'Trump wears thin after a while': Evangelicals bail on lame-duck president
Image via @realDonaldTrump/Truth Social.
Image via @realDonaldTrump/Truth Social.
June 26, 2026
ALTERNET
As the latest polls show plunging support for President Donald Trump among evangelical Christians — the group that has remained most loyal to him through three elections — experts say it’s because a growing number of them are beginning to question his “cult of personality” and asking themselves whether they “have to keep supporting everything he does.”
As Stephanie Ruhle of MSNOW reports, “Evangelicals have stood with Donald Trump through thick and thin,” with over 80 percent voting for him in all three presidential races. Most have even stuck with him through his fight with the Pope. But now, “his hold on the group may be starting to slip. A recent poll from Reuters shows his approval rating with evangelicals is now 52 percent. Back in August the number was 61 percent.” Just before the war with Iran, it was 69 percent. In March 2025, it was even higher at 82 percent. In other words, Trump has seen a dramatic collapse among one of his most essential support groups.
According to Ruhle’s guest, journalist McKay Coppins, who has spent 15 years reporting on the evangelical movement, in order to understand this erosion, you have to look at how evangelicals have evolved to accommodate Trump’s decidedly un-Christian-like behavior.
“There are a couple of things that have changed in the last decade or so of evangelical politics,” says McKay. “When I first started covering them, they were all about family values, character, moral leadership. It was like the white noise of social conservative politics. You would hear the same stuff over and over again. When Donald Trump arrived on the scene, that started to change, and for obvious reason, Donald Trump is very clearly not a moral exemplar, not a Christian example. And so the rhetoric started to pivot. For conservative Christians who wanted to justify their support for him, they started to talk more about populism, cultural issues, about grievance, about political power. And for a while that relationship worked pretty well.”
As long as Trump continued to deliver on conservative social issues, explains McKay, that bargain held. “But Donald Trump is now entering his lame-duck stage, and he hates to hear us talk about that. That's the kind of thing that gnaws at him: the idea that he is fading in relevance. But he is, and evangelicals are looking to the future, and they're starting to wonder: Do we have to keep supporting everything he does? Do we have to be zealous in our adherence to this cult of personality? Maybe not.”
According to McKay, evangelicals have become frustrated with Trump over a number of issues, such as the war with Iran and questions surrounding immigration and refugees. Many Christian ministries in places like Texas, Florida, and Tennessee have long provided assistance to refugees, and Trump’s violent deportation program is “alienating to a lot of evangelicals.”
And for others, concludes McKay, the issue may simply be that “Donald Trump wears thin after a while.”
As the latest polls show plunging support for President Donald Trump among evangelical Christians — the group that has remained most loyal to him through three elections — experts say it’s because a growing number of them are beginning to question his “cult of personality” and asking themselves whether they “have to keep supporting everything he does.”
As Stephanie Ruhle of MSNOW reports, “Evangelicals have stood with Donald Trump through thick and thin,” with over 80 percent voting for him in all three presidential races. Most have even stuck with him through his fight with the Pope. But now, “his hold on the group may be starting to slip. A recent poll from Reuters shows his approval rating with evangelicals is now 52 percent. Back in August the number was 61 percent.” Just before the war with Iran, it was 69 percent. In March 2025, it was even higher at 82 percent. In other words, Trump has seen a dramatic collapse among one of his most essential support groups.
According to Ruhle’s guest, journalist McKay Coppins, who has spent 15 years reporting on the evangelical movement, in order to understand this erosion, you have to look at how evangelicals have evolved to accommodate Trump’s decidedly un-Christian-like behavior.
“There are a couple of things that have changed in the last decade or so of evangelical politics,” says McKay. “When I first started covering them, they were all about family values, character, moral leadership. It was like the white noise of social conservative politics. You would hear the same stuff over and over again. When Donald Trump arrived on the scene, that started to change, and for obvious reason, Donald Trump is very clearly not a moral exemplar, not a Christian example. And so the rhetoric started to pivot. For conservative Christians who wanted to justify their support for him, they started to talk more about populism, cultural issues, about grievance, about political power. And for a while that relationship worked pretty well.”
As long as Trump continued to deliver on conservative social issues, explains McKay, that bargain held. “But Donald Trump is now entering his lame-duck stage, and he hates to hear us talk about that. That's the kind of thing that gnaws at him: the idea that he is fading in relevance. But he is, and evangelicals are looking to the future, and they're starting to wonder: Do we have to keep supporting everything he does? Do we have to be zealous in our adherence to this cult of personality? Maybe not.”
According to McKay, evangelicals have become frustrated with Trump over a number of issues, such as the war with Iran and questions surrounding immigration and refugees. Many Christian ministries in places like Texas, Florida, and Tennessee have long provided assistance to refugees, and Trump’s violent deportation program is “alienating to a lot of evangelicals.”
And for others, concludes McKay, the issue may simply be that “Donald Trump wears thin after a while.”
U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as he attends Markwayne Mullin's swearing-in as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 24, 2026. REUTERS Evan Vucci
June 18, 2026
ALTERNET
A new poll from the Pew Research Center found that not only do more Republican Catholics side with President Donald Trump over the Pope, but their numbers are growing.
In the poll released Thursday, it was revealed that 39 percent of Catholics who identify as or lean Republican think Pope Leo XIV has been “too critical of the Trump administration,” while just 32 percent think President Donald Trump has been “too critical of Leo.” 28 percent agreed both that “Leo has been too critical of Trump but Trump hasn’t been too critical of Leo,” while only 21 percent said “Trump has been too critical of Leo but Leo hasn’t been too critical of Trump.” In other words, Trump has a roughly 7 percent advantage.
What’s more, the same poll showed that conservative Catholic unfavorability toward the Pontiff is on the rise. When the same poll was taken in August 2025, the Pope was deemed unfavorable by a mere 6 percent. Today, that’s up to 22 percent as his favorability has sunk from 84 percent to 72 percent.
According to Pew, “The survey was conducted from May 26 to June 1, in the wake of public tension between Leo and President Donald Trump over the conflict in Iran and other matters. In April, Leo spoke out against war and blamed it on unnamed leaders having a 'delusion of omnipotence.' Trump criticized Leo on social media, saying the pope was 'WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.'"
While Republican Catholics tend to side with Trump, that opinion did not reflect with Catholics as a whole, particularly Democrats. As Pew explains, “U.S. Catholics are split. While 19 percent say Leo has been too critical of the Trump administration, 16 percent say he hasn’t been critical enough. Another 35 percent say Leo is striking the right balance, and 30 percent say they are not sure, have no opinion or have never heard of Leo. By contrast, when asked about Trump’s approach to Pope Leo, far more Catholics say Trump has been too critical of Leo (51 percent) than say he hasn’t been critical enough (4 percent) or is striking the right balance (14 percent).”
Overall, the Pope has a 78 approval rating among all Catholics. That number is largely driven by Catholic Democrats and independents who lean Democrat, who are far more likely to say Trump has been too critical of Pope Leo than say Leo has been too critical of Trump (70 percent vs. 3 percent)... The balance of opinion among Catholic Democrats is fairly one-sided: 68 percent say Trump has been too critical of Leo but that Leo hasn’t been overly critical of Trump.”
The poll comes out amidst a surprising shift in tone in Pope-Trump relations. Following news of the peace deal with Iran, Leo posted, “I welcome with satisfaction the reaching of an agreement between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, which will be signed on Friday, as an encouraging result of patient work in dialogue and negotiation. I hope that the agreement may help strengthen mutual trust, security, and stability in the Middle East, promoting paths of dialogue and cooperation among peoples.” Trump shared the Pope’s statement to Truth Social without comment.
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