Nine months into his second term, President Donald Trump sees himself as divinely chosen, a preacher for the White Christian church of MAGA. But a preacher without a flock is powerless. Polls show that many Americans see Trump and his far-right movement in prophetic, even messianic terms.

In his personal and public life, Trump violates almost every tenet of the Christian faith. But for the Christian right, this is mostly an inconvenient fact that can be explained away by the belief that God uses flawed men to fulfill his will.

In recent weeks, the president has publicly expressed his anxieties about salvation and the state of his soul. Those confessions, related in interviews and emails to his followers, are part of a grander strategy: To shore up his base in the face of political headwinds — and to raise more money from the MAGA faithful.

In a fundraising email sent last week, he added a new dimension to his sermon: Casting the MAGA cause as divine work, while promising that those who donate will receive God’s blessings.

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“Since the day I returned to the White House,” Trump wrote, “I have felt the mighty hand of God guiding this movement. His Word reminds us: ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ The enemies of freedom thought they could break us with lies, with courts, with endless persecution — but they were WRONG. Our strength does not come from man. It comes from the LORD. Always has. Always wAmerica has had religious presidents before. Former President Joe Biden is famously a practicing Catholic. George W. Bush credits his Christian faith journey with motivating him to quit drinking. For all his personal failings, Bill Clinton has always clung to the promise of forgiveness and the process of atonement. All of these presidents, and others, have at times used their faith to communicate to the American people. 

But Trump is different. Never before has a president sent an appeal steeped in Christian nationalism, promising that “the fight to restore America’s foundation of FAITH, FAMILY, and FREEDOM is just beginning,” and requesting that, “if you can afford it, chip in and show the Radical Left that we will NEVER surrender…we’ll RESTORE the values that made America GREAT.

-Chauncey Devega in Salon.com