The GOP is becoming the party of white Christian nationalism

The sight of tens of thousands of Philadelphians protesting the authoritarian actions of the Trump administration was particularly poignant here in the birthplace of American democracy, and stood in defiant contrast to politicians’ unhinged predictions, dire warnings, and dismissive attacks ahead of the recent “No Kings” rallies.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) warned that “Hamas supporters” and “antifa types” would be front and center. Other Republican leaders referred to the Oct. 18 protest as a “Hate America Rally” full of “paid protesters” and “agitators.” U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R., Texas) referred to protesters as “Marxists, radicals, and Islamists [who] can’t handle the truth … that there is a king, and that king is Jesus.”

And speaking on the Senate floor, Republican Whip John Barrasso of Wyoming specifically called out American Atheists from a list of over 200 “No Kings” partner organizations, perhaps because he and too many others think atheism is un- or anti-American, even as religious “nones” account for nearly a third of the U.S. population.

These statements expose the white Christian nationalism pervading today’s Republican Party.

Only a select few are entitled to wield power, and anyone who disagrees should be subject to reprisal.

Anthea Butler, professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania, defines this ideology as “the belief that America’s founding is based on Christian principles, white protestant Christianity is the operational religion of the land, and that Christianity should be the foundation of how the nation develops its laws, principles and policies.”

Within this worldview, only a select few are entitled to wield power, and anyone who disagrees should be subject to reprisal.

That seven million Americans peacefully protested this administration is immaterial to them. Their flailing attempts to delegitimize the largest mass mobilization of the American electorate in history reveal their conviction that anyone who is not white, native-born, or Christian should have no say or representation in government.

That isn’t just antithetical to our American values; it’s an existential threat to our pluralistic, secular democracy.

According to research by PRRI, adherents to white Christian nationalism are more likely to support outright authoritarianism, political violence, and a “strong leader” who is “willing to break the rules.”

Sound familiar?

Russell Vought, Donald Trump’s budget director and a driving force behind Project 2025, is a self-described Christian nationalist. Many of Trump’s most aggressive usurpations of congressional power and authoritarian overreaches have Vought’s fingerprints all over them.

Worryingly, a report released last week shows more than two-thirds of Republicans now believe that being a Christian is important to being truly American.

That belief sharply diverges from the two-thirds of Americans, including most Democrats (85%) and independents (70%), who say they would prefer the U.S. to be a nation made up of people belonging to a wide variety of religions.

Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry, leading experts on white Christian nationalism, identified its three animating principles: freedom, order, and violence. They call it “the Holy Trinity” of freedom for a select few, order imposed on everyone else, and violence against anyone who dares dissent.

We have all witnessed this administration’s taste for violence in the masked agents occupying our neighborhoods, ripping children from their beds, and disappearing people for days because of their skin color.

We have seen them pepper-ball praying faith leaders. We have watched them enable the harassment of LGBTQ+ Americans, especially trans people, in public spaces.

And we have seen their tyrannical eagerness to deploy armed military within U.S. cities, even as Trump-appointed judges call their actions “simply untethered to the facts.”

These extremists view elections as mere inconveniences, and any political power being exercised by non-Christians as inherently illegitimate. Trump confirmed this when he shared an AI-generated video of himself dumping feces on protesting Americans and told reporters, “… those people, those are not representative of the people of our country.”

But he’s wrong.

The people I saw at “No Kings” looked exactly like the America I know — people of all different faiths, from all different backgrounds, united in love and enduring hope for this pluralistic democracy and in our opposition to tyranny.

And there’s nothing more American than that.

Nick Fish is president of American Atheists. He lives in Philadelphia.