Jesus is their savior, Trump is their candidate. Ex-president’s backers say he shares faith, values

[Pelican Press 0]

****** is their savior, Trump is their candidate. Ex-president’s backers say he shares ******, values

As

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increasingly infuses his campaign with

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while coasting to a third *********** presidential nomination, his support is as strong as ever among evangelicals and other ************* Christians.

“Trump supports ******, and without ******, America will fall,” said Kimberly Vaughn of Florence, Kentucky, as she joined other supporters of the former president entering a

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near Dayton, Ohio.

Many of the T-shirts and hats that were worn and sold at the rally in March proclaimed religious slogans such as “****** is my savior, Trump is my president” and “****, Guns & Trump.” One man’s shirt declared, “Make America Godly Again,” with the image of a luminous ****** putting his supportive hands on Trump’s shoulders.

Many attendees said in interviews they believed Trump shared their ********** ****** and values. Several cited their opposition to

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and

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, particularly to transgender expressions.

Nobody voiced concern about Trump’s past conduct or his

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on ********* charges, including allegations that he tried to hide hush money payments to a ***** actor during his 2016 campaign. Supporters saw Trump as representing a religion of second chances.

And for many, Trump is a champion of Christianity and patriotism.

“I believe he believes in **** and our military men and women, in our country, in America,” said Tammy Houston of New Lexington, Ohio.

“I put my family first, and on a larger scale, it’s America first,” said Sherrie Cotterman of Sidney, Ohio. “And I would any day of the week, take a president that openly knows he needs the strength from **** over his own.”

In many ways, this is a familiar story.

About 8 in 10 white evangelical Christians supported Trump in 2020, according to

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, and Pew Research Center’s validated voter survey found that a similar share

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.

But this is a new campaign, and that support has remained durable — even though *********** voters in the early primaries had several openly ************* ********** candidates to choose from, none of whom faced the legal troubles and misconduct allegations that Trump does. In the Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina *********** primary contests earlier this year, Trump won between 55% and 69% of white evangelical voters, according to AP VoteCast.

Trump even criticized one competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for signing strict ********* curbs into law. In past years, some Trump surrogates have portrayed Trump as friendly to the LGBTQ+ community.

Trump was the only *********** candidate facing scores of ********* charges, ranging from allegations that he conspired to overturn his 2020 election defeat to his current trial on allegations he falsified business records in seeking illegally to sway the 2016 election with hush money to ***** actor Stormy Daniels.

Trump was also the only GOP candidate with a history of casino ventures and two divorces, as well as allegations of ******* misconduct — one of them affirmed by a civil court verdict.

*********** primary voters still overwhelmingly chose Trump.

This has frustrated a ********* of ************* evangelicals who see Trump as an unrepentant poser, using the ****** and prayer sessions for photo props. They see him as lacking real ****** and facing credible, serious misconduct allegations while campaigning with incendiary rhetoric and authoritarian ambitions.

Karen ******** Prior, a ********** author and literary scholar who has spoken against fellow evangelicals’ embrace of Trump, said this support in 2024 is familiar but “intensified.”

In the past, she said Trump supporters hoped but weren’t certain that Trump shared their ********** ******.

“Now his supporters believe themselves,” she said. “Despite the fact that Trump clearly wavers on

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and he wavers on LGBTQ issues, those things are just ignored, they’re just erased out of the narrative.”

At the Ohio rally, several attendees cited their belief that Trump has followed the ********** path of repenting and starting a new life.

“We’ve all come from sinning. ****** sat with sinners, so he’s going to sit with Trump,” Vaughn said. “It’s not about where Trump came from, it’s about where he’s going and where he’s trying to take us.”

The Ohio rally, like other Trump events, featured a recording of the national anthem sung by some of those convicted for ******* related to the

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, ******* on the Capitol, whom Trump called “patriots.”

At the rally’s entrance, one group handed out pamphlets urging attendees both to “trust in ****** ******* for your salvation” and to support the “J6 patriots.”

Caleb Cinnamon, 37, of Dayton, identified as a ********** and said opposing ********* is a top priority. He cited Trump’s three Supreme Court appointments, who proved decisive in the 2022 decision overturning of the Roe v. Wade precedent that had legalized ********* nationwide.

“Donald Trump’s really the first president who’s not only vocalized an anti-********* stance but also put action behind it,” he said. “Republicans since the 1990s were saying ‘We’re going to do this about *********,’ and then they don’t.”

Jody Picagli of Englewood, Ohio, said her ********* ****** and views on ********* are central.

“I’m a big right-to-life person,” she said. “That’s huge for me. And just morals. I think the moral compass is so out of whack right now. And we need religion and ******* back in here.”

She acknowledged that, with the

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turning the ********* issue over to the states, a future President Trump may not impact ********* law.

“But I know he’ll never go to an ********* clinic and visit it, like our vice president did,” she said, alluding to Kamala Harris’ tour of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota in March.

********** supporters of Trump did also cite non-religious issues — from foreign policy and immigration to gas prices and inflation.

Robert Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute and an author of books on white supremacy in ********* Christianity, said the strong evangelical support for Trump isn’t surprising. But he said that in a 2023 PRRI poll, less than half of white evangelicals said that ********* was a critical issue to them personally. More than half said that five others were a critical issue, including human trafficking, public schools, rising prices, immigration and ******.

“One of the biggest myths about white evangelical support for Trump is this idea that it’s really about ********* and they’re holding their nose and voting for Trump,” Jones said.

He added that Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants “invading the country and changing our cultural heritage” resonates with his audience.

The slogan “Make America Great Again” echoes an “ethno-religious vision of a white ********** America, just barely underneath the surface,” Jones said.

He acknowledged the ******* lines aren’t absolute, with Trump attracting ****** supporters such as South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

The Ohio rally included a vast majority of white attendees but with some ****** and other ******* groups represented.

Earlier this year, Trump hit multiple applause lines in speaking to a ************* audience at the National Religious Broadcasters convention.

“We will protect Christians in our schools and in our military and our government,” Trump said. “We will protect **** in our public square. … I will protect the content that is pro-****.”

Trump pledged a federal task force to ****** the “persecution against Christians in America” and “the toxic poison of gender ideology,” saying “**** created two genders, male and female.”

Trump’s rallies take on the symbols, rhetoric and agenda of ********** nationalism, which typically includes a belief that America was founded to be a ********** nation and seeks to privilege Christianity in public life.

Trump endorsed a ****** edition that includes U.S. founding documents and the lyrics to Lee Greenwood’s “**** Bless the USA.”

“This is a ****** specifically for a kind of white evangelical audience that sees themselves as the rightful inheritors of the country,” Jones said, citing a

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in which about half of white evangelicals agreed that **** intended America as a promised land for ********* Christians.

Trump’s campaign events have the feel of a worship service. The former president has shared a “**** Made Trump” video depicting him in messianic terms. Jones said Trump builds on the messianic theme with statements like, “They’re not after me, they’re after you. I’m just standing in the way.”

But Mark DeVine, a Southern ******** pastor and seminary professor from Birmingham, Alabama, wrote in the online journal ********* Reformer that ************* Christians support Trump because “elected Democrats and Democrat-serving, unelected bureaucrats” have an “evil” agenda on issues ranging from ********* to gender to the border to pandemic lockdowns that kept churches closed.

“Trumpers want to shield themselves, their children, their communities, and the nation they love from the woke, totalitarian onslaught now being unleashed upon them where they live, work, study, play, and worship,” he wrote.

At the Ohio rally, some said they believed the nation or its founding documents, such as the Bill of Rights, had ********** origins, though historians dispute such assertions.

Some Trump supporters voiced hope for a more ********** America.

Thomas Isbell of Greensboro, North Carolina, who has set up vending booths for years at Trump rallies around the country, said his “****, Guns & Trump” shirts are a top seller.

“It’s a ********** country,” he said, adding that if he were president, he would only allow public worship by Christians.

“We’re not going to set up a temple to no other gods in our land,” he said.

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AP visual journalist Jessie Wardarski contributed.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s

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with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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Donald Trump,Trump supporters,************* Christians,America,misconduct allegations
#****** #savior #Trump #candidate #Expresidents #backers #shares #****** #values

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