ABSTRACT
This chapter asks why, with Donald Trump’s popularity persistently near historic lows, there has remained one constituency that has stood solidly behind him, the conservative evangelicals who make up the contemporary US Christian Right. Of them, a staggering eight out of ten has consistently approved of his handling of his office. To truly understand the dynamics at work in this unlikely mutual attraction that has developed between the Christian Right and Trump, we need to move beyond superficial explanations of hypocrisy and mere opportunism. We need to undertake a deep excavation of the political theologies that construct the evangelical worldview and sense of America as it supposedly once was and ought to be again. Only by recognizing the depth and persistence of the appeal of this particular construct of American-ness, and its significant convergences with Trump’s own worldview and agenda, can we gain a proper appreciation both of the Christian Right’s message’s abiding resonance and of its political usefulness to Donald Trump.
