A week and a half into Donald Trump’s new term as President of the United States, and already we he is opening a huge concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay. Trump has signed a law that forces all non-citizens to be taken away to Homeland Security prison camps if they have merely been accused of a crime. Pete Hegseth, who has called for the murder of all Muslims and wants to make the United States a Christian theocracy, has been confirmed as Secretary of Defense. Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to scientific and medical research and is issuing executive orders forcing public schools to teach a false version of American history. Across the US federal government, career civil servants are being fired and replaced with people who have few professional qualifications other than absolute loyalty to Donald Trump.

At the center of the chaos and destruction from Donald Trump is the ideology of Christian Nationalism, a belief system that rejects the validity of objective reality and demands that everybody and everything in the United States submit to a draconian version of Christianity. Some Americans have a difficult time understanding the relationship between fascist political power and Christian Nationalism. They think of Christianity as something meek and mild, set apart from the crude manner and ruthless agenda of Donald Trump.

In holding to this vision of what counts as Christianity, hopeful liberals ignore what Christianity has come to mean for most American Christians. They pretend that Christian Nationalists are somehow “fake Christians”, even though the majority of American Christians now ascribe to the ideology of Christian Nationalism and voted for Donald Trump in 2024 on the basis of that ideology. While Christianity as a whole is on the decline in the USA, the ranks of American Christian Nationalists are rapidly growing.

The ideological roots of Trump’s fascism in Christian Nationalism are clear to see, if you care to look for them. The religious nature of Donald Trump’s new fascist hold on power were made clear at the 2025 inauguration. At the height of the inauguration ceremony, Christian preacher Lorenzo Sewell delivered a prayer claiming that Donald Trump was chosen by the Christian god to be President of the United States. Sewell said:

“Heavenly Father, we're so grateful that you gave our 45th and now our 47th President a millimeter miracle. We are grateful that you are the one that have called him for such a time as this.”

This wasn’t the first time Lorenzo Sewell had performed for Donald Trump. It wasn’t the first time that Lorenzo Sewell told a national audience that Donald Trump is a magically selected prophet of the Christian god. Last summer, at the Republican National Convention, Sewell told an auditorium of wealthy Republican elites:

“If you believe that Jesus still changes lives, come on, put your hands together and give our great god great glory! I believe that prayer is preventative and prayer is proactive. I believe that praying in the name of Jesus changes everything, and when we prayed for President Trump, only God knew that thirty days later, there would be a miracle by a millimeter. Only God knew that if we prayed for him during his birthday, there would be a miracle by a millimeter. If President Trump had moved one millimeter, he wouldn't have been here on Monday to talk to us about how America was going to be made wealthy again... Before I take my seat, I just got to talk to you about something called providence and something called sovereignty. God's sovereignty is his ability to be able to do what he wants when he wants, because he's God. And God's providence, it's when he does what he wants, when he wants for all of you. Did you know that President Trump was shot on 6/11, and do you know that Ephesians chapter number six, verse number 11 says, 'Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.'

So all my Democrat friends, I want to ask you one question. Do you know anybody that was the 45th president? He was convicted of 34 accounts, he raised $53 million in 24 hours and could be the 47th president of the United States in America, and he was shot one time? Do you know anybody like that? To all my friends back in Detroit who are Democrats, I'm going to ask you just one simple question. You can't deny the power of God on this man's life. You can't deny that God protected him. You cannot deny that it was a millimeter miracle that was able to save this man's life. Could it be that Jesus Christ preserved him for such a time as this? Could it be? Could it be that when we prayed for him, when he came to the roundtable in Detroit, that Jesus asked and he received that we sought him and then he found protection? Could it be that the King of Glory, the Lord God strong and mighty, the God who is mighty in battle protected Donald Trump because he wants to use him for such a time as this? If you believe that, come on and put your hands together and give our great god great glory!”

If you’re listening closely, you have noticed a phrase that Lorenzo Sewell used both at Trump’s inauguration and at the 2024 Republican National Convention: “for a time such as this”. Sewell preached last summer that “the God who is mighty in battle” chose Donald Trump “for a time such as this”, and repeated that assertion at the inauguration last week.

It’s a strange phrase, because it’s rooted in the archaic language of the Christian Bible. When Christian Nationalist preachers use the phrase “for a time such as this”, they are making a reference to a specific passage in the Bible. Specifically, this phrase is used as a reference to the belief that Christianity has a rightful claim to totalitarian political power, and that violence is an acceptable tool to achieve Christian political domination.

The phrase “for a time such as this” appears only once in the Bible, in the Book of Esther. It is spoken at the dramatic peak of the book, as Mordecai tells Esther that she has been placed through the magical powers of the god Jehovah in the court of the Persian king for no other purpose than to enact Jehovah’s political will.