This is the eighth in a series illustrating how Trump’s MAGA movement is the new American fascism. We use a template laid out in an article published in 2003 by historian Lawrence Britt, which analyzed seven fascist regimes and the common threads linking them. You can read last week’s blog here.
Week VII. Religion and Government Intertwined.
“Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.”
Have you seen the new campaign video ”God Made Trump”? It beggars belief that a man with the morals of an alley cat and the ethics of a mob boss can seriously be regarded as Christ’s messenger on Earth. Here’s just a taste of the propaganda that Trump rally goers have been treated to at recent campaign rallies, including in the run up to the Iowa caucus:
“God had to have someone willing to go into the den of vipers. Call out the fake news for their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s. The poison of vipers is on their lips. So God made Trump.”
(if you watched the video, you may want to wash the taste out of your mouth by watching this Lincoln Project rebuttal.)
And here’s a montage of Trump and his supporters vaunting the connection between Trump and Christianity:
All this begs the question: Does Eric Trump really believe that his father “literally saved Christianity”? And does Trump really believe that Jesus was on his side in the courtroom (given he reposted this image from X)?:
The short answer? No. Likely the least religious President our country has ever elected, Trump regularly mocks believers in private, has never confessed his sins, has not put down roots with any church, and attends services only when it serves his agenda. But he will gladly don the mantle of savior, while counting the votes that come along with it. And so will the rest of his party.
As Thomas Edsall points out, what’s really going on is the promotion of the false narrative that Trump is the only man who can preserve, protect and defend the long-standing belief that America is a nation created by, and for, white Christians. Mingled among the religious beliefs of white evangelicals are a set of nativist and racist beliefs in common with those vocalized by Trump. Among them include Islamophobia, fear and distrust of immigrants, anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment, opposition to women’s rights, and a desire for strong, authoritarian leadership suppressing what they perceive as a rising tide of progressivism intent on destroying their values. Violence and strong-arm politics are the adjuncts to those beliefs. Among Americans with a favorable view of Trump, 41% of people are open to violence from “true American patriots.”
There is a name for that unholy mix of Christianity and the flag: It is fascism. As Ed Kilgore wrote:
“It’s probably about time to conclude once and for all that Christianity and nationalism are essentially incompatible because the latter always swallows the former. It was true in the Spanish Civil War, when priests blessed fascist murderers on the grounds that their “godless” victims would enjoy eternal life if they confessed before being shot. It was true in Nazi Germany, when the Faith Movement of German Chritians tried to excise Jewish influences from the Bible. It’s true in Russia, where the criminal regime of Vladimir Putin has managed to fuse Stalinism with religious orthodoxy, to the cheers of American Evangelicals, who admire Putin’s homophobia and “manly” virtues.”
It would be bad enough if it were only Trump. But the entire GOP is wallowing in this toxic brew of evangelical nationalism. Look at Ron DeSantis, who chose Trumpism over the tenets of his Catholicism. Look at Speaker Mike Johnson’s ties to Christian Nationalist leaders. And look at the rapturous welcome given to Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s autocratic leader and champion of “illiberal democracy” when he addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference.
When it comes to the survival of the great American democratic experiment, the three-way marriage of convenience between white Christian nationalists, MAGA and the GOP is a threat like no other. As Trump ramps up the rhetoric, the odds that those “true American patriots” will fulfill Trump’s promise of “bedlam” on the streets come dangerously close to even.
Next week: Corporate Power Protected
