After former President Donald Trump gave his victory speech at the Palm Beach Convention Center early Wednesday, dozens of his supporters gathered in a lobby to sing “How Wonderful You Are,” reciting the words and harmonies of a popular classical hymn. Evangelical Christians.

It was a fitting coda to an election in which Trump once again won the support of nearly 8 in 10 white evangelical Christian voters, according to AP VoteCast, a comprehensive poll of more than 120,000 voters. This level of support among a group representing nearly 20% of the total electorate echoes similarly surprising evangelical support: Trump accepted in 2020.

Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church of Dallas, one of Trump’s most prominent evangelical supporters since the 2016 campaign, called the election a “huge victory.”

“Yes, there were some faith issues that were important to Evangelicals, but Evangelicals are Americans, too,” Jeffress said. “They are interested in immigration, they are interested in the economy.”

Some of Trump’s critics fear that Trump will make a new move Christian nationalist They see the agenda as giving Christians a privileged position in the country and disregarding the separation between church and state.

Even if some of the administration’s statements on religion are rhetoric rather than policy, it can still have an impact on a country. more secular It is more religiously diverse than in past generations, says Andrew Whitehead, author of “Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States.”

“Those who do not embrace this expression of Christianity or the Christian religion, or those who do not believe in any religion, will feel branded as ‘other’ and not truly American,” said Whitehead, an associate professor of sociology at Indiana University Indianapolis.

Whitehead predicted that a Christian nationalist view would likely motivate the first Trump administration’s restrictive immigration policies on the grounds of protecting traditional American culture, such as the travel ban from many Muslim-majority countries.

Jeffress dismissed the concerns of those who envisioned a Christian nationalist rule.

“Non-Christians worry unnecessarily that he will establish some kind of oppressive theocracy. Jeffress said Trump has not shown any interest in banning same-sex marriage or outright banning abortion, adding, “He has no interest in doing that.”

Trump’s strongest supporters among evangelical leaders can likely expect the same kind of White House access they had during Trump’s first term.

Trump proclaimed a sense of divine authority.

“A lot of people told me that God spared my life for a reason,” Trump said in his victory speech, referring to widespread statements among his evangelical supporters that he had received miraculous divine protection during the near-fatal assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. he said. July 13. “And that reason was to save our country and restore America to greatness.”

on campaign trailTrump promised to protect Christians “in our schools, our military, and our government” and “in our public squares.” Many church-state battles in recent years have focused on Christian symbols in public settings, such as crucifix displays.

The Republican platform promised to defend Christians as well as Jews facing persecution. Although it included a general commitment to protect the practices of all faith groups, only two stood out by name. The platform also defended the right to “pray and read the Bible at school.”

Trump has pledged to support other evangelical priorities, such as support for Israel and rolling back transgender rights, and said “God created two genders, male and female.” Evangelicals dismayed by Trump alienating himself from the US The strictest anti-abortion recommendationsBut evangelical leaders viewed Trump as preferable to Harris’ strong advocacy for abortion rights.

pro-Trump rallies It featured phrases adopted by Christian nationalists, such as the song “God Bless the USA.” Many people at Trump rallies wear shirts that read “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president.”

Evangelicals’ support for Trump initially surprised many, given his casino ventures, multiple marriages, accusations of sexual harassment and, most recently, his central role in inciting the 2021 Capitol riot and his conviction on fraud charges. However, many fans dispute these accusations or see him as a flawed but powerful champion.

“People support President Trump because of his policies, not his religiosity,” Jeffress said.

John Fea, a history professor at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, who wrote a book on evangelical support for Trump in the 2016 campaign, said the continued support is not surprising.

Fea said he has spoken to evangelicals who are upset with Trump in this campaign. “They were looking for any reason to vote for Harris,” like some moderation on abortion. “I don’t think Harris gave them much.”

It wasn’t just white, non-Hispanic evangelicals who supported Trump. So did just over half of Latino evangelicals and 6 in 10 white Catholics, according to AP VoteCast. Overall, about 6 in 10 Mormons also supported the former president.

Pastor Abraham Rivera of La Puerta Life Center in North Miami, Florida, attributed Trump’s popularity among all Latinos and especially evangelicals to their conservative values ​​of morality and family.

“I think a lot of Latino evangelicals are put off by the issue of gender identity, which the left has put so much emphasis on,” Rivera said. Rivera said members of his congregation have expressed some concerns about Trump’s “personality or things he’s said,” but not concerns about his policies.

He expects Latino evangelical leaders’ frequent contacts with Trump’s first administration to continue and to be given a voice. In contrast, Biden felt the doors were “shut shut” in the White House, ignoring the values ​​of many conservatives.

But Rivera added: “The idea that an evil Christian right is going to take over everything is just crazy.”

Fea said that while the Christian nationalist agenda may be more rhetorical than substantive at the national level, there are real examples of it at the local level. He predicted the Trump administration would not push back against things like a new Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in public schools and an Oklahoma education official’s order to include the Bible in public school classes. Both face court challenges.

The 2024 Republican platform promised to use existing federal law to keep “foreign Communists, Marxists, and Socialists who hate Christians” and “jihadists” out of America. During the campaign, Trump said he would create a federal task force to combat “persecution of Christians in America.”

Other groups nationally and in local churches are preparing to push back on the Christian nationalist agenda.

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State have vowed to resist any Trump administration policies that privilege Christians and use religious freedom claims “as license to discriminate,” said Andrew Seidel, the group’s vice president of strategic communications.

He speculates that the incoming Trump administration has a plan to implement the Heritage Foundation’s 2025 Project, which he says has a Christian nationalist plan, although Trump has distanced himself from it.

“They’re ready to win this time,” Seidel said. “They were the dog that caught the car last time. They didn’t know what they were doing. “They will be ready to go on the first day.”

The Rev. Tim Schaefer, pastor of First Baptist Church in Madison, Wisconsin, said he opposes Christian nationalism in part because it challenges the separation of church and state, a key belief in the Baptist tradition.

“So our job is to remind people that we were not founded as a Christian nation,” he said. “There was a desire on the part of the Founders to be a religiously pluralistic nation.”

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Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto, Tiffany Stanley and Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux contributed.

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