ABSTRACT
Religion typically plays a large role in presidential elections in the United States. This religious dimension was obvious in the Barack Obama and Mitt Romney contest, but it was largely absent in the 2016 election campaigns of Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton. However, the early presidency of Trump has exposed important connections between the president and religion, where he is gaining support for his anti-abortion stand, his pro-Israeli stance and most significantly from ‘Tender Warriors’ – evangelical Protestants embracing masculinity and traditional notions of the gender divisions. Trump’s overtly masculine persona is an obvious attraction for men who feel dispossessed by Washington, feminism, globalisation and the gay lobby.
