Evangelical tears apart Trump's attacks on Christians —and signals boycott

Donald Trump speaks while U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stand by his side, November 17, 2025.

MAGA loyalist Tim Moore sees Trump as lacking when it comes to an important aspect of the evangelical Christian agenda.

Writing for the conservative Washington Examiner, Moore said he's been happy with Trump's war on transgender people, helping eliminate Roe v. Wade and reproductive freedom and his "commission" on anti-Christian bias. Where Trump is failing, however, is a key piece of the evangelical agenda.

"There’s one confusing inconsistency in Trump’s defense of Christians, though, and as a stalwart supporter, I fear he may be listening to some bad advice on this theme that could significantly depress evangelical turnout in November," he wrote in a column Thursday.

Trump's war against immigrants and refugees has disenfranchised those being persecuted for their Christianity. Moore said that 2026 marks the first year in which not one Christian refugee has been allowed to enter the U.S. Citing a new report from the Christian persecution watchdog Open Doors US, Moore said former President Joe Biden allowed 29,478 Christian refugees from the 50 countries on the "Watch List" into the U.S. In 2026, under President Donald Trump, that number was zero.

"Countries like Afghanistan, Burma, Iran, and the Democratic Republic of Congo," are among those on the watch list, Moore cited. Among these 50 countries, he cited that roughly 388 million people are at risk of persecution due to their beliefs. "And hundreds of thousands were newly forced to flee their homes because of religious persecution."

What he found startling, Moore said, is that Trump promised victims of religious persecution, “No matter where you go, you have a place in the United States of America.”

In fact, just six months ago at the National Prayer breakfast, Trump told the audience, “No administration in modern history has done more to confront the plight of persecuted Christians around the world."

Trump even highlighted some of the persecuted Christians in the audience whom the U.S. gave refugee status to in the past.

Typically, a refugee would apply for asylum in the U.S., saying that they are the victim of persecution due to their identity or beliefs. Trump has repeatedly mixed up applications for "asylum" as applying to people coming from insane asylums.

They're “coming from prisons. They’re coming from jails. They’re coming from mental institutions and insane asylums," Trump said at the Republican National Convention in 2024. In May of that year, Trump claimed, "the mental institution population is down because they're taking people from insane asylums [in foreign countries]" and sending them to the U.S. "You know what the difference is, right? An insane asylum is a mental institution on steroids."

It was also the speech where he began talking about Hannibal Lecter, the fictional character of the film Silence of the Lambs.

"But Hannibal Lecter, congratulations. The late, great Hannibal Lecter. We have people that have been released into our country that we don't want in our country, and they're coming in totally unchecked, totally unvetted. And we can't let this happen. They're destroying our country, and we're sitting back. And we better damn well win this election because if we don't, our country is going to be doomed," Trump said.

Moore recalled celebrating Trump after he "became the first president ever to prioritize resettlement of individuals who 'have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution on account of religion.'"

Now, however, Moore said, "Persecuted Christians have been shut out."

He said that as evangelical Christians head to the polls for the 2026 midterms, issues like this matter and it might prompt many MAGA allies to stay home.

Reuters reported in June that support for Trump among evangelical Christians has slipped to 52 percent. In Aug. 2025, approval sat at 61 percent.

Moore cited a poll conducted by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Lifeway Research, which found four out of five pastors see it as a moral responsibility to accept refugees. Only 2 percent believe none should be admitted.

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