Late last month, Trump campaign aides made a startling discovery: His approval ratings among some religious voters were suffering. So when it came time for Donald Trump to flex his stately muscle in response to racial protests erupting across the country, they likely figured some Bible imagery would be perfect.
Sure, use some tear gas and horses to clear out peaceful protesters, then hand a Bible to a man who, by his own admission, has never felt a kernel of regret about anything he's done in life, and just let him sort of lift it, above his head, upside down, as he scowls at the cameras and hushes reporters for the sacred moment. What could go wrong?
A lot, apparently. In addition to the general public souring on Trump's response to the police killing of George Floyd, new polling from Morning Consult suggests Trump's Bible stunt didn't do much to improve his image among religious voters.
“Even after nearly 3 in 4 voters saw coverage of President Trump’s photo op at St. John’s Episcopal Church last week, only about 1 in 4 believe he’s religious,” Morning Consult vice president Tyler Sinclair said.
The June 6-7 survey found 27% of registered voters either somewhat or strongly agree Trump is "religious." Frankly, that's ungodly high by any measure of objective reasoning, but it's not a great data point for Trump given his recent fall from grace, shall we say.
Here's how that 27% breaks down among religious groups:
- 40% of evangelicals agree Trump is at least somewhat religious
- 34% of all Christians agree
- 23% of Catholics agree
- 18% of independents agree
Let's face it, evangelicals have made a deal with the devil, so on some level they kind of need to believe.
It’s hard to believe the Bible stunt didn't do much for him after he declared in an interview last week, "I've done so much for religion." Indeed.
But Trump's antics over the past couple of months haven't helped him even a little bit.
A Public Religion Research Institute poll released last week showed Trump's favorability among white evangelicals taking a precipitous 15-point drop from 77% in March to 62% by the end of May. Among white Catholics, Trump's favorables tumbled 23 points in that timeframe, from 60% to 37%.
If Trump's shambolic desecration of the Bible last week was intended to goose those numbers, it may have been a small miscalculation.