In the lead-up to writing Moment‘s November/December 2025 cover story, Moment Institute Fellow Tom Gjelten noticed something curious. A warped form of Christianity was moving from the fringes to the mainstream, into President Trump’s inner circle and influencing his policies. They weren’t just personally practicing Christianity, but seeking to infuse it within the halls of power, praying over President Trump as he signed bills and insinuating that non-Christians should be barred from political practice. “Non-Christians living among us are entitled to justice, peace, and safety, but they are not entitled to political equality,” Stephen Wolfe, a proponent of the movement, wrote in his book The Case for Christian Nationalism, “public space should be exclusively Christian.” Gjelten sat down with Eugene M. Grant Fellow Sam Franzini to discuss how he got interested in the topic and where his reporting led him.
In your cover story for Moment’s new issue, you investigated the world of Christian nationalism. What drew you to examine movement? When did you start to notice a shift in the culture?
I was at NPR for many years as the religion correspondent, interested in the intersection of religion with politics. Basically since Donald Trump’s ascendance, evangelical Christians have been a very important source of support for Trump and his movement. Something like 80 percent of self-identified evangelical Christians are Trump supporters. I was kind of curious about what explained their enthusiastic support. I looked at various aspects of right-wing Christian politics, the influence of conservative Christianity on the Supreme Court and immigration issues, and settled on the idea of Christian nationalism because it’s kind of a new development. Christian nationalists have been around for a while, but within the last few years they’ve moved to the center of the Christian right movement and that has a lot of political implications.
Nationalism, as I understand it, is the idea that a nation should be identified with its own cultural and religious tradition. The United States, for many years, has had a different interpretation of what it means to be American. Not so much having to do with race or religion or national origin, but rather a commitment to certain ideological principles: the idea that all men are created equal, the idea of democracy. Any immigrant can become an American by committing wholeheartedly to the ideology. That is really distinct from the idea of nationalism.
I covered the war in former Yugoslavia for NPR, and that’s where I first focused on the idea of nationalism. There was this idea that the Serbs and the Croats and the Muslims should unite around their own nationality, not around an abstract idea, which unsurprisingly led to a lot of inter-ethnic conflict. I’ve been aware of the dark side of nationalism ever since, and when I saw Christian nationalism emerging in the United States, it set off alarm bells for me. The National Conservatism movement is an effort to promote the old-fashioned idea of nationalism as based on your blood, your soil and your connection to your homeland, as opposed to a more ideological expression or understanding of what Americanness means.
People like Yoram Hazony seem to believe that Christian nationalism will be good for Jews in the long run, but what do Christian nationalists themselves think?
Unsurprisingly, the more Christian nationalism took root in the American right, the more people like Hazony began to rethink their ideas. Maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to be so closely connected to Christian nationalists, because they began to see it was leading to antisemitism. So at NatCon2025 in September, Hazony for the first time came out and said, “You know, I have to say that I’ve become a little concerned about the rise of antisemitism within our own movement.” The reaction from a lot of people has been, ‘How could you be so foolish to think this wouldn’t come back and bite you?’
Among conservative Christians, there have been two approaches to Jews over the years. Some who take the Bible really seriously see in the New Testament Book of Revelations a prophecy that Jesus will come back to Jerusalem and establish a new kingdom there. It’s important that until that happens, Jews are in charge of Israel. Jesus will be coming back to it as the original Jewish state, but he’s going to establish a Christian kingdom. The Jews who are in Israel must either convert or perish. It’s been very important for these types of Christians to support Israel, giving rise to movements like Christians United for Israel. Evangelical Christians have been strong supporters of the Netanyahu government for that reason.
But the Christian nationalist view is that after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, God turned his back on the Jewish people. And thus the Jews no longer have a biblical claim to Israel, which was what God promised Abraham in the Book of Genesis. We call these Christians “supersessionists” because they believe that Christianity has superseded Judaism as God’s favorite faith. So they don’t recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
Josh Hammer told me that’s happening now on the Christian right amounts to a five-alarm fire. Virtually every Jew he knows is concerned about this.
Christian nationalist rhetoric has gained new believers in the TheoBros (Andrew Isker, Brian Suavé), Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens, all popular on podcasts and the internet. Why do you think the internet is such a successful tool to disseminate their ideas?
The internet appeals to and promotes emotional responses. Things can take on a life of their own, and something that is outrageous seems like it could easily get promoted and gain momentum. Social media has really led to an explosion of controversial and emotional ideas, and this is true as well for the right-wing Christian movement. The more sober, intellectually oriented discussion of these issues has lost out in the feverish swamp of the internet.
Tucker Carlson got kicked off Fox News, but he’s actually more popular now with his podcast. Somehow, Fox News did not provide enough of an atmosphere for him to gain popularity as social media has. There’s something about social media that is conducive to the spread of these extreme ideas.
Right-wing antisemitism in general is having a moment—has it always been there and we are only now noticing it or is this a new phenomenon?
There’s nothing new about right-wingers being seduced by antisemitic views, but it’s taken on a new manifestation here in the last few years. Conservative Christianity used to focus on policy issues: abortion, same-sex marriage, school choice that conservative Jews and Christians could agree on. I quote Josh Hammer, a conservative Jew who has a podcast and column, who is concerned with three issues in particular: wokeism, political Islam and globalism, three broad issues that conservative Jews and Christians see as problematic. Hammer writes in his book that he sees an alliance with conservative Christians as a tactical necessity, because they can be political allies in efforts to oppose these issues. But it’s only in recent times that things have gotten onto shaky ground, when Christian nationalists have taken things one step further and promoted the supremacy of the Christian religion and marginalization in American life of non-Christians.
Even though he wasn’t the progenitor of this movement, do you think it nevertheless relies on Trump? Does Trump believe any of this or is he using it?
He recognizes that conservative Christians have been an incredibly important part of his movement. And he is certainly willing to curry favor with them, not out of inherent agreement with their ideology, but for political reasons. So he has said, from the beginning of his campaign, that he will “bring power” to Christians. That’s been an important part of his appeal. And he established a Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, and he established a Religious Liberty committee, which is more focused on religious liberty for Christians over anyone else. This is presenting a challenge to him now—is he going to have to choose between continuing to support Christian nationalists or is he going to reach out to conservatives in general to include Jews? This is a real decision moment. Where do things go from here?
Douglas Wilson has gently but apparently not that effectively pushed back against some of his fellow Christian nationalists’ antisemitism. And yet, his vision of a Christian nation is inherently exclusionary of Jews—or any other religious or nonreligious Americans. Is he just posturing, letting people do the dirty work so he can stay publicly tolerant (as much as he’s able to)?
Wilson has criticized some of the more extreme Christian nationalists for indulging in antisemitism, but he continues to collaborate with them. He’ll go on their podcasts, have gentlemanly discussions with them, push back mildly, but they are an important part of his network, and he has not broken ties with them whatsoever. The recent fallout between Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson over Carlson having Nick Fuentes on his podcast was a moment for people like Wilson—will he come down on one side or another? I don’t see it happening.
We’re not even finished with year one of a second Trump term, which has already made strides to promote Christian values. How worried should Jews be right now?
Josh Hammer said to me that what’s happening now on the Christian right amounts to a five-alarm fire. Virtually every Jew he knows is concerned about this. There’s nothing new about liberal Jews being concerned about right-wing Christians, but for him to sow panic shows that concern over right-wing Christian nationalism has moved into right-wing Jewish circles as well. That’s a new development.
It’s alarming how a fringe form of Christianity is gaining mainstream influence, even shaping political decisions. The fusion of religion and power can have far-reaching consequences on governance and societal inclusivity.
worried is not the word .
i feel we are living back in 1936 -1937
who would have thought .
glad my parents are no loner on this earth to see this
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Q&A | Tom Gjelten on His New Cover Story, Antisemitism and Christian Nationalism – Moment Magazine
ByEric Djirackor
Nov 13, 2025