President Donald Trump presents himself as a God-following, good Christian leader, using United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement to push his own golden image. However, his actions continuously violate the exact Biblical texts he claims to follow. 

Many people have heard the famous quote from the Bible, “love your neighbor,” as seen in the New International Version of the Bible in Leviticus 19:18. While the verse is often used to broadly encourage general kindness and goodwill, the surrounding text soon after speaks directly about how societies should treat foreigners and strangers. 

“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them,” Leviticus 19:33-34 NIV reads. “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”

ICE protects the U.S. from illegal immigration and cross-border crime through safe immigration enforcement, according to its website. Yet in 2026, under the Trump administration, there have been at least six deaths in ICE detention centers, according to the nonprofit American Immigration Council, and two fatal shootings involving ICE officers — Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in January. 

Treating immigrants and American-born people in this way, with hostility and sometimes lethal violence, goes against the very nature of Christianity. The evidence is in the Bible.

Despite his harsh immigration policies, Trump continues to parade his Christianity, working under the guise of doing everything for the Creator. He encourages political actions, such as voting laws to pass “For Jesus,” and referring to himself as a “nondenominational Christian” in an interview with the Religion News Service in 2020.  

Yet, his faith hasn’t presented itself in full confidence. 

Before Trump’s involvement in politics and alignment with the Republican Party, he was publicly not a religious man. “I don’t believe in reincarnation, heaven or hell — but we go someplace,” Trump told Playboy magazine in 1990, 27 years before his first term as president. “I cannot, for the life of me, figure out where.”

It wasn’t until his involvement with politics that Trump represented himself as a religious man. Recently however, despite declaring his Christian values, Trump seems to be unsure of his own beliefs. In October 2025, Trump responded to a question from FOX News about whether ending the war in Ukraine would help him get into heaven. 

“I don’t think there’s anything going to get me in heaven. Okay? I really don’t. I think I’m not maybe heaven-bound. I may be in heaven right now as we fly on Air Force One,” Trump said. “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make heaven.” 

This quote reflects Trump’s misunderstanding of the core beliefs of Christianity. Someone’s morality does not equate to one’s chances of going to heaven. Instead, faith in God leads to salvation within the Christian belief. 

Therefore, it is not good deeds alone that lead someone to deliverance, but rather their personal belief and trust in God. While being a good person in his image is indeed part of being a follower of Christ, faith isn’t just actions; it’s internal, deeply personal and spiritual. 

And yet, his white Christian supporter base remains strong despite his many contradictions.

This loyalty stems not only from his Christian rhetoric but his frequent alignment with Christian political beliefs on cases such as opposition to abortion, religious freedom protection and conservative politics. An example of this was the overturning of Roe v. Wade via his strategic stacking of Congress with staunchly anti-abortion justices in the 2022 case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This ruling declared that the U.S. Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, ending 50 years of federal protection. 

This decision supports a common Christian belief that abortion is murder and, as stated in Exodus 20:13 NIV, “You shall not murder.”  

Beyond political alignment, religious leaders have compared Trump to biblical kings as a modern-day biblical figure — an imperfect but anointed ruler. Conservative evangelical Christian pastors, such as Lance Wallnau of Dallas, have compared Trump to the 6th-century B.C.E. Persian king Cyrus. Cyrus was not an Israelite, as Christian believers were and did not initially worship the God of Israel, but was still anointed by God to fulfill his will. This same idea of a flawed but effective ruler has been repeated across different conservative Christian circles, including in our current president.

In addition to direct biblical comparisons, right-leaning media outlets have reinforced Trump’s image as a devout Christian. In September 2025, the White House published an article titled “President Trump’s Top 100 Victories for People of Faith,” highlighting actions he has taken for the Christian community, while networks such as FOX News continue to positively cover his religious alignment.

If American politicians continue to invoke Christianity to justify their policies, then Christians themselves must be willing to hold those leaders accountable to the moral teachings they claim to represent in the face of political alignments. They can’t blindly follow leaders, like Trump, who invoke religious comparisons without embodying what the religion stands for.

Faith cannot be a campaign slogan. Instead, it must demand consistency, compassion and community.