Trump 'supercharged' decades of work to remake GOP as Christian nationalist party: column

Donald Trump "supercharged" decades of work by right-wing Christians to remake the Republican Party as an "ethno-nationalist party," according to a new column.

Polling data shows Republicans a majority of Republicans – 54 percent – identify with Christian nationalism, compared to just 31 percent in 2010 who identified as merely conservative Christians, and Salon columnist Amanda Marcotte said that shift has been the result of a long-term project by religious extremists that had accelerated since Trump was first elected.

"These numbers likely are not the result of millions of Americans suddenly finding Jesus, but about the way that Trump and the MAGA movement have cemented the GOP as an ethno-nationalist party, instead of merely a conservative party," Marcotte wrote. "Which is to say, now that they're a tribe they need ways to define their tribal identity. Religion offers one aspect of that identity. (Whiteness, too, though most will rarely, if ever, so say out loud.)"

"This is why polls show over 40 percent of self-described 'evangelicals' don't even go to church," she added. "'Christian' has morphed from a faith tradition to a marker of ethnic/political identity."