With Donald Trump’s victory at the polls, some Christian extremists are celebrating what they see as a rare opportunity to take up roles inside government institutions and manipulate them — if not outright destroy them — after Trump takes office.
Several notable Christian nationalist figures aren’t hiding their excitement over the potential to impose their will on the nation. In October, Trump told an allied Christian group in Georgia that “the more powerful you become, the better the country is going to be.” And he told evangelical Christian broadcasters in February that they would experience “power at a level that you’ve never used before” if he were elected — a disturbing claim when you consider the history of bigots using Christianity to justify all kinds of injustices, up to and including slavery.
NBC News reported Thursday that several Christian nationalist leaders were elated after Trump’s win, including Lance Wallnau and Dutch Sheets (a person, not a brand of bed linens). Wallnau is a far-right Christian leader who told his followers that Trump is a divine tool being used by God and that Vice President Kamala Harris represents “the spirit of Jezebel in a way that will be even more ominous than Hillary [Clinton] because she’ll bring a racial component, and she’s younger.” Vice President-elect JD Vance attended one of his events in September.
On an election night livestream, Wallnau claimed Trump’s win provides an opening for Christians to tear down the “gates of Hell” in government:
‘We’ve got one administration, one four-year period to do it,’ Wallnau proclaimed. ‘The church is going through a reconfiguration right now,’ Wallnau added. ‘Revival is for us; reformation is for the institutions. We have to have revived believers, strong and connected as an ekklesia [a term derived from the Greek for ‘congregation’], to go where the gates of hell are located in the DOJ, in the government, in the IRS. I know it’s a daunting task. It sounds crazy, but that’s exactly what the believers had to do. They had to go up against giants. We have to see these strongholds come down. God’s giving us a chance to see it happen.’
Sheets, a far-right Christian leader who attended a Trump White House conference for faith leaders, has openly called for an end to the separation of church and state. According to NBC News:
Sheets told his followers that Trump’s victory would help usher in what he called a ‘Third Great Awakening’ — what he and other believers say will be a global revival of fervent Christian faith around the world. ‘The reformation will take some time, but we will get there,’ Sheets said. ‘And Trump is a necessary part of this reformation.’
(NBC News reached out for comment to Sheets and Wallnau, who did not immediately respond.)
Christian nationalist leader Joel Webbon — who has called for an end to women’s voting rights and said his wife isn’t allowed to read certain books without his permission — is hyped about Trump’s return to the White House, as well. After Trump's win, Webbon shared a manifesto he edited about the need to reshape the U.S. as an explicitly Christian nation. The manifesto claims “the Church is to instruct civil authorities regarding their identity and duties.”
Christian nationalists have found their MAGA messiah, and they see Trump as the vehicle to implement their worldview. For deeper background on this strain of extremism, watch Joy Reid’s “Project 2025: Exposed” report from July on the ways Christian nationalists are prepared to wield control in a second Trump term: