Philosopher Michael Rea (Notre Dame) offers a plausible explanation. (He also alludes in the article to an earlier incident involving Richard Swinburne at a Society of Christian Philosophers event that we noted here.)
It's worth emphasizing that evangelical (indeed Republican) support for Trump is not instrumentally irrational. He has, in fact, delivered on standard Republican agenda items: e.g, conservative (sometimes reactionary) judges, tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy, undermining the Affordable Care Act (albeit failing to repeal it), and making it easier to discriminate against disfavored groups, like those who are transgender. It is a mistake for Democrats to focus so relentlessly on his deformed personality and rude mouth, rather than the substance of his policies.
Ironically, the one issue on which Trump has not been a standard-issue Republican concerns international affairs: he favors better relations with Russia, rather than hostility (his motivations for this are, to put it mildly, suspect, but the position is correct!); and he is adverse to putting U.S. soldiers into combat. On these issues, he is, ironically enough, better than both the Republicans and the Democrats.
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