Donald Trump, Evangelicals and the 2024 MAGA Coalition

Pastor Lance Wallnau met with then- Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on December 30, 2015 .

Trump was a non-evangelical Christian , not evangelical Christian .

Trump 's evangelical favor has coincided with Republicans underperforming in the 2018 , 2020 , and 2022 elections.

The path to the presidency runs through Arizona , Michigan , Nevada , Pennsylvania , and Wisconsin .

A new study analyzes the role Trump 's celebrity status played in propelling him to the top of the 2016 GOP primary.

While he often commented on politics, Shawn Patterson , Jr., a research analyst at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center , notes that Trump was largely an "apolitical figure" who had a wide array of celebrity relationships, donated to candidates of both parties, and boasted a career in New York real estate.

The study found that while his celebrity status improved his performance in the GOP primary, it found no evidence it helped him in the general election where party identity plays a key role.

Trump has moved closer to the middle on social issues, stating opposition to a national abortion ban and proclaiming himself the "father" of in vitro fertilization.

The GOP 's 2024 platform, which Trump was instrumental in crafting, removed some language defining marriage as exclusively between " one man and one woman" Former New York Republican Congressman John Faso believes Republicans have attained an edge on LGBT issues.