When the U.S. launched its conflict with Iran on February 28, the well-known American evangelical leader Franklin Graham applauded President Donald Trump for “giving the Iranian people a chance to be free,” stating that “we haven’t had a president who had the guts to take them on.”
“Thank you Mr. President for standing up to bring this evil empire to an end,” Graham further expressed.
There appeared to be a close alignment between his Christian framing of the conflict as a battle of good versus evil and the narrative promoted by the Trump administration. The son of Billy Graham made clear his support for the war effort.
Graham’s stance likely reflected the views of many within the 81 percent of white evangelical Christians who voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 election. While various Christian groups also largely supported Trump, none approached the levels seen among white evangelicals.
However, could this loyalty be waning?
A recent NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll, held from April 27 to April 30, shows Trump’s approval rating among white evangelical Christians at 64 percent, with 34 percent expressing disapproval. This results in a net positive rating of plus 30.
Unsurprisingly, the ongoing conflict with Iran has remained unpopular with the American public, reaching what the Washington Post dubbed “Iraq- and Vietnam-era disapproval.”
Evangelicals have historically been among the strongest Christian supporters of U.S. military actions, and Franklin Graham is far from the only evangelical figure who has endorsed and reinforced the Iran conflict.
Still, the war began on February 28, and a Pew poll from January 20–26 indicated that while evangelical backing for Trump was solid, it was already decreasing. That poll showed 69 percent of white evangelicals approving of Trump, down from 78 percent in early 2025. Pew observed, “White evangelicals’ views of Trump are less positive than they were in the early days of his second term. The changes in their views mirror those seen among the U.S. public as a whole.”
It is clear that Trump retains substantial support among white evangelicals, yet there is a downward trend in 2026.
Trump’s sharing in April of a contentious AI-generated image depicting Jesus on his Truth Social platform (which he later removed) and the religious rhetoric adopted by the administration to promote the war have not been well received by many Christians. A poll by the Canadian Angus Reid Institute found 67 percent of Americans believed the Jesus portrayal went too far, with 64 percent of Christians agreeing. The same survey found majorities of Americans either disbelieved or were uncertain about Trump’s later explanation that he was merely “playing a doctor” in the image.
When Secretary of War Pete Hegseth declared during a Pentagon religious service in March that there would be “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy,” an ABC News–Washington Post–Ipsos poll revealed that 69 percent disapproved of his statement. That same poll also recorded 87 percent disfavoring Trump’s faux messiah post.
These religiously charged missteps coincide with the administration’s increasingly unpopular war, all within the short three-month window in which Trump’s approval sank by double digits.
Support from white evangelicals was pivotal for the last Republican president as well.
Two decades ago, President George W. Bush secured 78 percent of white evangelical votes in the 2004 presidential race. The strongest backing for Bush’s Iraq War within Christian groups also came from white evangelicals, yet their enthusiasm declined over time. Bush commenced the Iraq conflict in 2003 with widespread approval, but by 2007 a Pew study that August indicated only 58 percent of white evangelical Protestants felt the use of force to remove Saddam Hussein was the correct decision, down from 71 percent in a previous poll the September before.
This represented a 13-point loss among evangelicals within one month, four years into the war.
Recent surveys reveal a major decline within this essential faction of the president’s supporters.
Trump’s 10-point drop in evangelical support has taken place over merely ten weeks amid a war that Americans never widely favored.
White evangelicals have been a cornerstone of Trump’s MAGA movement for the past ten years. Only time will reveal if this relationship endures.
Original article: www.theamericanconservative.com
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