Why Christian Nationalists defend the criminal Trump at any cost

George Pitcher takes a look at what Trump’s victory in the 2024 US presidential election means for Christian Nationalism around the globe, and the troubling precedent that it sets

Sometimes it’s a single, ordinary voter’s voice that catches the ear and stays in the head until an election is over.

So it was for me, when Jessica Mendoza, a 35-year-old mother in the swing state of Arizona, told The Guardian’s US reporter, Rachel Leingang, why she was voting for Donald Trump: “I have two kids and I really want to see a change for them and a better future. We’re also Christians, so we voted with our morals as well.”

Go figure, as they say in Arizona. Now, it may be that Ms Mendoza is vehemently pro-life and approves of Trump enabling the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade, abolishing abortion as a US federal right. Arizona remains one of ten states in which abortion rights are up for ballot shortly. But, if so, that would make it her one overriding moral principle that – and I’m not going to resist this verb – trumps all others.