About half of Evangelical Christians believe President Donald Trump’s conduct of the Iran war and his immigration enforcement policies do not align with their Christian values, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, as Republican strategists count on the voting bloc to defend congressional majorities in November midterm elections.
Some 54% of Evangelicals in the June 3-8 survey said Trump’s use of the military in Iran was not in line with their understanding of Christianity, while 41% said it was, according to Reuters. Fifty-one percent said the administration’s approach to immigration was not in keeping with Christian values, with 44% saying it was.
The poll surveyed 4,531 U.S. adults with a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
Trump’s approval rating among Evangelicals stood at 52%, down from 61% in August, though well above his 35% rating among all U.S. adults. Evangelicals, who skew Republican by more than two-to-one, backed Trump 81% to 16% in 2024, per a Pew Research Center exit poll analysis.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Reuters that Trump’s policies have delivered for American Christians, citing the defense of religious freedom rights and the pardoning of pro-life activists convicted of federal charges.
“There has never been a greater president for Christian Americans than President Trump,” Rogers said.
The U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran on Feb. 28 with the stated aim of preventing Tehran from fully developing a nuclear weapon. More than 3,000 people have died in Iran, with rights groups putting the figure closer to 3,600.
The conflict has also killed more than 1,800 people in Lebanon and more than 100 in Iraq, according to official and nongovernmental organization sources.
Sandy Miller, 63, an Evangelical voter in Worthington, Indiana, a town of roughly 1,400 people, said she would not vote for Trump again after her 24-year-old daughter’s home-healthcare Medicaid benefits were cut under the administration.
Connie Reese, 77, an Evangelical voter in Iowa, told Reuters that Trump’s approach to Iran has biblical precedent and that governments have the right to defend themselves preemptively. Reese said the re-establishment of Israel “is a prophetic answer or an answer to a prophecy that is clearly spelled out in the word of God.”
On immigration, Evangelical organizations have been critical.
World Relief, a Christian humanitarian organization authorized to resettle refugees in the U.S., condemned a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policy memo requiring many lawfully present immigrants to leave the country before applying for lawful permanent residence.
The memo largely halted a long-standing practice called adjustment of status, through which eligible non-citizens apply for a green card from inside the country rather than returning abroad. About 73% of approved adjustments in the last quarter of fiscal 2025 were based on family sponsorship.
Myal Greene, president and chief executive of World Relief, said the policy would have “devastating consequences on families” and called for the administration, Congress or the courts to reverse it.
In early May, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and World Relief published a report titled “Joined Together, Torn Apart,” estimating that more than 1 million U.S. citizens could be separated from a spouse or child under Trump’s immigration policies. The report projected that up to 910,000 U.S. citizen children could lose one or both parents to deportation by the end of Trump’s term in early 2029, with 665,000 expected to lose both parents.
The NAE and other Christian organizations had previously released a report, “One Part of the Body,” finding that most immigrants vulnerable to deportation in the U.S. are Christians. NAE President Walter Kim said at an April press briefing that immigrant communities had helped combat rising religious secularism, noting that the number of churches in Boston doubled from 1965 to 2015, driven largely by the founding of immigrant congregations from Latin America, Africa and Asia.
