More Americans identify as evangelical after the Trump years

While many commentators have insisted that former President Trump has been radioactive for evangelical Christianity, pushing Americans away from the faith, recent data from the Pew Research Center suggests that more Americans adopted the evangelical label during the Trump years.

While 25% of White Americans identified themselves as born-again or evangelical Protestants in 2016, 29% of them described themselves that way in 2020, according to Pew. The survey found that 2% of White Americans who had identified as born again/evangelical Protestants in 2016 no longer did so in 2020, but 6% of White Americans who did not describe themselves as evangelical in 2016 had adopted that identity by 2020.

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Moreover, 16% of White Americans who did not identify as evangelical in 2016 but expressed a warm view of Trump went on to identify themselves as evangelical in 2020. However, only 1% of White Americans who expressed consistently cold or neutral views of Trump adopted the evangelical level between 2016 and 2020.

Although more of the White Americans who opposed Trump (12%) stopped identifying as evangelical between 2016 and 2020 than those who supported Trump (7%), Pew concluded that the difference was within the margin of error. 

Pew Research Center chart showing White Americans embracing the evangelical label between 2016 and 2020
(Pew Research Center)

Sixty percent of self-identified White evangelical voters pulled the lever for Trump in both 2016 and 2020, while 18% of them voted for Trump in 2020 after not doing so in 2016. Only 9% of White evangelical voters defected from Trump during this period, and the remaining 13% did not vote for Trump in either election.

Although the poll may seem good news for evangelical Christianity, it only measured whether or not Americans identify as evangelical Christians, not whether they hold biblical beliefs or practice active discipleship following Jesus Christ. The Center for Biblical Worldview at the Family Research Council commissioned a study finding that while 51% of American adults claim to have a biblical worldview, only 6% of them answered worldview questions in a manner consistent with the Bible.

When Fox News asked Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the global charity Samaritan’s Purse, what this means for the argument that Trump’s presidency has weakened evangelical Christianity, he responded, “I don’t think the numbers support it, do they?”

Pew Research Center showing how many self-described evangelical Protestants voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020
(Pew Research Center)

Graham, a long-time Trump supporter, noted that the former president fulfilled his promises to protect Christians, particularly in the case of Andrew Brunson, an American pastor imprisoned in Turkey who was freed after Trump imposed sanctions on the regime. He hailed Trump as a…