Trump gives evangelical Christians 'the middle finger' after they failed him

U.S. President Donald Trump and Pastor Paula White attend the annual National Prayer Breakfast at Hilton hotel in Washington, U.S., February 6, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

The New Republic'sGreg Sargent chatted about evangelical voters and their influence in the Republican Party on his Thursday "Daily Blast" podcast with Holly Berkley Fletcher, who writes about right-wing Christianity for her Substack.

According to both Sargent and Berkley Fletcher, President Donald Trump has managed to manipulate white evangelical Christians, but that doesn't appear to be the case much longer.

Responding to Trump's awkward conversation with "60 Minutes" over his eternal soul, Sargent said it was "a little remarkable for him to talk this way after such a dramatic national repudiation of him."

Berkley Fletcher agreed, noting that if Trump were a smart political leader, he'd be working to shore up whatever is left of his crumbling base of supporters, which is made up largely of White evangelical Christians. "And this is certainly not the way to do it," Fletcher said.

"Whenever he puts them on the spot by countering explicitly a really foundational evangelical Christian belief like loving your enemies or repenting or forgiving, these types of things, it really puts them in a very tough spot and sort of sends them scrambling," said Fletcher. "And that's not what they want and need at this time when they're feeling deflated. And that's not what he should really be doing at this time. But, again, not a rational actor."

Sargent has his own theory about Trump's comments coming from his blame for the 2026 election failures.

"I think Trump is essentially giving his evangelical supporters the middle finger in some sense," Sargent said. "He knows they didn't show up in quite the numbers that he needed in this election, we'll get to that in a second. But he was very much out there in red America saying you've got to turn out for us. You've got to turn out and save us and they didn't. And I just wonder on some level if he's basically saying, you know what? I really don't give a s—— about your Heaven."

Berkley Fletcher wasn't certain she bought that theory. Laughing she said that she isn't certain Trump is capable of being that calculating.

"He usually tells us what he's thinking," she explained. "I think he's long worried about the eternal destination of his soul and he lets that slip a lot of times. I don't know if he's that calculating. But he's got to be upset with them right now. And we know he sort of lashes out when he's upset."

Sargent said he doesn't buy that Trump has a religious bone in his body. Berkley Fletcher agreed, saying she thinks he's "without belief of any kind."

"I think he's amoral. I think he believes in his own narcissism and I think he's been using religion this entire time. They're a very easy mark for a conman," she said. "Because they have very deeply held, easily hijacked beliefs. You say certain things. You champion the issues that you want. ... He's been using them the whole time. They've been a very cheap date, and he's taken advantage."

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