Despite Trump’s chronic inarticulateness with regard to Christian beliefs, evangelical support of the former president has been resilient. However, other Republicans who are running for the party’s nomination in the 2024 presidential election are betting that such support is not immutable.
For his part, former vice president Mike Pence, who announced his candidacy in June, chided Trump’s apparently shallow understanding of the Christian faith in a speech given earlier this year.
“I once invited President Trump to Bible study,” Pence said, according to The Washington Post. “He really liked the passages about the smiting and perishing of thine enemies. As he put it, ‘Ya know Mike, There’s some really good stuff in here.’”
Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who appears to be Trump’s most formidable challenger in the Republican primary race, has also sought to make himself more appealing than Trump on issues important to evangelicals.
In a June interview with CBN News, DeSantis discussed Florida’s Heartbeat Protection Act, which bans all abortions where an unborn child’s heartbeat is detectable, noting that Trump characterized the legislation as “harsh.”
“I mean, I was really surprised, because he’s a Florida resident, and I thought he would compliment the fact, you know, that we were able to do the heartbeat bill, which pro-lifers have wanted for a long time,” DeSantis said. “He never complimented, never said anything about it. Then he was asked about it, and he said it was ‘harsh.’”
Nevertheless, Trump is still hailed by many evangelicals as “the most pro-life president in American history.” He also still has a number of high profile evangelicals in his corner, including former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.
Huckabee is a lifelong Southern Baptist and steering council member for the Conservative Baptist Network.
In a recent interview, Huckabee indicated his belief that DeSantis and other Republicans who have publicly criticized Trump have violated the virtues of “loyalty” and “confidentiality.”
“Ron DeSantis wouldn’t have been governor of Florida without Donald Trump’s intervention. And I think Donald Trump—like a lot of us think—that somehow loyalty matters in politics. I think it does,” Huckabee said. “I think there are two virtues: loyalty and confidentiality. Be loyal to the people who helped you, and learn how to keep your mouth shut if you have information that could be hurtful to someone. Be confidential if you’re truly close to someone.”
After a clip of Huckabee’s interview was posted to social media, one commenter remarked, “Who knew omerta was a Christian virtue?”
