Quarter of Americans say God ordained Trump to the presidency, survey finds
In three states, at least half align themselves with Christian nationalism
A quarter of U.S. adults agree or mostly agree that Donald Trump was ordained by God to be president of the United States.
And about one out of six agree with the view, quite common among Christian nationalists, that those who love the country may need to resort to violence to save it.
These are among the findings of data collected buy the Public Religion Research Institute, a independent, nonpartisan organization that conducts extensive research into the intersection of faith, culture and politics.
The PRRI studies found that a majority of adults in two states — Oklahoma and Mississippi — can be classified as Christian nationalists, according to a new state-by-state analysis including 2024 data collected by the Public Religion Research Institute.
And the state with the smallest percentage of Christian nationalists is Massachusetts with 15 percent.
Christian nationalism defined
The PRRI based its definition of religious nationalism on agreement with five questions:
🟪 The U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation.
🟪 U.S. laws should be based on Christian values.
🟪 If the U.S. moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore.
🟪 Being Christian is an important part of being truly American.
🟪 God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society.
Persons who completely agreed or overwhelmingly agreed with all five statements were classified as adherents of Christian nationalism, while those in general agreement but who didn’t completely agree were classified as sympathizers with Christian nationalism. Similarly, those who completely or overwhelmingly disagreed with all five statement were classified as rejecters of Christian nationalism, while those in general disagreement were classified as skeptics of Christian nationalism.
In the analysis of national numbers, three in 10 Americans were classified as holding Christian nationalist view; they included 10 percent of Americans as adherents and 20 percent as sympathizers.
However, a clear majority are not Christian nationalists. More than a third, or 37 percent, are skeptical of Christian nationalism, while 29 percent reject it.
The state-by-state breakdown
It should come as no surprise that Oklahoma and Mississippi were among the states with the highest percentage of Christian nationalists at 51 percent: Oklahoma’s school system is led by a Christian nationalist who is trying to infuse the Bible into public education, and the Mississippi Legislature is among the lawmaking bodies that has regularly considered proposals to require the posting of the Ten Commandments in schools.
Also leading the country without about half of residents being Christian nationalists are Louisiana (50 percent), Arkansas (49 percent), West Virginia (48 percent) and North Dakota (46 percent).
Massachusetts was found to have the lowest percentage of Christian nationalist at 15 percent. Other states having less than 20 percent falling in the Christian nationalist camp were Washington (16 percent), Rhode Island (17 percent), Vermont (19 percent) and New Jersey (19 percent).
All of the states in the top six for Christian nationalism voted for Trump in November, while Joe Biden received the backing of all the the bottom five.
Christian nationalists more optimistic about nation
As would be expected since they voted for the winning side, Christian nationalists were more optimistic about how the nation would fare under Trump. One reason, obviously, is that Christian nationalists were far more likely to believe that Trump had been ordained for the position. Two-thirds of adherents, 67 percent, agreed with that statement, as did almost half, or 48 percent, of the Christian nationalist sympathizers.
Only 4 percent of those rejecting Christian nationalism agreed with the position, compared with 20 percent of the skeptics.
The Christian nationalists also made the most upbeat projections about the future:
🟪 Almost two-thirds, 64 percent, of the Christian nationalist adherents say democracy will remain strong over the next four years. Only 12 percent of those rejecting Christian nationalism thought the same.
🟪 Almost two-thirds, 63 percent, of the adherents expect Trump will leave peacefully after the end of his term; only 12 percent of rejecters expect the same.
🟪 Almost six out of 10, or 59 percent, of adherents believe that Americans will be free to express their views during the next four years; just 18 percent of the rejecters think so.
🟪 The opposite sides were closer in their expectations about whether Trump would use his position to punish his enemies, as he has already begun to do. Most rejecters, 59 percent, said they expected Trump to do that, and a large number of the adherents, 44 percent, thought the same.
Adherents far more likely to have anti-immigration views
Immigration was one of the issues that drew many Christian nationalists to Trump, and their majority viewpoint is one that their critics see as blatantly racist. More than two-thirds of adherents, 69 percent, agree that “immigrants entering the country illegally today are poisoning the blood of our country.”
More than half of the Christian nationalist sympathizers, 58 percent, agreed with the view.
As a whole, about a third of Americans, 35 percent, were in agreement. Rejecters of Christian nationalism took that view only 12 percent of the time, while the Christian nationalist skeptics agreed about a third of the time, 34 percent.
Christian nationalism not limited to whites
Christian nationalism is often portrayed as a white evangelical view, but such nationalism is also common among Protestants of other races. White evangelicals hold the nationalist view at a rate of 65 percent, while such views were shared by majority of Hispanic Protestants (57 percent) and a large percentage (44 percent) of black Protestants.
Other groups with more than 20 percent support for Christian nationalism were Latter-day Saints (40 percent), white Catholics (31 percent), white non-evangelical Protestants (30 percent), and Hispanic Catholics (26 percent).
The surveyed group with the lowest percentage, 5 percent, of Christian nationalist support was Unitarian-Universalism. Muslims showed an 8 percent rate Christian nationalism, and Jews 12 percent.
The propensity toward violence
The most concerning numbers may be those involving support for a violent overthrow of the country.
Although a minority of Christian nationalists indicated support for violence, the numbers were still alarmingly high. More than a third, 38 percent agreed with the statement that “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may need to resort to violence in order to save our country.”
For nationalism sympathizers, the number was 28 percent.
For those who have rejected Christian nationalism, just 7 percent saw a potential need for violence. For nationalism skeptics, the rate was 18 percent.