Trump secured white Christian support by promising to restore their political power

Evidence

On the campaign trail in 2016, Donald Trump Sr. appealed to self-interested power and understood the hold it had on American Christians. While at Dordt University, a small Christian institution, he warned his listeners, “Christians don’t use their power. We have to strengthen. Because we are getting—if you look, it’s death by a million cuts—we are getting less and less powerful in terms of a religion, and in terms of a force.” Trump then promised them, “Christianity will have power… . Because if I’m there, you’re going to have plenty of power. You don’t need anybody else. You’re going to have somebody representing you very, very well. Remember that.” — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 244

Categorization

• SEED: A potential angle: the ‘you don’t need anybody else’ arrangement as an explicit quid-pro-quo transaction between a candidate and a religious constituency.
• XREF: connects to: Trump won white Christian support through explicit appeals to white supremacy. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 53; Trump won white Christians by appealing to racism, not despite it. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 53; The Christian right supports Trump for autocratic power, not shared Christian values — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 169 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Trump framed white evangelicals as a persecuted majority needing to claim power #expands (0.86) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 576
• Trump won white Christians by appealing to racism, not despite it. #qualifies (0.74) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 53
• White evangelicals supported Trump because of their beliefs, not despite them. #expands (0.74) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 8
• Trump won white Christian support through explicit appeals to white supremacy. #qualifies (0.72) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 53
• The Christian right supports Trump for autocratic power, not shared Christian values #expands (0.72) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 169
• Trump’s 2016 evangelical support suggests racism never left the Religious Right’s core #qualifies (0.72) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 145
• Trump’s conduct consecrates the white male supremacy entrenched in traditional values #expands (0.70) — Wendy Brown, In the Ruins of Neoliberalism, 293