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Trump tests loyalty of Christian supporters as erratic behavior escalates
The president maintains his hold on the Christian right, but his bluster, fight with the pope and portrayal of himself as a Jesus-like figure strain that bond.
Of the many unlikely turns in the Trump era, ranking high is the fervor with which religious conservatives have embraced an irreverent, thrice-married Manhattan real estate developer given to regular outbursts of vulgarity, lying and vindictiveness.
But now, “he’s forcing his supporters into awkward places, and if they don’t support him, he attacks them. This is not a way to sustain a coalition,” said Erick Erickson, a conservative evangelical radio host who has both praised and criticized the president. “These things add up in a way that begins to alienate evangelical voters.”
It was one thing, for instance, for Trump to post a jokey meme showing himself dressed up as a pope last year, when the selection of a new pontiff was underway. It is far different, as he did Sunday, to issue an AI-generated image depicting him in the flowing red-and-white robes often associated with Jesus. “I asked him to take it down,” said Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), an evangelical who rarely utters anything that sounds like a criticism of what Trump says and does.
Trump’s claim that he believed the social media post, which he deleted, was actually a depiction of him as a doctor was unconvincing. Nor did it help that some of the religious leaders around him have promoted a near-deification of the president, especially after he was almost assassinated in 2024.
With Trump standing beside her, televangelist Paula White-Cain, his spiritual adviser, said this month: “Jesus taught so many lessons through His death, burial and resurrection. He showed us great leadership, great transformation requires great sacrifice.”
“And Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price. It almost cost you your life,” she added. “You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused. It’s a familiar pattern that our Lord and Savior showed us.”
Unlike White evangelicals, who have been a foundational element of the activist Republican base since the Reagan years, Catholics have tended to be swing voters. Democrat Joe Biden narrowly won or evenly split Catholics’ votes with Trump in 2020, depending on whose numbers you are looking at; four years later, Trump carried the Catholic vote by 12 points over Democrat Kamala Harris.
So it is hard to see an upside for Trump in lashing out at Pope Leo XIV for citing biblical doctrine as a critique of the war with Iran. Trump attacked the pontiff as he might any other critic, with a rambling social media tirade claiming that Leo is, among other things, “WEAK on crime” and “catering to the Radical Left.” It was the type of bombast he might have hurled at a blue state governor or big-city mayor. Trump also, baselessly, took credit for Leo’s selection as pope.
The attack on the pontiff — which came the same day that Trump put out the Jesus-like image of himself on social media — dismayed even some of the president’s staunchest supporters among Catholic leaders.
“The statements made by President Trump on Truth Social regarding the Pope were entirely inappropriate and disrespectful. They don’t contribute at all to a constructive conversation. It is the Pope’s prerogative to articulate Catholic doctrine and the principles that govern the moral life,” Bishop Robert Barron, a member of Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, wrote on social media. “I think the President owes the Pope an apology.”
Still, Trump can draw from a deep well of trust and loyalty among religious conservatives. He has put them at the forefront of his coalition and produced victories on issues that Republican presidents before him had only talked about, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade, made possible by his appointments to the courts.
Moreover, Christian conservatives have felt what they perceive as open hostility from the Democratic Party toward their values. It has put them at odds with Democrats on several issues, including policies related to trans people and whether religious organizations, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, can be allowed to provide social services within the confines of their religious beliefs. Only with Trump’s election was it possible for them to win many of these culture-war battles.
Under Trump, more liberal Catholics who argue on behalf of refugees and a better safety net for poor people have seen their side losing ground to culture-war issues.
Some predict the storms around Trump’s most recent actions are likely to pass as quickly as ones in the past have.
“No one has delivered more than Trump on life, religious liberty, support for Israel and judicial appointments for voters of faith,” said Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a conservative grassroots organization, and a member of Trump’s faith advisory group.
“Those policy victories matter far more in their hierarchy of concerns than any disagreement over a since-deleted social media post,” he added.
But gratitude for what Trump has done in the past can go only so far. His religious supporters may grow less tolerant of his antics and volatility as his impotence as a lame duck becomes more pronounced and his poll numbers continue to sink.
Which means, increasingly, that they will be looking to a future beyond his presidency — and perhaps beginning to pray for someone who won’t constantly put their faith to such tests.
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