For a moment, the spat between former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, drew most of the media’s attention when Cruz couldn’t answer basic questions about Iran, whose government he wishes to topple. Despite the Texas senator’s confident declarations about the alleged value of regime change in Iran, he couldn’t name the country’s population and seemed to know very little about its culture. But there was another part of the interview that was probably even more telling — and disturbing.
“As a Christian growing up in Sunday school,” Cruz said, “I was taught from the Bible that those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed.” He added, “I want to be on the blessing side of things.”
Carlson, despite being a war skeptic, moved on without challenging Cruz’s assumption that the U.S. should behave as a Christian theocracy instead of a secular democracy. But Cruz’s statement is noteworthy, because it’s a head nod to a factor in Donald Trump’s decision to bomb Iran, one which most of the press is underplaying: The role of right-wing Christian fanaticism.
But the wild claims made by leaders of the Christian right have also been in the mix: That Trump is a prophet sent by God to usher in the end times, and that attacking Iran is necessary to bring about the end of the world and the return of Jesus Christ.
In the past week or so, the majority of press coverage of the intra-MAGA fight over intervening in Israel’s war with Iran has focused almost exclusively on the secular arguments of both sides. But the wild claims made by leaders of the Christian right have also been in the mix: That Trump is a prophet sent by God to usher in the end times, and that attacking Iran is necessary to bring about the end of the world and the return of Jesus Christ. It’s this delusion that Cruz was winking at, and it was likely a powerful reason Trump decided to escalate.
Anthea Butler, a religious studies professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told Salon that Cruz was referencing evangelical belief in a Biblical prophecy that war involving Israel and the larger Middle East is “only one more step in ushering in Jesus’s return.” As journalist Sarah Posner explained at Talking Points Memo, “this movement holds that a series of prophesied events, including Jews’ return to Israel and invasion by armies of foreign countries including Iran, will culminate in a bloody, victorious battle at Armageddon.” As a result, the conflict between Iran and Israel has launched a frenzy within evangelical circles, as they hope the final battle is coming and they will get to witness the end times.
Family Research Council head Tony Perkins was one of the architects of Project 2025, the far-right plan for a government takeover being implemented by Trump’s administration. He’s also a big believer in this Biblical prophecy and, as Kyle Mantyla of Right Wing Watch documented, has been using his podcast to frame war with Iran as the key to bringing Jesus back to earth. Mantyla also chronicled how former GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann and MAGA pastor Shane Vaughn used the World Prayer Network — an evangelical organization that “hosts weekly prayer calls to seek out strategies for the transformation of nations” — to posit that Trump survived an attempted assassination last summer precisely so he could usher in the end times by bringing this war.
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“[T]his isn’t political, it’s spiritual,” influential evangelical leader Lance Wallnau insisted on X. “The real dividing line has always been biblical. Israel is an end-times flashpoint.” A group of religious right leaders got so excited about this prospect that they joined in a dramatic public prayer outside the White House. One of their declarations: That like the Hebrew queen Esther — who wed King Ahasuerus of Persia and saved the country’s Jews from slaughter — they had been brought “to the kingdom for a time such as this.”
A group with Trump’s Faith Office praying and speaking in tongues at the White House pic.twitter.com/lKMPLMkikg
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) June 23, 2025
All this isn’t just religious grandstanding, either. It’s an effective lobbying project to convince Trump to ignore Carlson, his former aide Steve Bannon and the various podcast bros who are speaking out against war with Iran. Mike Huckabee, who now serves as ambassador to Israel but is also a Southern Baptist minister (and former Republican governor of Arkansas), sent Trump a text in which he insisted the president was chosen by God for this moment, citing the failed assassination as evidence. While Trump calls ministers like Huckabee charlatans behind their backs, it appears he is still narcissistic enough to imagine that he is the chosen one. So of course, he shared the text on social media.
Trump posts long text message from Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee about hearing from God on what to do next. pic.twitter.com/1WJsdBNSpq
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) June 17, 2025
After the 2024 election, most of the political media’s attention has been paid to more secular voters who backed Trump, especially young men who were wowed by disinformation that painted the president as a regular guy and, on various “comedy” podcasts hosted by right-leaning men, even a peacenik. But while those voters were important for getting Trump over the top in a razor-thin election, they only represent a tiny fraction of the Trump coalition. Far larger is the evangelical base, without whom Trump would be nothing. Exit polls show that 82 percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump in 2024, while 58 percent of the rest of the public backed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. They are not only Trump’s voting bloc, but white evangelicals are well-organized, making them the biggest power players in the MAGA coalition.
As Butler pointed out to Salon, both Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth offered showy “invocations of God” in their public statements about the Iran bombing, which was meant to signal to the evangelical base that their prayers were being answered. “I want to just say, we love you, God, and we love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East. God bless Israel and God bless America,” Trump said during his remarks from the White House on Saturday night announcing the airstrikes. Hegseth, a devout Christian nationalist, went a step further, using his time during a press conference the following day to “give glory to God” for blessing the attacks.
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The message was heard loud and clear by the Christian right. Paula White, the charismatic televangelist and Trump’s “spiritual advisor,” posted the clip on Instagram. In comments, followers gushed about how Trump — who famously laughs at Christians when they leave the room — is the first real Christian they’ve ever seen in the White House.
Trump is still feeling pressure from the small but important anti-war faction of his coalition. Right now, he is on safe ground. He seems to have convinced the so-called “MAGA doves” that the bombing of Iran was a one-time event and that he has single-handedly brought peace to the Middle East. Trump’s claim was undermined when, hours after he had announced a cease-fire, Israel and Iran went back to bombing each other, annoying him so much that dropped an f-bomb on live TV. He’s also been wilding out on Truth Social, uncorking a series of posts that are unhinged, even for him.
The pressure from Trump’s evangelical base offers insight into why he is cracking. He almost certainly would like to leave his intervention in Iran behind. But he can’t say no to evangelicals, because he knows that he’s nothing without them. He should be worried. Even if hostilities in the Middle East die down, the excitement for Armageddon among his most loyal followers may not dissipate quickly. The desire to be the generation that sees Jesus Christ return to earth is strong among them. Even more importantly, the promise of the end times is useful for televangelists and other Christian right influencers. As long as dramatic talk of the apocalypse feeds them money and attention, the leaders will be reluctant to let go of their dream of a bigger war with Iran.
