As Trump faced criticism from corners of his base for what allies perceived as a lackluster response to rioting, polls also showed him losing ground with his religious supporters — including white evangelicals, a demographic far more likely to align with Trump than his challenger, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
A Morning Consult poll conducted over the weekend, when the president‘s public appearance was focused on the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., found that only 27 percent of evangelical Christians viewed his response to the nationwide protests as excellent or good. The only group to give the president a net positive rating was respondents who voted for him in 2016, while a majority of both independents and suburban women rated his handling of the protests poorly.
Last month, the president responded to the plateau in his support from white evangelicals and white Catholics by leaning into demands to reopen houses of worship across the country, despite warnings from top U.S. health officials that crowded church services could exacerbate the spread of Covid-19. He doubled down in his outreach to religious groups this week with his controversial visit to the centuries-old St. John’s Church — known as the “Church of the Presidents” for hosting every president since James Madison — and subsequent trip to lay a ceremonial wreath at a Washington shrine to Saint John Paul II.
In his interview with Kilmeade, which came after White House officials denied Trump’s visit to St. John’s was merely a photo opportunity, the president seemed to confirm that he’d achieved his desired outcome: “Most religious leaders loved it. I heard Franklin Graham this morning thought it was great.”
But the visit was also emblematic of the troubles Trump could face as he targets his base with divisive language, partisan red meat and a strategic commingling of politics and religion.
After police used forceful tactics — including what eyewitnesses called tear gas but officials described as smoke canisters and pepper balls — to clear protesters away from the perimeter of St. John’s ahead of Trump’s visit, several White House allies expressed dismay at the episode. One accused Trump of treating “the word of God as a political prop” and potentially violating the constitutional rights of peaceful protesters who had gathered in the area before curfew.
“There is no right to riot, no right to destroy others’ property and no right to throw rocks at police. But there is a fundamental — a constitutional — right to protest, and I’m against clearing out peaceful protests for a photo op,” Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said in a statement.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, a Republican who has worked closely with the president and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner on the administration’s outreach to African Americans, said: “If your question is, ‘Should you use tear gas to clear a path so the president can go have a photo-op? The answer is no.”
Source: politico.com
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