The perception that white Evangelicals form the base of Trump’s support rests chiefly on a single statistic: the 81 percent of white Evangelicals who, according to exit polls at the 2016 presidential election, voted for him. But that should not blind us to the truth the last two presidential elections have revealed: in the highly polarized state of American public life, it is politics that shapes religion, not the other way around. No question, white Evangelicals constitute a significant and so-far loyal element of the Republican party, with or without Trump as its leader. “But I really don’t feel guilty because I’ve given you a lot back, just about everything I promised.” It was the art of the deal. “The support you have given me is incredible,” Trump said at a White House reception for a group of Evangelicals in 2018. For many white Evangelical leaders, supporting Trump was purely transactional. It is also true that the non-religious Trump courted Evangelical Christians by making their issues-curbing abortion rights, expanding religious liberty, and appointing conservative jurists-his own. But so did a majority of white Catholics and mainline Protestants, albeit Evangelicals gave much larger majorities to Trump than voters of other faiths. To be sure, most white Evangelicals did vote for Donald Trump.
A groaning board of books-a few thoughtful, many alarmist-appeared over the last four years excoriating not only white Evangelicals but all of “white Christian America” and especially “white Christian nationalists.” Who represents the core of Donald Trump’s constituency? Throughout his presidency, that core was widely assumed to be white Evangelical Christians.
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