The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

by Philip S. Gorski

Even after accounting for religious, political, and sociodemographic characteristics, as Christian nationalism increases, white Americans’ confidence in each expert group starts high and declines precipitously. And just the opposite for Trump. As Christian nationalism increases, trust for Donald Trump soars. The end result is that at extremely high levels of Christian nationalism, less than 20% of white Americans expressed “a great deal” of trust in experts, while over 85% reported a great deal of trust in Donald Trump. Predictably, given the enormous trust white Christian nationalists place in Trump, we see a corresponding distrust in mainstream news media among white Americans who score higher on Christian nationalism. All presidents have complicated relationships with the free press. And this is how it should be. In democracies, the press should be able to call “balls and strikes” on political leaders, fact-checking false claims and reporting on the real-world consequences of failed policies. But like no other president since Nixon, Donald Trump has famously excoriated “lamestream” news outlets as “fake news,” both leveraging and fueling populist distrust in mainstream media. His feud continued unabated during the pandemic.