There’s no doubt that the President of the United States has made some serious errors of judgement in the last few weeks, drawing the ire of once loyal supporters and, understandably, upsetting many Christians for whom Trump’s tirade against Pope Leo, as well as the AI-generated depiction of himself in the likeness of our Lord, have raised eyebrows and even blood pressure. I share in this discomfort looking on from across the pond at this latest instance of erraticism, a trait, it must be said, which has often served Trump well, though certainly disabuses us of the notion that Trump is a model statesman. 

Trump, of course, is not a statesman, he is a businessman, a showman, and it’s been this ability to keep his opponents guessing his next move and refusing to be predictable that has allowed him to achieve iterations of political success, advance the nationalist political agenda, and accomplish major wins for conservative politics since he was first elected in 2016. This is not to pretend that Trump is somehow immune from crossing the line, and for Christians in particular, it is natural that we should desire higher and better things from our leaders. Yet amidst the recent tumult, we need a gentle reminder to draw attention to the ways in which Trump has achieved remarkable political success for America, and especially for Christians in his time in office and that therefore this recent controversy should prompt our prayers for him, not our disavowment. 

Trump’s presidencies have been defined by his support for many aspects of the Christian conception of society particularly around the issue of life, as well as deconstructing much of the Left’s social agenda as it relates to race, gender, or sexuality. To take perhaps his strongest contribution to American society, and which Christians across the world should give thanks for, the overturning of Roe vs Wade was a direct consequence of actions taken by the President in his first term. In 2016, Trump ran on an explicit pro-life platform promising to appoint pro-life judges to the Supreme Court and was also the first sitting President in history to attend the annual March for Life rally in Washington DC.

Upon election he made good on his promise and appointed three justices who would later go on to be pivotal in the decision to overturn the 1973 ruling ending the so-called “right” to an abortion after 50 years of legalisation. It cannot be overstated how momentous this was. It represented an enormous step forward for the pro-life movement and now allows individual states to enact legislation limiting or outlawing abortion at their own discretion, no longer to be blocked by a federal mandate. In this Trump has helped to create the political conditions necessary for the Church, local politicians, and other civic actors to build a culture of life across the country, as well as demonstrating to the world that legal rights to abortion are not unconquerable. 

Besides Trump’s consequential role in advancing a culture of life, he has also been strong on many other social issues which have been pursued by the Left and which demand the Christian’s opposition. So-called “affirmative action” was being wielded by various groups in the government and civil society to justify racial discrimination mostly targeting Asian and White people premised on sinister assumptions about guilt deriving from ethnic identity. Critical race theory was a paradigm which sought to argue that certain racial groups carried more responsibility for historic injustices experienced by certain other people justifying discrimination against them today. White people were told they are intrinsically racist—a perversion of the doctrine of original sin – and Asians were deliberately kept from university courses because they were “overrepresented” within academic institutions.  

Such views clearly contradict basic Christian assumptions regarding the dignity of the individual and the view that each person finds himself responsible for his own actions, not the crimes of potential ancestors which can be paid for through abstract deference to other races today. Trump’s administration abolished Affirmative Action for federal departments and agencies – the policy which permitted racial discrimination in American public life – and the Supreme Court, owing to appointments made by Trump, struck down race-based discrimination in universities which had been pushed by Liberals, and which Republicans had previously failed to undo. 

Trump has been a loud proponent of Christian religious freedom establishing a dedicated taskforce within the Department of Justice to focus on eradicating anti-Christian bias. In this he addressed the malevolence of the Biden Administration which weaponised the Department of Justice to target pro-life Christians, alienated Christians who rejected certain Liberal orthodoxies regarding sexual orientation and gender identity from the foster-care system, and declared Easter Sunday in 2024 “Transgender Day of Visibility.” Trump allied himself with the victims of transgender ideology, asserting the official policy of the US Government to be in line with reality that there are only two immutable sexes: a breath of normality amidst the chaotic fantasy of the previous Democrat Government. Trump also banned the use of federal funding for the mutilation of children which had been occurring as a result of abhorrent liberal views on gender. 

Beyond these social matters, we would do well to remember the Abraham Accords, a significant achievement towards normalising relationships between previously hostile states in the Middle East brokered by Trump in 2020. And his actions on border security, which had previously allowed life-destroying fentanyl to pour into the United States taking more American lives in 2023 than the Vietnam War took in twenty years, was vitally important towards establishing justice and protecting the vulnerable. 

Now, what about the elephant in the room? To be clear, the AI-image of Trump as Christ was not good. His claim afterwards that he was supposed to be a doctor was also lamentable and could have been a moment for sincere apology. Yet he did take the post down, and retraction of this sort is rare for Trump so perhaps we should take this as generously as possible? In all of the clamour and outrage, though, it is important to remember that Trump was not elected as Pope, and no one has ever claimed he is a saint. While I would certainly prefer a virtuous statesman as my political leader, this is rarely the hand we are dealt. 

Trump may wish to liken himself to Christ – an impulse which has been recklessly encouraged by his dubious spiritual advisor Paula White – yet a different biblical association comes to mind for me which might actually make sense of his political role in our time. Cyrus the Great conquered the Babylonian empire in 539 BC, an empire which had subjugated the Judeans living in Jerusalem and exiled God’s chosen people from their homeland. Under Cyrus, God’s people returned to Israel and later were able to rebuild the temple and reestablish themselves as a people in their land. The Old Testament speaks of Cyrus as the Lord’s “anointed” (Isa 45:1) whom God equips even as Cyrus does not know Him (Isa 45:5). Despite being a pagan Emperor, Cyrus is woven into the Lord’s providential plan, accomplishing the political change necessary to allow for the flourishing of God’s people. 

Perhaps this is the way to think of Trump. He is a man we should pray for, a man who may know of the Lord, but who doesn’t quite yet know the Lord. He has an undoubtedly messy and broken past, having done great wrong in his life. And yet, for whatever reason, he has been an instrument for great good. His political legacy is one which has advanced the cause of life more than any of the Christian Republicans were able to do. He had the bullishness to take on the liberal paradigms which were poisoning our civic life, ending the legal discrimination on the basis of race, opposing and neutering the transgender delusion, and reorienting American politics towards one of ordered loves and religious freedom. Like Cyrus, he has been used as an instrument of God.

The Lord’s providence is a mysterious thing. Cyrus the pagan Emperor played the most curious of roles in the history of salvation, establishing sufficient political liberty for God’s people to reorient themselves back to their religious calling. It is understandable that Christians are angry with Trump’s recent erraticism, though such anger possibly betrays the fact that we ourselves have vested too much expectation in the President to be a Christ-figure. Sadly, Trump has a way to go in that regard, yet the hand of the Lord has clearly been upon him before, shepherding him and using him for greater purposes. Perhaps God is not finished with Cyrus just yet. Now is not the time to cast Trump aside or frame him as our enemy. Rather, we should dwell on the fact that he has made a political environment possible for Christians to build much of what we would like to see in society, so long as we have the motivation to do so, and he has consistently stood in the way of a radical anti-Christian alternative in the Democrat Party. In this we should recognise the blessings that his presidency has brought before, perhaps daring to hope that there is more the Lord will accomplish through him to come.