In recent years, the term “Christian nationalism” has been popularized widely in mass media and academia. But the concept is still not well understood, and its connection to other MAGA-related phenomena like QAnon or “Christofascism” warrant examination. In what follows, I cover each in turn as they relate to President Trump’s MAGA base of support.
Christian Nationalism and Trump Support
Christian nationalism is a term pioneered by Andrew Whitehead and Sam Perry, largely attributed to their seminal articles in 2015, later expanded in their book Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States. In this work they formally define Christian nationalism as “…a cultural framework—a collection of myths, traditions, symbols, narratives, and value systems—that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civic life…it includes assumptions of nativism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and heteronormativity, along with divine sanction for authoritarian control and militarism.”Some leading self-identifiers of Christian nationalism in the public sphere are Congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
Whitehead and Perry utilize the nationally representative Baylor Religion Survey to construct their quantitative model scales. They conceptually separate respondents into categories: rejecters (21.5% of the American population), resisters (26.6%), accommodators (32.1%), and ambassadors (19.8%), with rejecters being the least likely to support integration of Christianity with the state, and ambassadors being most likely. In this framework, “ambassadors” are the most ideologically committed to implementing Christian nationalism, whereas “accommodators” are those who lean toward traditional Christian values but are ambiguous towards nationalism. They later connect the ambassador designation to the likelihood of overt racism, patriarchy, anti-immigrant sentiment, etc. We can roughly estimate from their findings that around 40% of Trump’s MAGA coalition is what Whitehead and Perry define as Christian nationalist, although these statistics change with year and each survey fielded.
Later work builds upon this initial coinage to include the designator “White” to discuss reproduction of racial hierarchy—dubbed “White Christian nationalism” (see Philip S. Gorski and Perry’s The Flag and the Cross). This was largely in response to sociologists of race and ethnicity calling on the framework to interrogate the implicit racialization found in Christian nationalist and white evangelical rhetoric. It was also to differentiate black and white evangelicals that often answer the above questions similarly on surveys but do not share the same ideas of implicit white supremacy (most Black CN supporters are not Republican and do not support Trump), which is key to Whitehead and Perry’s conception of Christian nationalism. An easy way to summarize this would be an “exclusivist” vision of the nation, in which racial and ethnic minorities are not recognized as the rightful image of the American “citizen.”
Rather than being a monolith, latent factions and groups do exist within the coalition that helped Donald Trump get elected, and we must dig deeper to truly understand them.
There is plenty of ink spilled over the Christian nationalist framework, including my own. Those who contest the term frequently argue that Whitehead and Perry’s original class analysis flattened the Christian nationalist constituency, overinflating the number of individuals actually seeking to establish a form of state integralism (the institution of a state church). In this case, this contestation may be enlightening to our purposes—rather than being a monolith, latent factions and groups do exist within the coalition that helped Donald Trump get elected, and we must dig deeper to truly understand them.
QAnon, Populism, and Trump Support
One major constituency of the Trump coalition that cannot be ignored is the online conspiracy movement QAnon. Taking a look at the pictures taken during the January 6th coup attempt, many flags can be seen with the letter “Q.” One of the most iconic pictures is one of Jacob Chansley, a man dubbed as the “QAnon Shaman,” who howled as he stormed the US Senate to leave Mike Pence a note that read “It’s Only A Matter of Time. Justice Is Coming!” QAnon is not simply a fringe conspiracy movement derived from the deepest bowels of the internet—it is an active political constituency that gets candidates elected and throws its weight around.
QAnon is not simply a fringe conspiracy movement derived from the deepest bowels of the internet—it is an active political constituency that gets candidates elected and throws its weight around.
QAnon is predominantly an online movement that centers on the conspiracy that the US is controlled by the “deep state” that will one day be purged during “the Storm” by the righteous in society. It originated from two posts on the anonymous internet board 4chan in October 2017, where someone posing as military personnel (“Q”) disclosed the idea that Hilary Clinton (“HRC”) would be soon arrested and brought to justice: “HRC extradition already in motion effective yesterday with several countries in case of cross border run…Expect massive riots organized in defiance and others fleeing the US to occur…” In Q’s second post, Hilary Clinton’s lack of arrest is explained by a “fight” between the deep state and Donald Trump. It continues:
Mockingbird. HRC detained, not arrested (yet)…Why does Potus surround himself w/ generals?…Do you believe HRC, Soros, Obama etc have more power than Trump? Fantasy. Whoever controls the office of the Presidecy controls this great land. They never believed for a moment they (Democrats and Republicans) would lose control…God bless fellow Patriots.
Contrary to the ideas communicated in these posts, this is not just a simple fringe ideology.
QAnon is not just another conspiracy—it is the crystallization of American distrust of institutions into a salient political force. It reflects the existential threat the American white lower and middle class perceives.
QAnon is not just another conspiracy—it is the crystallization of American distrust of institutions into a salient political force. It reflects the existential threat the American white lower and middle class perceives—including white replacement theory, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and the Jewish-led “Great Replacement.” These all provide explanations, albeit indirect ones, for the hollowing out of the middle class to feed globalist neoliberalism and wealth extraction. It has wide appeal in the margins, particularly among those who seem to reject partisan identifiers (“moderates,” “independents,” and “libertarians,” which could cover up to 20-30% of the American population). It is also not necessarily linked to Trump support when controlling for religion and political variables. Thus, best described, QAnon is a free-floating “populist movement,” as my coauthors and I have argued elsewhere.
The QAnon worldview has spread far and wide, to the point where it has a notable political constituency and cultural presence (even internationally!). A survey from the Pew Religion Research Institute in 2021 found that a significant amount of Americans agree with the basic propositions of the QAnon worldview: that the “government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global sex trafficking operation” (16%) and that “there is a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore rightful leaders” (22%). In 2016, it led a man to “investigate” the D.C. pizza parlor Comet Ping Pong with an AR-15, intent on saving the trafficked children in its non-existent basement. The movie Sound of Freedom is often associated with the movement, as is much of former U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s constituency and donor base.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is a seminal voice in the QAnon movement, which largely does not have a strong leadership structure. She was the first open supporter of QAnon to run and be elected to Congress. Representing Georgia’s 14th district, she served as a representative from 2021-2026. Marjorie Taylor Greene has made repeated statements about the “deep state” and “white genocide” and has equated leading Democrats like Barack Obama and the Clintons to this grand conspiracy.
Greene started out as a staunch ally of President Trump. Trump endorsed her in the 2020 congressional race, and she supported Trump in his claims of the “stolen” election of 2020. There was often a reciprocal relationship between the two, with shared warmth. Greene supported the impeachment of Trump’s political enemy, President Joe Biden, defended Trump during his impeachment processes, and protected pro-Trump January 6th rioters in Congress.
There are two major policy positions associated with the populist New Right constituency, of which QAnon is a good example: the first is anti-interventionism, and the second is conspiracism about the deep state, and concerns about rampant pedophilia. Trump ran on a platform that sought to “drain the swamp” and avoid war at all costs, making him an easy candidate to support. QAnon supported Trump so actively that they added him to their narrative, naming him “Q+,” a higher operative in the plan to execute the “Great Storm” that will save American society, and even attempted to coup the U.S. government on January 6th to support his claims of a stolen election. By my and others’ estimates, at one point, it could have made up roughly 30-40% of his MAGA movement.
There are two major policy positions associated with the populist New Right constituency, of which QAnon is a good example: the first is anti-interventionism, and second is conspiracism about the deep state, and concerns about rampant pedophilia.
This support is faltering. As President Trump finds himself caught up in the very American tendency of global interventionism (likely a sign MAGA is finally “integrating” into the imperial global governance structure and the Republican party), he fails to deliver his promises of non-intervention to his populist allies. This is undoubtedly a betrayal to his populist supporters, as so many from rural America came back after wars abroad scarred both physically and psychologically. This betrayal also manifested in a political split with Marjorie Taylor Greene, in which she began criticizing the Trump administration’s strikes on Iran in 2025. This tension was only exacerbated by the fact that Donald Trump had a longstanding connection with known sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
QAnon supported Trump so actively that they added him to their narrative, naming him “Q+.” This support is faltering.
The fixation on the “Epstein Files,” which cover the illicit dealings of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and his clients, is a bipartisan effort. This bipartisanship stems from the institutional Democrats, who hope to score a political win, and the populist Right that genuinely believes that there is a vast societal conspiracy of child trafficking and pedophilia. It has been widely known for years that President Donald Trump was affiliated with Jeffrey Epstein as a client, as was Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew of the UK, etc. Previously, those on the Right believed or rationalized this connection, saying that President Trump was attempting to infiltrate and expose the group. Trump campaigned in 2024 on the full release of the Epstein files, and upon election, conveniently forgot. When the issue was raised, he accused questioners of being “weaklings” committed to their strange obsession with the Epstein case, calling it a “hoax.”
Due to bipartisan effort in Congress, including support from Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Epstein Files Transparency Act was passed in November 2025. This act called Trump on his election bluff and required the Department of Justice to release all associated files unredacted. The subsequent obfuscation by the Trump administration led many on the populist Right to start coming to terms with the idea that their leader “Q+” might actually be a pedophile. Conspiracy theories in the Q circles, if they had not already been doubting Trump as “deep state,” now make the connection that Epstein was potentially a Mossad asset, furthering the Jewish/Satanic “Great Replacement” theory.
On 4chan, where the initial Q drops originated from in 2017, memes like this one from 2023 depicting President Trump performing fellatio on an Orthodox Jewish man are recurring, suggesting that Trump had already begun losing his base by then. No doubt, consistent political support of Israel in the current administration, as well as in foreign policy on the Gaza issue, does not assuage such concerns. For example, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has recently mentioned that Israel intended to act against Iran in late February 2026, leading the US to join them for a preemptive attack. Groups and individuals that were initially within Trump’s coalition, such as Tucker Carlson or Nick Fuentes (and his “Groypers”), have now denounced the Trump administration as compromised by AIPAC and Israel.
For Marjorie Taylor Greene, this support of the declassification of the Epstein files, coupled with refusing to toe the line on Israel, made her a persona non grata in the Republican Party. Trump denounced her as “wacky,” a “traitor,” and “ranting Lunatic,” withdrawing his support for her reelection. On November 21st she resigned from Congress, effective January 5th, 2026. She continues to denounce the Trump administration’s military interventionism and recently called the America First policy “…always a lie and it’s always America Last.”
Christofascism and Support of Trump
Although a more nascent paradigm, the concept of Christofascism is very helpful in understanding why the Trump coalition continues to have support, even without the wider backing of the QAnon populists. “Christo-fascism” was a term originally coined by liberation theologian Dorothy Sölle to describe Christian believers who lean on obedience structures more firmly than the nature of Christ. It has recently been defined by myself and my coauthor Chris Pieper to mean “a co-option of fascistic politics with a Christian symbology and narrative” (see also this debate). This topical and contemporary meaning has been picked up in a variety of avenues and comparative ventures, from Bolsonaro’s Brazil (see Fabio Py’s work) to Orbán in Hungary.
When we use the term Christofascism, we do not use it as a pejorative; we are using it as a clinical identifier.
When we use the term Christofascism, we do not use it as a pejorative; we are using it as a clinical identifier. Nor do we overinflate the concept by attributing the whole of Trump’s MAGA base, or even Trump himself, to the ideology. Where we begin to find a “Christofascist constituency” is in the white Christian right-wing militia movement, which at one point Trump famously told to “stand back and stand by.”
These groups, such as the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, Patriot Front, and KKK (to which we could reasonably add Nick Fuentes and his “Groypers”) constitute the fervent core of the Trump MAGA constituency (and the Christofascist movement itself—although these identities are likely overlapping and polyvalent). This group is likely small, perhaps roughly 5-10% of the base, and it cannot be said that the totality of the MAGA constituency can be thrown in with them. It is notable, however, in its commitment to and its radicalizing impact (moving the “Overton Window”) on the broader coalition. These are the types that showed up at the “Unite the Rally” in Charleston, SC, on August 11th and 12th 2017, to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. This violent protest led to the death of one counterprotestor and left dozens of others injured, as a white supremacist drove a car into a crowd of counterprotestors.
These groups were driven online and underground for decades. They only reemerged recently, emboldened by the Trump presidencies. Recent lax recruitment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officers and Customs and Border Patrol Agents has provided an easy avenue for these former subterranean white supremacy groups to become official law enforcement officers under the authority of the state.
While Trump may have lost a significant share of his support base found in QAnon and populism, and perhaps even from less “extreme” “accommodator” Christian nationalists, he still has the fervent support of his most extreme followers, who are fascistic.
Recent public executions and abuse of American citizens (and non-citizens alike) by ICE and CBP have demonstrated the escalation of a trend of violence in asserting racial and religious supremacy, building upon centuries of police brutality targeting people of color. It is to this end that we can say with some certainty that, while Trump may have lost a significant share of his support base found in QAnon and populism, and perhaps even from less “extreme” “accommodator” Christian nationalists, he still has the fervent support of his most extreme followers, who are fascistic. It is to this end that we can say that while the fracture lines may have formed, the ultimate adjudicating factor will be the institutionalization of fascistic policies within the governmental structure in the face of popular resistance and protest, as we see among the brave Minnesotans.
Steven Foertsch, Ph.D., is an award-winning Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Nebraska Wesleyan University. With a background in international policy research and advocacy at the United Nations and AmeriCorps, he specializes in the study of ideology and deviance. His research examines belief systems ranging from Transhumanism and Satanism to QAnon and Christofascism, with his work recently featured and cited by the Southern Poverty Law Center and CounterPunch.
Image made using “2021 storming of the United States Capitol 2021 storming of the United States Capitol DSC09265-2 (50821579347),” by Tyler Merbler licensed under CC Attribution 2.0 Generic; “Million MAGA March IMG 4606a,” by Elvert Barnes licensed under CC Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic; “DSC09170,” by Tyler Merbler licensed under CC Attribution 2.0 Generic. All other images used are in the public domain.
.jpg){kind=link}
