Trump Is Dividing Evangelicals Now, Too

Donald Trump and his MAGA movement frequently claim to act under the guidance and protection of the Christian version of God Almighty, just as they claim their predecessors and opponents are hostile to the divine will and determined to close churches and persecute believers. Yet one of the hallmarks of Trump 2.0 so far has been a willingness to divide Christians by unconditional demands for obedience to the Boss in Washington rather than the one in Heaven. First, Trump blasted liberal Christians like Episcopal bishop Mariann Budde, who simply asked the 47th president to be merciful toward the target of his fury (i.e., LGBTQ+ folk and undocumented immigrants). Then Vice-President J.D. Vance and “border czar” Tom Homan went after their own Catholic Church for failure to sufficiently cooperate with Trump’s mass-deportation plans, provoking a stern encyclical from Pope Francis asserting the Church’s traditional stance on the compassion owed to refugees and other “strangers.”