America’s white evangelicals are dealing with Donald Trump’s devilry the same way German Protestants accepted Nazism in the first four years of Hitler’s rule, says author Robert P. Jones:
Jones cites Martin Niemöller, a Lutheran pastor imprisoned for opposing Hitler, remembered for the poem First They Came. But for the first four years of Hitler’s reign, he notes, Niemöller did not fully oppose the Nazis. He later regretted that he and the Protestant German church did not speak out sooner.
Backslide returns to the analogy in its epilogue. He writes: “Just as God asked Niemoller where he was between 1933 and 1937, God will ask us where we were between 2025 and 2028. Just as Germans who backed Hitler and the Nazi Party after 1933 were fully aware of what they were joining, so Christians who have backed Trump and the MAGA movement a second time know and bear responsibility for what they are now endorsing” [David Smith, “When Is the Right Time to Compare US Politics to the Nazi Era? This Expert on Christian Nationalism Says: Now,” The Guardian, 2026.10.03].
Some Democrats are trying to explain to white evangelicals that Democratic policies align better with Christian principles:
Democrats have made a more aggressive play to recapture White Christian voters in recent months, seizing on rising prices and a social justice message to begin to make the argument that the GOP isn’t the only party aligned with Christian values.
Democrats are running candidates — such as Talarico in Texas, Methodist megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton in Kansas and ministers Sarah Trone Garriott and Lindsay James in Iowa congressional districts — they hope can start to close the so-called God gap in states where the Christian vote can make a big difference on Election Day.
Democrats believe they can make a play for Christian voters by broadening the discussion beyond debates over issues like abortion or LGBTQ rights, which they have been on the losing side of with White evangelical voters. Instead, Democrats’ message is more focused on “loving thy neighbor” and reflecting that as a central tenet of Christianity that supports their positions on reigning in immigration enforcement and pushing back on cuts to healthcare [Lauren Fox and Morgan Rimmer, “Republicans Worry That Evangelicals Sitting the Midterms Out Could Cost Them in Key Races,” CNN, 2026.10.13].
But the Trump/Jesus crowd isn’t voting theologically, says Jones; they have very deliberately abandoned principle in a last-ditch scramble to preserve white Christian rule:
“Trump loves to talk about the art of the deal and, in many ways, there’s been a massive quid pro quo deal struck between a declining white evangelical population and Trump,” Jones observes. “His big appeal to them was less about policy and more anti-immigrant: I’m going to restore an America that looks like you, and I’m going to restore power to the Christian churches.
“He was literally saying on the campaign trail: this is a quid pro quo deal. Give me your votes and you won’t even have to vote again. I’ll fix it so you don’t have to vote again.’”
This transactional alliance marks a complete departure from the religious right of the late 20th century, which wrapped its political ambitions in the language of morality.
“You don’t hear those words any more,” says Jones, contrasting today’s movement with Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority or the “Values Voters” summits of the George W Bush era. “What we have now is an overtly anti-democratic Christian nationalism flying under the banner of: ‘We believe this country belongs to us, and we’re going to use the power we can to claim it.’”
This Faustian bargain relies purely on power rather than shared theology – a dynamic starkly highlighted by the contrast between Trump and his running mate, JD Vance. While Vance recently discussed the End Times with 22-year-old evangelical podcaster Bryce Crawford, awkwardly reflecting on his evangelical upbringing and subsequent conversion to Catholicism, Trump operates largely without theological pretence.
Jones continues: “He makes straight appeals to self-interest: if you’re for me, I’ll be for you. Evangelicals are willing to forgive a whole host of sins for the idea that he is going to bring them back into power as their numbers are dwindling” [Smith, 2026.10.03].
Reminding white evangelicals that Jesus told us to feed the poor and love our neighbors won’t pull most white evangelicals away from Trump’s fascism. Fascists want power, and they are happy to co-opt religion to get power and keep it. Most white evangelical Christians are willing to play along with Trump’s fascists, just as many Christians did in Nazi Germany.
Dominion theology supposes christians must control the seven “mountains” of government, education, media, arts and entertainment, religion, family, and business in order to establish a global christianic theocracy and prepare the world for Jesus’ return.
Disguised as a cop in a fake squad vehicle, Vance Boelter fatally shot former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, and severely wounded State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette after attending the Christ for the Nations Institute while promoting the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).
The End Times fulfill a prophesy and welcome a supernatural extraterrestrial to create a one-world government. No higher being could be anything but predatory. It’s dystopian fantasy run amok.