President Donald Trump has long cultivated a cadre of right-wing religious figures who blur the line between faith and profiteering. These self-proclaimed spiritual advisers rarely miss a chance to monetize their proximity to the Oval Office, peddling a version of Christianity that resonates almost exclusively with the MAGA faithful.
Earlier this month, Trump faith adviser Mark Burns blessed a giant golden statue of the president. Robert Morris, who served as a spiritual adviser during Trump's first term, recently completed a six-month prison sentence for child sexual abuse. The pattern suggests Trump's engagement with religion is less about doctrine and more about the adulation he can extract from the movement's most notorious hucksters.
At Trump's national prayer event on Sunday, author Eric Metaxas—who has penned several Trump-themed children's books—declared that God specifically wants American taxpayers to fund a White House ballroom. “Yes, it's hard to believe that it would take two centuries for the Lord to raise up a great man to bring that ballroom finally to stand where it needs to stand,” Metaxas said. “It's extraordinary, we only had to wait 200 years.”
This kind of rhetoric may strike mainstream Christians as bizarre, but it's a lucrative formula for the Christian nationalist grifters who have built an industry around Trump worship. Consider Hank Kunneman, pastor of Omaha's Lord of Hosts Church, which has become a temple to Trumpism. His sermons often feel more like political rallies than worship services, as when he declared in August 2023, “God says, look to 45, who has been through the fire that has been turned up seven times hotter. Yet he shall walk out without the smell of smoke, says the Living God.” That message has paid off handsomely: the church has spent nearly $15 million on real estate and a flashy renovation of its 1,500-seat arena, complete with massive flat-screen monitors and industrial lighting.
Paula White-Cain, whom conservative writer Pedro Gonzalez has called a “psychopathic doomsday cultist,” leads the White House Faith Office. She is among a growing number of Trump acolytes who believe the Iran conflict is a biblical end-times event, and that opposing Trump is rejecting God's will. White-Cain's ministry has expanded rapidly thanks to her White House ties. Just six weeks after Trump appointed her, she took to YouTube to offer blessings in exchange for donations. In one instance reported by The Wall Street Journal, she promised donors a crystal cross for giving $1,000 or more, blurring the line between her government role and personal fundraising.
Trump's band of fake Christian charlatans rarely miss an opportunity to convert their proximity to the White House into cash. And while their message may seem laughable to many traditional believers, a growing share of the Republican Party now embraces overtly Christian nationalist views. Trump's prayer event featured a roster of such speakers, and he has packed his administration with sympathizers. Praising golden Trump idols while calling for a Christian theocracy may make traditional Christians cringe, but it's increasingly the price of admission to the upper echelons of today's MAGA-dominated GOP.
The question is whether more conventional conservative Christians will enforce their own moral boundaries. Catholic support for Trump's MAGA agenda has dropped below 50 percent, and national polls suggest mainline Protestants are increasingly appalled by his co-opting of faith into an extremist personality cult. Whether that disgust translates into withheld votes in November remains uncertain.
Since his days in Manhattan real estate and nightlife, Trump has craved adoration. He would be wise to heed the words of the man he's trying so desperately to replace: “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”
