Donald Trump's support for Israel is about winning evangelical, not Jewish, votes – Henry McLeish

While some evangelical Christians view Donald Trump as ‘grossly immoral’, others are attracted to his hardline views on abortion, LGBT+ rights and Israel, writes Henry McLeish

Donald Trump won 81 per cent of white evangelical and born-again Christians' votes, but failed to win support from 76 per cent of Jewish Americans in 2016 (Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

God is no stranger to presidential politics in post-war America. From Harry S Truman, who rarely spoke about religion, which for him meant “ethical behaviour along traditional Protestant lines”, to Barack Obama, who became a practicing Christian as an adult, faith was a vital part of who they were.

But Donald Trump is different, indeed unique. Lacking a moral compass, unable to distinguish between right and wrong, between truth and lies, shameless and lacking empathy, the President seems an unlikely ally of Christian Americans.

However, in a deal of breathtaking cynicism, the President has co-opted tens of millions of religious voters to support his re-election. How do we explain how Trump, described by critics as a “fake Christian” and “a poster boy for the seven deadly sins”, has put together a remarkable alliance with the religious right, many of whom appear to see Trump as their ‘saviour’?

Trump is desperate for the votes of white evangelical and born-again Christians (Webac). They get everything they want: a simple transactional deal, stripped of any deeper faith considerations, devoid of any practical domestic benefits to a wider America and deeply destructive of international agreements and US foreign policy. In the President’s ego-centric politics, Webac is not a solid homogenised base, but it has enormous electoral power.

This group represents 25 per cent of the US population, 75 per cent of all evangelical Protestants, 20 per cent of all registered voters in the US and 33 per cent of voters who identify with or lean toward the Republican Party.

In the 2016 Presidential election, a staggering 81 per cent of Webac members voted for Trump against 16 per cent for Hillary Clinton, who won a majority among white Catholic Hispanics, Jewish and religiously unaffiliated voters. Compared with the Obama-Romney contest in 2012, Clinton in 2016 polled fewer votes than Obama in every religious grouping, except for Jewish voters. Evangelicals of colour, mainly African Americans, mostly voted for Clinton. Helping the Trump victory was the fact that Webac are reliable voters – crucial when the US election turnouts are so low and battleground states are so closely fought.

Minority thinks Trump is a Christian

During the 2016 campaign, the new Republican presidential candidate made significant promises to ensure the support of the Christian right. They delivered. As the November election approaches, Trump, having fulfilled his part of the deal, is now looking for a substantial payback. For those disappointed and frustrated with Obama, Trump offered himself as a defender of religious freedom, a champion of conservative judges and the person who would halt the progress made over abortion and transgender rights, for example.

Since becoming President, Trump has regularly hosted pastors and evangelical leaders in the White House, spoken openly about the importance of prayer and religious freedom, enacted faith protections in the workplace and championed ideas from the evangelical establishment. Crucially, the President has never wasted an opportunity to align himself with Israel.

Evangelicals allegedly care more about having a President who stands up for their religious beliefs, than having one who personally shares their beliefs, superficially comforting for the faithful, even though the majority of Americans do not see Trump as religious and less than half think he is a Christian.

Trump has delivered spectacular changes in these areas in particular: Israel, abortion, the placing of conservative judges on the bench, appointments to the Supreme Court, and the demonisation of Muslims and Iran.

At his insistence, the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, is, to the exclusion of any other priorities, including the pandemic, working full time on a purge of moderate judges and replacing them with right-leaning republicans, anti-abortionists or, preferably, both.

These appointments help to politicise and corrupt US courts, placing Trump’s cronies in positions to defend the President in cases where he is personally involved, but also to ensure sympathetic hearings for religious warriors and others who promote legal action against social, religious and cultural reforms they do not like.

Presidential appointments to the Supreme Court, like Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, have been key to building support among Webac voters. This is the forum for some of the most important legal cases in the US, involving controversial ‘family value’ and ‘cultural wedge’ issues.

Trump’s approach, combining theocracy and autocracy, has emboldened the religious right to pursue cases to this level. Burying the idea of tolerance, the President has become a fierce critic of Muslims and, behind the smokescreen of restricting immigration, has produced a travel ban on people from a number of Muslim-majority countries.

Trump shunned by 76% of Jewish voters

Trump has tirelessly embraced the dismantling of abortion and LGBT+ rights. He has inspired US states and activists to take legal and legislative action to undermine and, in some cases, virtually remove the rights of women to choose. The most significant prize for the religious right is to reverse the 1973 Supreme Court decision, Roe V Wade, that legalised abortion in America.

But it is the issue of Israel and the treatment of the Palestinians where Trump has been at his most reckless and the religious right have been at their most intolerant and dangerous. Moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem hinted that much worse was to come. The Palestinians were then subject to massive cuts in US aid.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump are populist soulmates, conspiring to further erode the legitimate aspirations of previous Israeli-Palestinian peace deals. Trump has emboldened the Israeli Prime Minister to expand settlements in the West Bank, while isolating further the Gaza Strip and subjecting it to more sanctions, harassment, and human rights violations.

Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner produced his long-awaited “Peace Plan of the Century”. This unilateral Middle East peace plan, widely ridiculed and condemned by most countries, gave Israel everything it ever wanted, but destroyed the two-state solution, stripping Palestinians of all their rights and completing its isolation and humiliation.

Netanyahu, having just been returned to office, wishes to proceed with a partial annexation of the occupied West Bank. France and other European countries are outraged at Trump’s abuse of a sensitive foreign policy issue. Despite Webac’s obsession with Israel, it is worth noting that Trump was shunned by 76 per cent of Jewish voters in 2016.

Trump, ”the dealmaker”, has delivered everything that he promised in 2016, and much more. While the influential evangelical publication “Christianity Today” has broken ranks and described Trump as a “grossly immoral character” and Webac is struggling to attract younger members and retain older ones who are tiring of the aggressive behaviour of their brethren, Trump looks likely to enjoy a massive electoral return from this political investment in November.

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