The Trump regime has an “erratic” and “theologically incomprehensible” preferred religion, a “bellicose, nationalist Christianity,” that is organized along various “fiefdoms,” argues Sarah Posner at Talking Points Memo. Those spheres of control and influence are “aimed at protecting, and even justifying, the regime’s impunity.”

Posner writes that the “goal of the Christian nationalist project is to subvert democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.”

She posits that during Trump’s second term, the White House and federal agencies “have been bludgeoning federal employees, the press, and the public with religious pronouncements of moral superiority to perceived enemies.”

On Easter Sunday, several administration agencies posted social media messages “heralding Christ’s resurrection,” the Associated Press reported.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote: “The tomb is empty. The promise is fulfilled. Through His sacrifice, we are redeemed. We stand firm in faith, courage, and truth.”

READ MORE: ‘Incurable Conflict of Interest’: Kushner Under Sweeping Investigation by House Democrats

“He is risen,” was the message from both the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.

The Department of Justice went even further.

“Today, as millions of Christians gather in their churches across the nation to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, this Department —- is proud to protect and defend religious liberty,” the message read.

Posner argues how various administration officials use religion.

JD Vance “starts fights with the pope over his anti-war statements (even as Vance leaks to the press, with an eye to 2028, that he was against the war).”

Through his prayer meetings and press conferences, Secretary Hegseth “aims to compel Americans to embrace his Christian nationalist bloodlust and war crimes, and this week compared reporters to Pharisees for insufficiently cheerleading for the military.”

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer “has promoted her Catholicism in prayer meetings modeled on the ones Hegseth hosts at the Pentagon.”

“All these moves,” Posner writes, “are designed to crush dissent, marginalize other Christianities and religions, and empower government officials to violate the law. The fiefdoms, in different ways, prop up the would-be king’s corruption, and that of his allies.”

READ MORE: Conservative Christian Broadcaster Slams Franklin Graham’s ‘Embarrassing’ Defense of Trump

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Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and his Special Envoy for Peace, is being investigated by House Judiciary Democrats who allege a “glaring and incurable conflict of interest.” The probe is led by Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, MS NOW reports.

In their six-page letter dated April 16, they charge that Kushner’s clients, Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, “have unique and significant strategic, economic and political interests that are certain to diverge sharply from the strategic, economic and political interests of the American people.”

“To whom do your professional obligations and fiduciary duties belong?” asks the letter, signed by Ranking Member Raskin.

“You cannot both be a diplomat and a financial pawn of the Saudi monarchy at the same time; you cannot faithfully represent the United States with billions of dollars in Saudi and Emirati cash burning a hole in every pocket of every suit you own,” Raskin writes.

READ MORE: Conservative Christian Broadcaster Slams Franklin Graham’s ‘Embarrassing’ Defense of Trump

Calling it “an outrageous betrayal of the American people,” Raskin notes that were Kushner a government employee, “these conflicts of interest would be disqualifying, not only preventing you from conducting your current duties but from receiving security clearance.” He says that Kushner has “taken advantage” of his non-government position, “with all the trappings of government authority and power to insist that the normal rules do not apply to you.”

MS NOW reports that “Kushner, who is married to Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka, founded the investment firm Affinity Partners in 2021 after serving as a senior adviser during Trump’s first administration,” and notes that “Affinity’s largest and earliest investor, according to The New York Times, is Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which is led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.”

“The fund invested roughly $2 billion after the first Trump White House ended. Sovereign wealth funds tied to other Gulf nations, such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, have also invested.”

Raskin also included a fifteen-point list of requests for records from Kushner. Among them, “All communications with the White House and Trump campaign, including your father-in-law, regarding your role within the government from July 1, 2024, to the present day.”

Also, “All communications received or sent by you relating to the Board of Peace,” and, “All communications received or sent by you relating to financial investments or the economy in Gaza, Ukraine, Iran or any other area in which you have negotiated.”

READ MORE: Trump’s Coalition Is ‘Kaput’ — Midterms Threaten to Be ‘Brutal’: Columnists

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The coalition that united to put Donald Trump back in the White House in 2024 is “kaput,” and with a president polling even worse than at this point in his first term, the November midterms are threatening to be “brutal” for Republicans, argue Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Elaine Godfrey at The Atlantic.

“A shocking number of the president’s supporters have turned against him,” the columnists write.

“When Trump opens his mouth, three-quarters of what he says is stories, lies,” Tomas Montoya, a Trump voter, told The Atlantic outside a popular Hispanic grocery store in Casa Grande, Arizona.

“Montoya voted for President Trump in 2024, but now, well, frustrated doesn’t begin to cover how he’s feeling. The president is bragging about the economy, even though everyone Montoya knows is hurting; he promised to stop wars, but started one in Iran,” The Atlantic notes. “He’s planning to vote in the midterm elections this fall. But he may not choose a Republican.”

Some Trump voters, like Montoya, the columnists explain, sound “anxious, and a little regretful about how they voted two Novembers ago.”

They describe some of Trump’s “fanboys in the libertarian-leaning manosphere” as “baffled by his actions on the Epstein files, immigration, and now Iran.”

Religious conservatives “have been criticizing their once-unassailable leader after he posted a photo on social media of himself as Jesus and attacked the pope, calling the first American pontiff ‘WEAK on Crime.'”

Some battleground Republican operatives would prefer the president not campaign “too hard” for their candidates.

READ MORE: Conservative Christian Broadcaster Slams Franklin Graham’s ‘Embarrassing’ Defense of Trump

How bad are the midterms expected to be for the GOP?

“Almost every new poll is a red flag for Republicans,” they write. “Independents, young voters, and Latinos—groups that were crucial to Trump’s win in 2024—aren’t in the bag anymore. Even non-college-educated white Americans, once the president’s strongest group, have turned on him, according to a CNN polling average.”

One 61-year-old Democrat who opted to vote for Trump in 2024 hoping he would bring down high prices says she is poorer today than she was two years ago.

“High gas prices mean that she is staying home more often—skipping Bible studies at her church, volunteering less, and even missing exercise classes. Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran was her breaking point with the president. ‘I think that he just wants war,’ she said. ‘He’s made it plain that he’s adversarial with everybody.'”

Trump’s highly controversial AI post of himself “dressed in flowing robes, surrounded by a heavenly glow while healing a sick man … alienated the one group of Americans that has rarely left his side: Christian conservatives. The picture, declared the Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham, was ‘OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy.'”

Far-right pastor Joel Webbon, who, The Atlantic noted, opposes women being allowed to vote, said that Trump is “currently demon possessed.”

Anti-trans activist Riley Gaines, whom the president has called a “tremendous athlete,” wrote that “God shall not be mocked.”

Some fundraising “plummeted” in early March after Trump launched his Iran war.

“If this is a two-week stretch, not a huge deal,” a GOP consultant told The Atlantic. “If we’re still bombing Iran in November? I mean …”

READ MORE: ‘I’m All About the Gospel’ Trump Says After Refusing to Meet With Pope Leo

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