This post has been updated since its initial 11/25/22 publish date to include more expert insight.
Things are going from bad to worse for Donald Trump and his 2024 presidential campaign, as it’s just been announced that he is losing support from evangelical Christian voters – whose support he relied on so heavily in 2016 – this time round. Uh oh!
Trump’s third bid for the presidency is already getting off to a bad start, as it was revealed last week that he was losing support from some of his biggest donors; some of whom pledged to support his rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis despite the fact that he hasn’t officially announced his intention to run yet. If at all! And now the twice-impeached former president is losing support from another group whose votes he heavily relied on in the past, and that is reportedly because Trump does not “personify” biblical values.
Donald Trump Loses Evangelical Christian Support
Donald Trump leaned heavily on his own version of the "silent majority" in the lead-up to the 2020 election hoping that they would carry him across the finish line. Trump and a majority of his supporters did not end up winning the 2020 election or the 2022 midterms. And after suffering three disappointing election cycles, Trump now appears to be faced with a group of Conservatives who are turning increasingly against him: evangelical voters.
"At the present moment, our movement is divided," Mike Evans, who helped Trump get support from evangelical Christians in back 2016 when he won the presidency, said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post. "The average evangelical Christian is a faith-based person. Donald Trump does not personify biblical values. So, although they very much admire his policies, they honestly don't admire the person. He does not have the support of the evangelicals that he did."
That's not the only interview Evans gave on the matter, as he said that he and his group will no longer turn a blind eye to the things Trump says and does that "horrify" them, as they may have done back in 2016. "Donald Trump can't save America. He can't even save himself," he wrote in The Washington Post. "He used us to win the White House. We had to close our mouths and eyes when he said things that horrified us. I cannot do that anymore."
Impact Of Evangelical Leaders' Trump Support
According to Christianity Today, half of Americans believe that evangelical leaders' support of Trump hurt the church's credibility, as per a 2021 poll, with one in four reportedly claiming that evangelical support for Trump reduced their desire to participate in the religion. Interestingly, 33 percent of evangelical Christians have also claimed that seeing their leaders support Trump has made their personal witness to friends and family more difficult.
Earlier this month, while addressing the National Association of Christian Lawmakers televangelist James Robison, who served as a spiritual adviser to Trump, likened the former president to a "little elementary schoolchild." And, Everett Piper, the former president of an evangelical university, published a post-midterm piece last month arguing that Trump is " hurting…not helping” American evangelicals. "The take-home of this past week is simple: Donald Trump has to go If he's our nominee in 2024, we will get destroyed," Piper added. Yikes!
Can Trump Depend On Other Christian Groups?
Robert Jeffress, a televangelist who endorsed Trump in 2016 and was named a member of Trump's Evangelical Advisory Board and the White House Faith Initiative, has also spoken out about whether the former POTUS has his support on this occasion. He previously said that any Christians who didn't vote for Trump to become the Republican nominee were "fools," but on this occasion, told Newsweek that he won't endorse Trump until it becomes clear who the Republican nominee is in 2024.
"The Republican Party is headed toward a civil war that I have no desire or need to be part of," he said, adding that he would "happily" support Trump if he became the GOP nominee.
.@Mike_Pence is a great friend, a committed Christian, and a true American hero. Get his new book SO HELP ME GOD that is out today. https://t.co/9qnT3MVzKf
— Dr. Robert Jeffress (@robertjeffress) November 15, 2022
Interestingly though, on the same day that Trump announced his intention to run for president, Jeffress shared a link to former Vice President Mike Pence's book, So Help Me God, on Twitter, while describing Pence as a "great friend, a committed Christian, and a true American hero."
James Robison of Life Outreach International, another previous faith adviser to Trump, said that Trump's ego is getting in the way of the agenda. "If Mr Trump can't stop his little petty issues, how does he expect people to stop major issues?" Robison said in a speech this week, according to The Washington Post. "Sir, you act like a little elementary schoolchild and you shoot yourself in the foot every morning you get up and open your mouth! The more you keep your mouth closed, the more successful you're gonna be!" he said, recalling what he reportedly told Trump.
