Trump Connects With a Different Type of Evangelical

New York Times: “White evangelical Christian voters have lined up behind Republican candidates for decades, driving conservative cultural issues into the heart of the party’s politics and making nominees and presidents of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.”

“But no Republican has had a closer — or more counterintuitive — relationship with evangelicals than Mr. Trump.”

“The twice-divorced casino magnate made little pretense of being particularly religious before his presidency. The ardent support he received from evangelical voters in 2016 and 2020 is often described as largely transactional: an investment in his appointment of Supreme Court justices who would abolish the federal right to abortion and advance the group’s other top priorities. Evangelical supporters themselves often compare Mr. Trump to the ancient Persian king Cyrus the Great, who freed a population of Jews even though he was not one of them.”

“But religion scholars, drawing on a growing body of data, suggest another explanation: Evangelicals are not exactly who they used to be.”