Trump’s 'baffling' bond with evangelicals reaches 'level we haven’t seen before': expert

Assuming there are no more delays, Donald Trump's first criminal trial is only a week away.

Jury selection in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's hush money case is scheduled to begin April 15. Bragg alleges that Trump falsified business records when hush money payments were made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in order to cover up an extramarital affair.

Despite those allegations, the thrice-married, twice-divorced Trump has maintained a close bond with far-right Christian nationalists that, according to The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt, is growing even stronger during his 2024 presidential campaign.

READ MORE:Trump eliminates Marjorie Taylor Greene and Kari Lake from VP consideration: report

"In both 2016 and 2020, Donald Trump resoundingly won the vote of white evangelicals," Gabbatt wrote in an article published on April 7.

"Now, with Trump having almost certainly secured the Republican nomination for 2024 and eyeing a return to the White House, his campaign is doubling down on religious imagery, securing the evangelical base and signaling sympathies with Christian nationalism."

The far-right group Dilley Meme Team even created a video that exalts Trump as a messiah.

The video declares, "And on June 14, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise, and said: 'I need a caretaker.' So God gave us Trump."

Gabbatt observes that, although the bond between Trump and white evangelicals is "baffling" in light of his history, it is quite real — and growing even stronger.

READ MORE: Why Trump still has a 'Nikki Haley' problem at the ballot box

"Now, Trump is believing the hype he's received from some on the Religious Right: that he has been chosen, or anointed, by God himself," the Guardian reporter notes.

"He has increasingly begun to lean into the right-wing social conservatism that white evangelicals — who make up 14 percent of Americans — favor. That was clear in February, when Trump spoke at the National Religious Broadcasters convention (NRBC), a gathering of the kind of conservative Christians who lead mega-churches, host televangelist shows and claim to receive prophecies from God."

Calvin University history professor Kristen Du Mez describes Trump's NRBC speech as "a new level we haven't seen before."

Du Mez told The Guardian, "He was promising (the evangelical audience) power, but in much more explicit terms. And he was really leaning into this language of culture wars, of religious wars: that he was going to protect their interests and protect their power against the enemies — against fellow Americans, against liberals, against the enemies who were trying to persecute Christians, who were persecuting Christians."

READ MORE: 'Set things straight': Chilling poll shows how far Republicans are willing to go