After Donald Trump’s 2024 election win, he addressed his supporters shortly after his victory, saying, “God spared my life for a reason.”
This comment is one of many references he’s made to God and Christianity during his campaign. He has also referred to believers as “my beautiful Christians.” Trump has solidified himself as a follower in the Christian faith, garnering a loyal religious voter base that played a significant role in his re-election. Self-identified Christians made up 72% of voters within the 2024 election cycle, showcasing the immense influence they had on the results, with Trump winning 56% of their votes.
However, by leveraging this influence, Trump has only perpetuated an intense favoritism of Christianity that could threaten the separation of church and state upheld by the U.S. Constitution.
Trump’s pandering to a religious voter base is anything but unique to his 2024 run. Following his 2016 campaign, he promised that “Christianity will have power.” And power is exactly what he gave them, installing a litany of Christian right-wing judges and enabled the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade as many conservative Christians are pro-life. In fact, his loyalty to upholding Christian policies is what garnered his Evangelical Christian voter base’s trust in him for this recent election. That alongside the overtly patriotic Bibles he sold earlier this year.
This pandering has also led to public fear about his favoring of Christian faith. Especially within a country as religiously diverse as America, these policies seem to hold little room for those who don’t follow Christianity.
A majority of his Evangelical Christian voter base, however, have been over the moon, with some even calling his election an opportunity for an American reformation.
After Trump’s heralding of a staunch victory for anti-abortionists, many Christians believe he will follow through on upholding other relevant Evangelical beliefs — like their recent calls for attacks on transgender rights. They see him as a defender of their beliefs, a figure who can return Evangelical glory to America. The very fact that they believe this to be a possibility points to the dangerous amount of power they know Trump is set to give them.
The use of Christianity in Trump’s presidency has come to power at an opportune time. Not only have Trump and J.D. Vance espoused their adherence to religious beliefs, but current House Speaker Mike Johnson has also denoted his adherence to Evangelical Christianity. Additionally, if Trump chooses to follow the trends of his last run, many worry about the future judiciary that Trump aims to mold. He could thus uphold and maintain Christian values in governmental and judicial bodies well past his presidency.
The U.S. Constitution’s separation of church and state was designed to prevent both religious governmental biases and the perpetuation of a country without true religious freedom. It’s because of this legal roadblock that Trump has avoided making his favoritism of Christianity explicitly clear in his proclamations — although he has come quite close. Instead, he uses phrases like “religious freedoms” and “religious liberty,” although he has yet to shower other religious groups with similar praise.
In fact, his proposed Pentagon pick, Pete Hegseth, holds a history of anti-Muslim rhetoric. Paired with his other pro-Christian cabinet selections and an Evangelical pastor, this reveals a lacking effort to represent and protect the rights of those that don’t follow the faith.
In addition, his current considerations for cabinet have direct ties to the controversial Project 2025. The doctrine is a 922-page right-wing conservative blueprint intended to serve as the skeleton of a second Trump term. It has also been heralded as an attempt to enact a Christian nation, as the doctrine called for the restriction of American rights and liberties — some of which are LGBTQ+ rights alongside the right to abortion. Trump tried to distance himself from the doctrine due to its fervent controversy, claiming that he had nothing to do with its creation. Despite this, he proposed Russell T. Vought — a key figure in Project 2025’s creation — to lead the Office of Management and Budget throughout his 2024 presidency.
Trump has shown that the only religious liberties he cares for are those of Christian Evangelicals in America. This favoritism raises questions about the limits of constitutional protections for religious liberty, especially when our president makes little to no attempt at hiding his religious bias. It also signals the beginning of a dangerous presidential term, one where Trump’s unwavering eagerness to appease his loyal Christian fanbase may take over much else.
It’s thereby essential that the governmental checks and balances amend and fight against these biases in order to prevent the enactment of policies that could upend our right to religious freedom. Hopefully, Trump’s attempts at enacting Evangelist policies won’t go farther than the boundaries allotted to them under the First Amendment.
Layla Asgarian Nahavandi is an Opinion Staff Writer. She can be reached at lasgaria@uci.edu.
Edited by Trista Lara and Xinyu Zhang.