including arguments that voters were selecting a political leader rather than a pastor and were attracted to his outsider status, business image, and willingness to confront political opponents.
