Jesus is their savior, Trump is their candidate: Ex-president's backers say he shares faith, values

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

74% : Trump endorsed a Bible edition that includes U.S. founding documents and the lyrics to Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA.
71% : Many of the T-shirts and hats that were worn and sold at the rally in March proclaimed religious slogans such as "Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president" and "God, Guns & Trump."
68% : And for many, Trump is a champion of Christianity and patriotism.
66% : Robert Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute and an author of books on white supremacy in American Christianity, said the strong evangelical support for Trump isn't surprising.
64% : Karen Swallow Prior, a Christian author and literary scholar who has spoken against fellow evangelicals' embrace of Trump, said this support in 2024 is familiar but "intensified.
58% : Many attendees said in interviews they believed Trump shared their Christian faith and values.
56% : "At the Ohio rally, several attendees cited their belief that Trump has followed the Christian path of repenting and starting a new life.
54% : About 8 in 10 white evangelical Christians supported Trump in 2020, according to AP VoteCast, and Pew Research Center's validated voter survey found that a similar share supported him in 2016.
52% : "I would, any day of the week, take a president that openly knows he needs the strength from God over his own," said Sherrie Cotterman of Sidney, Ohio, as she waited in line at a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump on March 16 in Vandalia, Ohio.As Donald Trump increasingly infuses his campaign with Christian trappings while coasting to a third Republican presidential nomination, his support is as strong as ever among evangelicals and other conservative Christians.
52% : In past years, some Trump surrogates have portrayed Trump as friendly to the LGBTQ+ community.
51% : In the Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina Republican primary contests earlier this year, Trump won between 55% and 69% of white evangelical voters, according to AP VoteCast.
51% : "Trump's rallies take on the symbols, rhetoric and agenda of Christian nationalism, which typically includes a belief that America was founded to be a Christian nation and seeks to privilege Christianity in public life.
50% : "We will protect Christians in our schools and in our military and our government," Trump said.
50% : Thomas Isbell of Greensboro, N.C., who has set up vending booths for years at Trump rallies around the country, said his "God, Guns & Trump" shirts are a top seller.
49% : Republican primary voters still overwhelmingly chose Trump.
48% : Supporters saw Trump as representing a religion of second chances.
48% : Jesus sat with sinners, so he's going to sit with Trump," Vaughn said.
47% : Earlier this year, Trump hit multiple applause lines in speaking to a conservative audience at the National Religious Broadcasters convention.
46% : "In the past, she said Trump supporters hoped but weren't certain that Trump shared their Christian faith.
42% : He acknowledged the racial lines aren't absolute, with Trump attracting Black supporters such as South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
38% : But this is a new campaign, and that support has remained durable -- even though Republican voters in the early primaries had several openly conservative Christian candidates to choose from, none of whom faced the legal troubles and misconduct allegations that Trump does.
36% : "Trump supports Jesus, and without Jesus, America will fall," said Kimberly Vaughn of Florence, Ky., as she joined other supporters of the former president entering a campaign rally near Dayton, Ohio.
36% : Christian supporters of Trump did also cite non-religious issues -- from foreign policy and immigration to gas prices and inflation.
34% : More than half said that five others were a critical issue, including human trafficking, public schools, rising prices, immigration and crime.
32% : This has frustrated a minority of conservative evangelicals who see Trump as an unrepentant poser, using the Bible and prayer sessions for photo props.
32% : "It's not about where Trump came from, it's about where he's going and where he's trying to take us.
29% : "The Ohio rally, like other Trump events, featured a recording of the national anthem sung by some of those convicted for crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, whom Trump called "patriots.
28% : Jones said Trump builds on the messianic theme with statements like, "They're not after me, they're after you.
27% : "Despite the fact that Trump clearly wavers on abortion and he wavers on LGBTQ issues, those things are just ignored, they're just erased out of the narrative.
25% : "But Mark DeVine, a Southern Baptist pastor and seminary professor from Birmingham, Alabama, wrote in the online journal American Reformer that conservative Christians support Trump because "elected Democrats and Democrat-serving, unelected bureaucrats" have an "evil" agenda on issues ranging from abortion to gender to the border to pandemic lockdowns that kept churches closed.
24% : Trump was the only Republican candidate facing scores of criminal charges, ranging from allegations that he conspired to overturn his 2020 election defeat to his current trial on allegations he falsified business records in seeking illegally to sway the 2016 election with hush money to porn actor Stormy Daniels.
24% : "Trump pledged a federal task force to fight the "persecution against Christians in America" and "the toxic poison of gender ideology," saying "God created two genders, male and female.
21% : Trump was also the only GOP candidate with a history of casino ventures and two divorces, as well as allegations of sexual misconduct -- one of them affirmed by a civil court verdict.
12% : Trump even criticized one competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for signing strict abortion curbs into law.
8% : "One of the biggest myths about white evangelical support for Trump is this idea that it's really about abortion and they're holding their nose and voting for Trump," Jones said.

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