President Donald Trump and his policies have majority support among white Evangelical Protestants even as nearly all other religious demographics have expressed reservations about some or all of his policies, according to a new poll.
Pew Research Center released a report Monday highlighting President Donald Trump’s approval rating among members of various religious denominations as the first 100 days of his second term in office come to a close. The data in the report is based on responses collected from 3,589 Americans between April 7-13 and has a margin of error of +/-1.8 percentage points.
Respondents include 496 white Evangelical Protestants, 351 white non-Evangelical Protestants, 220 black Protestants, 428 white Catholics, 201 Hispanic Catholics and 1,079 religiously unaffiliated voters. Overall, Trump has an approval rating of 40% with the American public, while 59% disapproved of his job performance.
Among all Christians, Trump has a 51% disapproval rating and a 48% approval rating. Trump’s strongest religious demographic is white Evangelical Protestants. The president boasts a 72% approval rating with this group. Trump has an approval rating of 51% among both white, non-Evangelical Protestants and white Catholics. Among all other religious demographics, his approval rating is underwater, meaning more disapprove than approve of his presidency.
A solid majority of Hispanic Catholics (73%), religiously unaffiliated voters (74%) and black Protestants (85%) disapprove of Trump’s job performance. When asked about specific policies implemented by the Trump administration, most Christians (51%) expressed support for Trump’s cuts to federal departments and agencies.
Approval of the cuts was highest among white Evangelicals (75%), followed by white Catholics (55%) and white non-Evangelical Protestants (52%). Large majorities of Hispanic Catholics (65%), religiously unaffiliated voters (69%) and black Protestants (84%) indicated that they disapproved of the administration’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal government.
Overall, one-half (50%) of Christians told pollsters they approved of the Trump administration’s “actions to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in the federal government.” That figure rose to 75% among white Evangelical Protestants and 54% among white Catholics while shrinking to 49% among white non-Evangelical Protestants. Most religiously unaffiliated voters (65%), Hispanic Catholics (69%) and black Protestants (80%) disapprove of the efforts to roll back DEI.
Conversely, most Christians (52%) disapprove of the Trump administration’s moves to “substantially increase tariffs on imported goods.” White Evangelical Protestants were an outlier, as a strong majority (67%) said they approved of the tariffs. Only one-half (50%) of white Catholics said the same. Majorities of white non-Evangelical Protestants (52%), Hispanic Catholics (70%), religiously unaffiliated voters (74%) and black Protestants (82%) did not view the tariffs favorably.
Overall, a plurality of Christians (45%) believe that Trump is doing too much via executive order. White Evangelicals were the only group where a majority (53%) thought that Trump was doing “about the right amount” of governing with executive orders. Pluralities of white, non-Evangelical Protestants (48%) and white Catholics (46%) thought Trump relies too much on executive orders as did 58% of Hispanic Catholics, 62% of religiously unaffiliated voters and 70% of black Protestants.
White Evangelicals were also the only group where a majority (57%) said they trusted Trump’s words more than those of previous presidents. Christians as a whole were evenly divided on Trump’s trustworthiness, with 39% apiece saying they trusted his words “less than” and “more than” those of his predecessors.
A plurality of white, non-Evangelicals (45%) reported trusting Trump’s words more than those of prior presidents, while a plurality of white Catholics (41%) said the opposite. Most religiously unaffiliated voters (64%) and black Protestants (65%) saw Trump’s words as less trustworthy than those of his predecessors.
When asked about the ethics of Trump administration officials, white Evangelicals were the only group where a majority (69%) rated them as either “excellent” or “good.” Half of white Catholics (50%) and majorities of white, non-Evangelical Protestants (58%), Hispanic Catholics (72%), religiously unaffiliated voters (76%) and black Protestants (89%) categorized Trump administration officials’ ethics as “poor” or “only fair.”
The information released by Pew Research Center reflects that white Evangelicals have long been Trump’s most loyal religious demographic. Data from the Cooperative Election Study show that Trump’s vote share among white Evangelicals steadily increased throughout his three presidential runs.
In 2016, when he defeated Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Trump received 78% of the white Evangelical vote. Four years later, when he lost to former President Joe Biden, Trump captured 81% of the white Evangelical vote. In the 2024 election, when Trump beat then-Vice President Kamala Harris, 83% of white Evangelicals backed the Republican presidential nominee.
Originally published by The Christian Post
