Among President Donald Trump's largest support demographic are white evangelists. In the 2016 election, 81% of voting evangelists voted for Trump, making up a significant portion of voters that were crucial to Trump's victory. However, amidst the current political turmoil with elections approaching, social injustices, and COVID-19, approval for the President by white evangelists has dropped.
According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in mid June, Trump's approval rating amongst white evangelists has dropped approximately six percent from 78% in April to 72%. In addition, white evangelicals who agree "very strongly" with Trump's performance in office have dropped from 67% to 59%. This trend is common among other religious demographics such as Catholics and even Religiously Unaffiliated voters who saw a decrease in "strong approval" from 40% to 32% and 19% to 17% respectively.
These declines in approval seem to have stemmed from the President's handling of COVID-19, as well as his controversial photo-op at St. John's Episcopal Church. Since the rise of the Coronavirus in the US since mid March, the President's approval for his handling of the situation has dropped. As seen in another Pew Research Center survey in which those who believed Trump's handling of the situation to be "excellent/good" dropped from 81% to 75%. Additionally, at St. John's Episcopal Church, the President's forceful removal by way of the National Guard of peaceful protesters, rubbed many of his faithful supporters the wrong way.
That being said, despite the drop in support for approval, the survey also found that approximately eight out of ten white evangelical Protestant voters would still vote to elect Trump for the Presidency once again. This support may come from the Protestants continued dislike of Trump's opponent Biden. In the same survey, it was found that 75% of white evangelical Protestants believe Biden would make a poor or terrible President. So while Trump's approval ratings have slipped in recent polls, he still holds a strong support group amongst many Christian groups.
