In defence of Trump

One thing most British evangelicals have in common with the majority of their fellow countrymen is a shared dislike of Donald Trump. What’s more, many of us experience bafflement at Trump’s popularity among our American evangelical cousins.

I do not share this dislike and bafflement, however. As a Brit, my attitude toward American politics is largely "not my circus, not my monkey." But I want to offer a defence of Trump. And not just of why people may have voted for him back in November 2024, but why they can feel justified in having done so six months later.

Back to basics

First, it's important to understand the bigger picture. Many Brits imagine that the 2024 American election was ultimately an inconsequential choice between two politicians which won't make much difference. This is why we can’t fathom choosing someone as controversial as Trump over Kamala Harris.

But there is an underlying assumption here worth questioning: that America is basically fine. But this is simply not how many Americans see it. In fact, they think that the very basics of a functioning society were being lost under Joe Biden.

This is why I think Trump is an eminently defensible, if thoroughly imperfect, choice: he is a "back to basics" president at a time when this is sorely needed.

Let's consider three basics for a functioning society: gender, borders, and justice.

Gender

After being made in the image of God, Christians believe that the most fundamental thing about human beings is that they are "male and female" (Genesis 1:27). The loss of distinction between male and female is held up in Scripture as clear evidence of God’s judgement (Romans 1:26-27).

Under the Biden administration, with its support for radical LGBT ideology, the importance of the male-female binary was aggressively undermined. Trump promised to reverse this in many ways and has delivered. He has declared that it is now "the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female." He has also signed numerous Executive Orders which have removed men from women's sport and banned the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.

Borders

In Acts 17:26, the Apostle Paul affirms that God Himself ordains the existence of distinct nations and their borders: "From one man [God] made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands." Borders allow rulers to govern their nations effectively. Without them, the very idea of different nations — which the Bible both assumes and affirms — becomes incoherent.

Under Joe Biden, high immigration, both legal and illegal, vastly compromised America's borders. Most Americans think legal migration is too high, straining jobs, housing, and public services, to say nothing of illegal migration. Trump promised border control and has delivered, cracking down on border controls to reduce illegal migration, forcing Mexico and Canada to do their bit, and introducing stricter policies for legal migrants and citizenship. We may not always like the way he does this, but in reasserting the importance of borders, Trump has reminded us that you simply cannot have a nation without a clear and well-maintained border.

Justice

Justice is an essential element of any society, particularly with regard to violent crime. If ordinary people live in fear of violence, you are not a functioning society. According to the Bible, the exercise of violence belongs to the authorities alone: "But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:4).

The question of justice follows on swiftly from that of borders. Gang violence, primarily from Mexican drug cartels, is rife in the US. Furthermore, the drug trade facilitated by these gangs has ravaged many American lives. Over a quarter of a million people have died of fentanyl overdoses since 2018.

There have also been high-profile stories of crime committed by non-gang members, such as the murder of Laken Riley, who was killed by an illegal Venezuelan immigrant.

The Bible is also very clear about what good rulers should do when faced with such wickedness: "May he defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; may he crush the oppressor" (Psalm 72:4). Under Joe Biden, crimes committed by gangs and illegal immigrants were hugely under prosecuted, due to a fear of accusations of racism and a belief that the problem had simply become too big to tackle. Yet Trump promised justice in this area, and has delivered. He has designated cartels as terrorist organisations, arrested and deported gang members in their hundreds, and introduced the Laken Riley Act to crack down on illegal migrant crime.

These three issues — gender, borders, justice — are far from matters of mere political preference. Nor are they “culture war” issues. They are absolutely basic. If not done right, civil society collapses. And Trump’s delivery in such basic areas means he is worth defending. He is far from perfect of course. But it is important for us British evangelicals to understand our American cousins, lest we find ourselves playing the Pharisee to their tax collector, subconsciously and self-righteously thanking God that we are not like other men (Luke 18:9-14).


The author writes in a personal capacity. en is committed to publishing a range of views on Donald Trump, recognising the strength of feeling held by many both for and against his presidency; for other perspectives, see for example this piece and this item.

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See response from en readers to this article here: Trump, Bible, Christians