Donald Trump’s role as the country’s first white president is obvious and omnipresent. He campaigned on white identity politics, racism and nativism. As compared to his racism and White identity politics, Trump’s “Christian” faith is likely more befuddling if not unbelievable to those who do not follow politics closely.

Trump’s version of Christianity is performative and strategic. Trump, in both his public and private life, has repeatedly demonstrated by his behavior and values that he violates almost every tenet of Christianity (as well as human decency and morality more broadly). He embraces cruelty, violence, greed, avarice, selfishness, revenge, lying, lust and dissembling. In total, Trump appears to worship power and himself instead of God and Jesus Christ.

At their core, Trump’s “Christian” values are defined by his transactional relationship with the Christian right, and specifically White Christian nationalists, a group he has promised to elevate to supreme power in the country if they gave him what he wants: their votes, money and control over many tens of millions of people. The bargain was extremely fruitful for both sides: a majority of White Christians voted for Trump (again). With his return to the White House, Trump is poised to make White Christianity (better described as White Christian authoritarianism) the de facto official state religion of the country, with all of the power and privilege(s) that comes with it.

The Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush is the president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance. An ordained Baptist minister, he works with affiliates, networks and leaders in Washington, D.C. and across the country to forge powerful alliances among people of diverse faiths and beliefs to build a resilient, inclusive democracy and uphold religious freedoms. He hosts the weekly podcast and radio show “The State of Belief”, distributed by Religion News Service, holding weekly conversations with inspiring spiritual leaders, civic exemplars, artists and activists. Rev. Raushenbush previously served as senior vice president of the Auburn Seminary and as the founding and executive editor of HuffPost Religion. 

In this conversation, Rev. Raushenbush reflects on his fears and finding hope in this time of uncertainty with Trump’s imminent return to power and what they will mean for marginalized communities and others deemed to be “the enemy within.”

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He explains how the Age of Trump and the rise of authoritarian populism and MAGA are also a moral crisis made possible by how the right-wing spent decades capturing and distorting “morality, “God” and “Christianity” to advance its antidemocratic agenda and the culture of cruelty.

At the end of this conversation, Rev. Raushenbush offers a model of how Christians, members of other faith communities, and people of conscience more broadly, can be partners in defending American democracy and civil society from some of........

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