Trump, Pence and christofascist pastors

President Donald Trump’s haphazard foreign policy is driven by a lot of factors. His rollbacks of free trade, for example, are motivated by his pathological obsession with America being “ripped off,” and his decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement was motivated by his desire to erase everything related to former President Barack Obama.

One of his more conventional, but no less disturbing, influences could be that of right-wing evangelism.

Trump’s close relationship with evangelical politicians and voters (or more specifically, white ones), is well-known. Vice President Mike Pence is a well-known fundamentalist culture warrior who tried to make it legal to refuse service to LGBTQ couples and vowed to consign abortion rights to “the ash heap of history.” Other senior members of his administration have hardline views about religion, like Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who has said she wants to use America’s schools to build “God’s Kingdom.”

One of the less-noticed influencers is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, an evangelical Presbyterian who once defined his […]