“Islam hates us,” claimed Donald Trump in an interview during the 2016 presidential election campaign. “Us,” that was them USA meant – or what Trump and his MAGA coalition understand by the “real” America: a country by and for white, conservative and right-wing Christians.
When, after the end of the Soviet Union, anti-communism no longer served as a link between the various, sometimes quarreling factions of the American right, a new bond took its place: white Christian nationalism. It stands for a fusion of religion and politics, for a ethnic-like national identity. “It is an attempt to claim that the United States was founded by and for Christians, particularly white Protestant Christians, to promote the aspirations and beliefs of white Protestant Christians,” says religious scholar Todd Green. Christian nationalism wants to determine who can be considered a “real” American based on religious, ethnic and cultural criteria.
