“We’re saving Christianity. We’re saving God. We’re saving the family unit. We’re saving the nation.” Eric Trump, on the podcast, “The Benny Show” (October 2025)

It was a shocking moment, to be sure, when Eric Trump declared that the Trump regime and the Trump family, especially the leader of the clan, are basically “saving” not just civilization, but even the deity that many Americans claim to worship, along with the associated religious institution. In addition to this stunning statement, Eric also asserted, without question or humility, that his father is certainly going to heaven, as if he’s the judge of such things. All the while, the host smiled and nodded his head in approval. The remarks did not go entirely unnoticed. Comments were offered by a variety of people, claiming that Eric Trump’s assertions were not only wrong, but betrayed an extraordinary lack of understanding of what it actually means to worship God and to practice the Christian faith. The backlash, though, was not as resounding as it should have been, especially among those who are close to the President and his family.

Given the daily avalanche of disquieting actions and messages, one ridiculous quote uttered by a ridiculous (and not especially bright) Trump son on a ridiculous podcast is probably not significant enough for more than a brief dollop of outrage. Still, the quote is one that lingers in my mind as it offers yet another underscoring note of the profoundly problematic worldview of the Trump family. Now that their views and their ways are as tentacles proliferating and invading every aspect of American life, I wonder about the state of American Christianity, and its prospects for the future.

When the then former President Trump survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania in July of 2024, he suggested that he felt that the hand of God had intervened in that moment of shocking violence and that, perhaps, he was saved from death by God himself, for God’s purposes.

It seems that that equation has now been flipped. It’s not God doing the intervening and the saving. It’s Trump himself, with his family in supporting roles.

Eric Trump’s declaration, during an interview on The Benny Show podcast offers a dangerous and frightening step into the morphing of the MAGA movement into a religion itself. It may have the trappings of Christianity, it may share a similar language, but the content, the purpose, the identity is wholly different. And that’s a very scary thing.

While a significant number of MAGA enthusiasts claim that they are adherents of the Christian religion, many of the characteristics of MAGA are not in any way in line with the basic tenets of Christianity and the teachings of Jesus— loving God and neighbor, including those who hate you; the welcome of “outsiders”; kindness to the marginalized; care for widows and orphans; etc. With Trump now characterized as the “saver,” a word alarmingly close to “savior,” where is this movement going? In what ways will the essential elements of Christianity be overrun and cast aside by the demands of the MAGA movement? Will the idolization of Trump slide into deification?

It may seem stupid and ridiculous, but it’s also incredibly scary, and still more alarmingly, not at all outside the realm of possibility.