Christian Nationalism: Trump's Project that American Jews Fear

Despite Israeli Occupation’s apparent hopes, especially those of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for former President Donald Trump to return to the presidency of the United States due to his extreme support for “Israel”, American Jews are becoming increasingly worried about his potential victory.

This concern stems from their fear of his Republican Party implementing the so-called Project 2025, which they deem "antisemitic" and believe could signal “the end of the Jewish dream in America,” according to the American Jewish website Forward on July 11, 2024.

According to a previous report by Al-Estiklal, Project 2025 is a conservative political agenda spearheaded by the evangelical extreme faction dominating the Republican Party, aiming to establish what it calls a Christian Nationalism project in America.

As a result, American Jews are sounding the alarm about the Republican Party's Project 2025, feeling anxious about its potential to transform America into a highly conservative Christian state, according to Haaretz on July 15, 2024.

Christian Nationalism

Most members of the Republican Party adhere to extreme evangelical beliefs, advocating the imposition of Christian values by force and supporting “Israel” and the gathering of Jews there to hasten the "will of the Lord" in bringing about the Battle of Armageddon and the triumph of good (themselves) over evil (others).

These Christian nationalists believe that the United States is fundamentally Christian, that the country has deviated from Christian values, and that steps must be taken to make these values the hallmark of government and public life.

They devised a plan called Project 2025, crafted by hundreds of prominent conservatives in the United States through the collaboration of dozens of conservative religious organizations, led by the evangelical right-wing think tank, the Heritage Foundation.

Key figures from the pro-Trump right, including former administration officials like Paul Dans, Ken Cuccinelli, Ben Carson, Peter Navarro, and Roger Severino, contributed to the project's formulation.

On February 20, 2024, Politico warned that Trump's allies are preparing to revive Christian nationalism in his second administration.

The same newspaper highlighted that Russell Vought, head of the evangelical Center for Renewing America, is leading these efforts, part of a conservative coalition preparing for Trump's return to power.

The site noted that Trump is not a religious man, but Christian nationalists were among the most reliable activists of his campaign.

Politico also emphasized that Trump formed a political alliance with evangelicals during his first campaign, giving them a conservative majority in the Supreme Court. He currently adopts the old argument promoted by the Christian right that Christians are being severely persecuted, necessitating a federal response.

Trump tried to avoid discussing the Christian nationalism project after attacks from the Democratic Party, but many of his supporters and political advisors are involved in the project, implicating him, according to Reuters on July 16, 2024.

The project's clauses indicate that it aims to radically restructure the American government and eliminate funding for the Department of Education, whose Office for Civil Rights investigates allegations of antisemitism, increasing Jewish concerns.

The project also seeks to align laws on social issues with evangelical religious doctrine, aiming to end abortion and same-sex marriage, which some American Jews support.

Project 2025 plan consists of 922 pages, representing the conservatives' vision for the future American government by expanding presidential powers.

It includes reforms to the federal workforce, allowing the replacement of federal employees with loyalists from the Republican Party, according to NPR on July 16, 2024.

The project's official website states that the actions of liberal politicians in Washington have created a pressing need and a unique opportunity for conservatives to begin undoing the damage caused by the left and to build a better country for all Americans by 2025.

“If we are going to rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left, we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on day one of the next conservative administration. This is the goal of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project.”

Due to this project, President Joe Biden's campaign has intensified its attacks, linking Trump to the plan issued by a conservative foundation with a series of recommendations for the next government.

Among the objectives of Project 2025 is reshaping the civil infrastructure to eliminate what Republicans call the deep state bureaucracy, including the potential dismissal of up to 50,000 federal employees.

Joe Biden's campaign has leveraged the project as evidence that Trump would adopt a series of authoritarian and far-right policies if he becomes president.

The campaign released a leaked video showing Trump's chosen vice president, J.D. Vance, thanking the leaders of Project 2025 for their work in imposing Christian values, banning abortion, and halting funding for Social Security and Medicare.

Normalization and ‘Israel’

Regarding foreign policy, Project 2025 focuses on “Israel” and normalization with Arab countries.

There are few references to “Israel” in the project, but they follow a traditionally pro-”Israel” Republican political line, endorsed by the Zionist lobby (AIPAC), according to Forward on July 10, 2024.

The project mentions maintaining support for “Israel” while continuing America's protection of its Gulf partners and bearing the responsibility for their defense.

On page 294, it discusses promoting the Abraham Accords to normalize relations between “Israel” and the Gulf states, which began during the Trump administration.

However, Project 2025 calls for adding Saudi Arabia to the list, a move the Joe Biden administration was attempting before October 7, 2023.

In a section on Iran and nuclear technology, it states that “Israel” must obtain the necessary military means, political support, and flexibility to take whatever measures it deems appropriate to defend itself.

The plan asserts that it is in the national interest of the United States to build a security pact in the Middle East that includes “Israel,” Egypt, the Gulf states, and possibly India.

It emphasizes that protecting the freedom of navigation in the Gulf, the Red Sea, and the Suez Canal is vital for the global economy and the prosperity of the United States.

The word Gaza does not appear in the document, while the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Hezbollah are mentioned once in the context of the Iranian threat. The plan also states that funding to the Palestinian Authority should be cut off.

Feared by Jews

There are several reasons why Jewish leaders are troubled by Project 2025. They see it as a step towards authoritarianism, the erosion of religious freedom, and the empowerment of a Christian nationalist movement they perceive as steeped in anti-Semitism, according to Forward on July 10, 2024.

The Jewish News of Northern California stated on July 11, 2024, that the danger of Project 2025 lies in its implicit promotion of the idea that America is a Christian nation and should be governed as such.

Thus, Christian nationalists hope to use political power to break the separation between church and state, which Jews see as the fundamental principle guaranteeing religious freedom, according to Forward.

Adherents of Christian nationalism often describe their political mission as promoting Judeo-Christian values in the public sphere. There is a strong overlap between Christian Zionists and Christian nationalists, but some Jews see both as a cover for anti-Semitism that supports the Christian nationalist movement, Forward read.

According to Haaretz, the most concerning aspect for the American Jewish community is the Project 2025 plan to withdraw funding from the U.S. Department of Education.

The Office for Civil Rights, responsible for investigating and adjudicating claims of anti-Semitism, operates within this department and has opened at least 145 investigations into such complaints on behalf of American Jews.

The decision to withdraw support from the department would mean that this office's efforts to combat anti-Semitism would go to waste, according to Haaretz.

The Office for Civil Rights was behind several anti-Semitism initiatives, most notably the Dear Colleague letter, which provided guidelines sent to American schools and colleges to prevent what is termed anti-Jewish hostility.

The letter included examples of anti-Semitic discrimination, such as criticism of “Israel,” as well as other forms of hatred, according to Haaretz.

The White House affirmed that these guidelines aim to ensure that colleges and universities do a better job of protecting Jewish students and all their students amid ongoing protests against the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.

What concerns Jews is that while 20 Jewish organizations urged Congress to provide the highest possible funding for the Office for Civil Rights, House Republicans voted to cut $10 million from its budget for failing to prevent anti-Semitism.

Jews are also worried that the Project 2025 document does not mention the word anti-Semitism.

Lawrence J. Korb, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a senior adviser to the Center for Defense Information, stated that the Project 2025 aims to change U.S. policy generally, stressing that Jewish apprehension may lie in who drafted the project, namely extreme evangelicals, as the project carries right-wing language.

The Anti-Defamation League expressed concern in its May 2024 report that anti-Semitic incidents recorded in 2023 had reached an unprecedented level.

What About Muslims?

Many American Jews fear the worsening of anti-Semitism in the United States, a concern that Muslims experience on a much larger scale, especially with the rise in targeting Muslims after the aggression on Gaza. However, U.S. governments seem to care only about Jews.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reported in January 2024 that complaints of discrimination and hatred against Muslims and Palestinians in the United States increased by about 180% after the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza began.

A study by the Center for American Progress on April 13, 2022, indicated that the concept of Christian nationalism presented in Project 2025 is the greatest threat to religious freedom in America.

Amanda Tyler, a religious liberties expert from the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC), pointed out that most conflicts arise from Christian nationalism.

She argued that this ideology opposes democracy because it claims America is a nation solely for Christians and threatens the principle of separation of church and state, undermining the First Amendment's Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Tyler highlighted that this Christian nationalism leads to discrimination and sometimes violence against religious and non-religious minorities.

She described Christian nationalism as an ideology that contributes to the religious right's misuse of religious freedom as a justification to circumvent laws and regulations aimed at protecting pluralistic democracy.

Research by sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry in their book "Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States" shows a strong link between Islamophobia and adherence to the ideology of Christian nationalism, as noted in an analysis by the Islamic Networks Group (ING) on May 18, 2022.

In their book, Whitehead and Perry, through a series of surveys and interviews, explained that accepting anti-Islamic stereotypes about Muslims and their religion is one of the strongest indicators of adherence to Christian nationalist ideology.

In another book by Perry and researcher Philip Gorski titled "The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy," the authors revealed the dangers of this Christian nationalism to Muslims.

They showed that adherence to Christian nationalism, including implicit or explicit Islamophobia, is closely associated with a variety of racist ideas, justifying the use of the term white Christian nationalism.

It is clear from all this that white Christian nationalism, which threatens the U.S. democracy and even Americans’ physical safety, is closely linked in its origins and current reality to Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, according to the authors.

Therefore, they called for coming together in solidarity to combat this racism.