What Religion Is Donald Trump?

The weaponization of religion became one of the pillars of Donald Trump's presidency. During his four years in the White House, the former president embraced evangelical ideologies to promote a conservative agenda, questioning the faith of his opponents along the way. "Hurt the Bible. Hurt God. He's against God. He's against guns. He's against energy," Trump said of then-candidate Joe Biden, who is Catholic, during a speech in August 2020, CBS News reported. Trump extended his criticism to another presidential hopeful. "I don't think a man of deep religion would be agreeing to the Bernie Sanders plan," he said of the Jewish senator, according to ABC News.

Amid his first impeachment proceedings earlier that year, Trump also questioned the faith of then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a practicing Catholic, and Senator Mitt Romney, a Mormon, who cited his religion when he voted to convict him. "I don't like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong," Trump said, according to The Washington Post. But Trump went well beyond resorting to personal attacks.

He used his power as head of the executive branch to approve policies considered prejudiced by many. Most notably, Trump issued a series of executive orders prohibiting travelers from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S. in a supposed effort to fight terrorism, a decision Amnesty International UK deemed as a "licence to discriminate." While religious rhetoric has become strongly associated with him, Trump hasn't been as eager to discuss his own faith.

Donald Trump was raised in the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens, where he was confirmed at age 13 in June 1959, an event he celebrated with a Facebook post in December 2019. His family then started attending the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan, which belongs to the Reformed Church in America. Marble went on to play a prominent role in his life, serving as the stage for his wedding ceremony to Ivana in 1977. Later, a Marble minister performed Trump's wedding to Marla Maples in 1993. 

Nevertheless, Trump continued to identify as Presbyterian while maintaining his ties to Marble. In 2015, Trump said that was his church, but Marble had a different opinion regarding his membership. "Donald Trump has had a longstanding history with Marble Collegiate Church ... However, as he indicates, he is a Presbyterian and is not an active member of Marble," it said in a statement to CNN. 

Trump also has a history with the Episcopal church. In 2005, Trump married Melania at Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida — where their son, Barron, was also baptized and where the Trumps often attended Christmas and Easter services. That wasn't the case in 2019, however, when he opted for a Baptism church instead. Indeed, Trump's affiliation with the Presbyterian faith seems to have waned. "Though I was confirmed at a Presbyterian church as a child, I now consider myself to be a non-denominational Christian," he told Religion News Service in 2020.

On the campaign trail in August 2015, Donald Trump didn't hesitate to share the title of his go-to reading material with the crowd during a rally. "What's my favorite book? The Bible! The Bible.... We take the Bible all the way," he said, as journalist Robert Costa tweeted from the event. A day later, though, Trump was unable to cite any verses from his favorite book. "I wouldn't want to get into it because, to me, that's very personal, you know? ... The Bible means a lot to me, but I don't want to get into specifics," Trump told the hosts of Bloomberg's "With All Due Respect."

Trump unwillingness to discuss his faith has led many to question its sincerity. A whopping 40% of Americans believe Trump is not religious at all, according to a 2020 Pew Research Center survey. Similarly, 34% of respondents said they didn't know what religion Trump followed, and 16% believed he didn't follow any particular religion. The same survey showed that more Americans — 55% — perceived President Joe Biden as religious.

Indeed, religion seemed to play a background role in Trump's life until months before the 2016 elections, a fact pointed out by the evangelical leader James Dobson. "I don't know when it was [that Trump accepted Christ], but it has not been long," the founder of Focus on the Family said that June (via U.S. News). "I believe he really made a commitment, but he's a baby Christian."