President Trump claimed recently that he is “saving Christians around the world.” He has long presented himself as a defender of Christianity “under siege.” His administration frequently references the Christian faith in public, including sponsoring a prayer rally on the national mall. White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers insists, “There has never been a greater president for Christian Americans than President Trump.”
However, recently many evangelicals have begun to question their support for the president. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds that Trump’s approval rating among self-identified evangelicals has fallen dramatically, to just 52 percent. Most evangelicals now say that his war with Iran and his approach to immigration policy do not align with their Christian values. While many evangelicals saw Trump as someone they could trust, his administration’s policies have increasingly harmed Christians more than they’ve helped. If Trump continues to diverge from Christian values on everything from higher education to global health assistance, we have to ask if he is really the great defender of Christianity he claims to be.
To start, Christian colleges and universities – like the one where I’m a student – have come under threat due to the Trump administration’s policies. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act targeted “failing” college degree programs which they defined as programs whose graduates did not out-earn their peers without degrees. The problem is that 89% of religion degrees fall into that category making students studying the Bible and religion ineligible for federal financial aid.
Without that aid, thousands of students training for ministry in American churches will not be able to afford to go to school. For Christians who care about their churches and understand the need to train the next generation of pastors, this policy is troubling. How can Trump claim to defend American Christians while simultaneously preventing new pastors from being trained to serve churches in need.
The cuts don’t end there. Another issue American Christians care a lot about is global health initiatives like the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a lifesaving initiative created by George W. Bush with strong evangelical support. Under Trump’s new term, various global health programs have been decimated – and many of the organizations who have lost funding have been Christian organizations. Last summer, the president sought to cut PEPFAR funds, and now congressionally appropriated funds are being redirected in ways that experts warn could cost lives. Similarly, GAVI, the vaccine alliance that saves thousands of lives every year, had all its US support terminated, putting millions of children’s lives in danger.
Polls show that only 22 percent of pastors fully support the drastic cuts to U.S. foreign assistance for humanitarian and health support, according to a recent study by Lifeway Research. Vice President J.D. Vance, when asked about the seemingly anti-Christian cuts to humanitarian assistance, admitted the cuts to PEPFAR had been mistaken but continued to defend the drastic reduction in aid which has already cost thousands of lives. If President Trump truly wanted to stand up for Christian values, he would stop cutting life-saving health programs that Christians support.
In claiming to defend Christianity, Trump has noted his support for persecuted Christians in places like Nigeria. However, if the president really cared about saving Christians, why has he completely blocked persecuted Christian refugees from seeking shelter in the United States? Leaders of evangelical Christian organizations such as the National Association of Evangelicals, Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council recently affirmed that refugee resettlement “has offered a lifeline to those escaping religious oppression.” And 87 percent of evangelical pastors say that Christians fleeing persecution should be a priority for refugee resettlement.
Despite this the Trump administration has all but closed the “golden door” for any refugees, including Christians persecuted for their faith. In 2024, nearly 30,000 Christian refugees were resettled to the U.S. from the 50 countries where Christian persecution watchdog group Open Doors says that Christians face the most severe persecution. This year, unless something changes, zero Christian refugees from these countries will be resettled, as the program has been entirely suspended except for Afrikaners from South Africa.
Even on abortion, traditionally a top concern for many evangelicals, Trump has failed to deliver real results. In 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a decision for which Trump claimed credit, having nominated several of the justices that made the decision in his first term. However, since then, the national abortion rate has actually risen, a result of widespread access to chemical abortions that the Trump administration has defended along with the various ways the administration has made it more expensive to parent a child, including cuts to low-income health insurance programs and food stamps.
Despite speaking at the March for Life and claiming to be “the most pro-life Administration in history” President Trump has failed to reduce abortion in the U.S. Being pro-life means making real progress to protect unborn lives, not just claiming to stand for Christian values.
If President Trump wants to earn his self-proclaimed reputation as a great defender of Christianity, he should reverse course on each of these policies that contradict Christian principles. Christians already have a Savior, and our God does not need defending – but we take seriously biblical instructions to care for those who are vulnerable, and we want the president and all lawmakers to pursue policies that protect them.
Lucas Brown is the incoming student body vice president at Biola University and a summer intern with the World Relief advocacy team.