So, what is Trump? A faithless religious imposter or a Christian nationalist savior?

Eight years ago, the press displayed some of the same fearmongering as now when Trump recruited Indiana Gov. Mike Pence to join him on the Republican ticket. According to The Intercept, Pence would “Be The Most Powerful Christian Supremacist In U.S. History” because he was “a reliable stalwart in the cause of Christian jihad — never wavering in his commitment to America-First militarism, the criminalizing of abortion, and utter hatred for gay people.”

None of the media’s “Christian jihad” hand-wringing came to pass in 2016, and none of it will materialize if Trump wins again in 2024. It’s all hyperbole, and if the lying media claim both of two extremes — that Trump is a disgusting anti-Christian and that he’s a Trojan horse for Christian nationalism — the truth is somewhere in the middle. Trump is a defender of Christians, if not a Christian himself, which is exactly where conservative Trump voters have staked their electoral claim for the past eight years.