For decades The Republican organization advocated cultural warfareThe center of which was Christianity. Under president Donald Trump this war takes a sharp turn towards the secular.
There's a ban on sexual correction on minors, Prohibition of transgender service in the military, punishing for teaching about "critical race theory" and asking national staff to study on managers promoting diversity, equality and integration. And fresh and aggressive strategies to limit abortion? Not necessarily.
Trump's first actions upon his return to the White home reflect many currents in the Republican Party, shaped by the MAGA coalition. It includes more than just Evangelical Protestants and Catholics who have long formed the social conservative core of the party. He besides joined him. Trump’s non-religious acolytes, mostly Young men with libertarian views and a much more libertarian approach to sex than their Christian colleagues, as is apparent from discussions with respective spiritual and secular social conservatives.
This second group powerfully opposes a policy that affirms transgenders and promotes diversity, equality and integration, but adopts a more liberal approach to issues related to cultural warfare specified as abortion and same-sex marriage.
This already creates tensions in the MAGA coalition, and any opponents of abortion silently express frustration that the president has not taken bold action to limit access in the first weeks of his administration. However, this is part of a broader political reality. The Americans are more skeptical of sex policy and efforts towards diversity, equality and integration than access to abortion.
During his first term, Trump appointed ultimate Court judges who played a key function in Overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022. Thus, the president fulfilled the key promise from the 2016 run and satisfied his evangelical electorate. However, he withdrew from this issue during the run in 2024.Because polls have shown that Most Americans advocate a certain level of access to abortion. This besides demonstrates the desire to address fresh topics after conservatives won on abortion, but lost on same-sex marriage.
The issues of the secular cultural war — led by the banner of “healthy reason” — proved to be key in building Trump's election coalition in 2024.helping attract younger men, including black and Hispanic.
— I do not base my belief that men should not compete with women, on any biblical reading, the Qur'an, the Talmud, or any another spiritual text,” says Clay Travis, founder of OutKick's OutKick site with sports comments that openly spoke about transgender athletes. — Democrats lost their minds. Many reasonable, average people like me felt the organization abandoned us.
Travis belongs to a group of influential media characters specified as undercaster Joe Rogan who have a crucial impact on this section of Trump's election base and are more afraid about DEI (diversity, equality and social inclusion) or trans than abortion. They are a departure from the last buttoned conservatism of Mike Pence, who dominated the Republican organization since the 1980s and continued to hold crucial power during Trump's first administration.
— It's simple, explains Alex Bruesewitz, general manager of the political consulting company X Strategies, and Trump's advisor, who gained publicity as an online spokesperson for "Americana First" among Generation Z. — Issues specified as protecting the athletics of girls and preventing minors from undergoing sexual change operations It's not necessarily about religion.. It's about common sense.
Republicans want to reconstruct normality
Trump's actions trust on aggressive force not only to reverse Biden's administration policy, but besides on the continuation of Trump's first word cultural war programme utilizing presidential power to radically transform the country's social framework. respective of these actions appeared on the first day of his administration, which the insider Trump see as a signal that they are the precedence and fulfillment of his run promises.
A high-ranking White home authoritative who has been given anonymity to discuss the reasoning of administration members describes this approach as effort to correct the course from the “land of madness” and reconstruct “normality in American culture”. The authoritative admits that this is an effort that appeals to part of the President's electorate, which addresses this issue both from a faith-based and secular perspective.
— We have evangelical, conservative Christians who, due to their Bible reasoning, are very happy that the president is fighting against this transgender vocalism, indoctrination of children, excessive sexualisation of children. But we besides have mainstream America, in which 5-10 years ago it was not controversial things to say, says an official. — We are dealing with a combination of 2 sometimes inconsistent environments in conservative America and the mainstream of AmericaWho truly wants to be on the same boat of common sense.
Nevertheless, any conventional social conservatives from the spiritual right are disappointed and They believe Trump's abortion is only a minimum.. It includes a simplification in the national backing of household planning in the country and wellness programs abroad that discuss abortion or supply referrals. Anti-abortion groups are excited by the president's implementation of these 2 programs, although any point out that these have been the current agendas of the Republican organization for decades, which Trump has not restored until the 5th day of his presidency.
EPA/JIM LO SCALZO / PAPDonald Trump speaks to the participants of the anti-abortion March for Life. Washington, January 19, 2018.
They consider Trump to be the “most pro-life” president in the past of the country, due to the function he played in overturning Roe's judgement against Wade. They fear, however, that the president sees their case as a "mission completed" and now goes on. They call for bold action, including the ban on prescriptions online and the transportation of abortion pills by post and laws forcing states to supply more detailed information on all abortions within their limits.
— any people look at it and say: “Well, if fresh social conservatism is afraid only woke and DEI, not life and conventional issues that revived social conservatives?’ And if that's true, if there's a change there, what does that mean for a pro-life program? And what does this mean for public policy pro-life over the next 4 years?” says Tim Chapman, president of Advance American Freedom, a group founded by Pence. — This administration must find a way to unite them. and do not place 1 part of the coalition in the driver's seat and the another part in the rear seat.
Some conservatives find it meaningful that Trump's first action on abortion was pardoning almost 2 twelve people convicted of blocking access to abortion clinics and temporary closure. Although they are satisfied, they besides see it as linked to the President's vendetta against the Department of Justice to the same or more than abortion policy.
A high-ranking White home authoritative claims that the administration has “hit the right string” on this issue. “What he truly does is reconstruct the actions he took in his first term,” says the official, adding that pro-life policy is "still a precedence for administration, but the administration's precedence is besides to draw the country distant from far left-wing politics."
Other spiritual conservatives, specified as Ralph Reed, founder and president of the religion and Freedom Coalition and Trump's longtime ally, welcome fresh visitors. “This is adding policy. This is not a subtraction policy, says Reed, adding that Religious Conservative ranks have besides increased and became younger and more diverse. - It won't be your father's spiritual right hand.
Trump vs. "woke culture"
Meanwhile, the left tries to catch up erstwhile Trump almost overnight reverses Biden's four-year integration program. He tries to defend what was achieved during the run in 2024 – defining a policy that aimed at broadening LGBTQ+ rights and expanding opportunities for another marginalised groups outside the mainstream.
— If these things were truly common sense, it would not be essential to usage all the power of the national government to enforce them, says Delphine Luneau, spokesperson for Human Rights Campaign. “As a transgender person, I am as aware as possible of the fact that even if at the end of the day we will most likely halt or even repeal in future years much of this bad policy, any of the harm is happening now.
Trump didn't attack. ‘Woke idealology’Until his opponent in the Republican primaries, Florida politician Ron DeSantis, made it his business card. Speaking to the Conservatives of Des Moines in the summertime of 2023, Trump admitted that he disliked the word “woke‘, due to the fact that “it is only the word they use. Half people can't even specify it, they don't know what it is."
Now he's utilizing that word freely.. In December, he defined “culture woke“ as a “dirty”, and during the Las Vegas event last weekend he boasted that his administration had “disposed this g***a”.
EPA/BIZUAYEHU TESFAYE / PAPpresident Donald Trump speaks during the Las Vegas event, January 25, 2025.
The polls show that American views on diversity, equality and integration in the workplace have become more negative over the past year, and A tiny majority of Americans think sex change is morally wrong. A fresh Ipsos poll for The fresh York Times besides showed that 79 percent of respondents stated that transgender sportsmen should not have the right to compete in women's competitions.
Meanwhile restrictions on abortion are inactive much more polarising, and according to Gallup's poll only a tiny number — 12 percent— believes that access to the procedure should be illegal under all circumstances.
John McLaughlin, a poller working for Trump, says that although people did not necessarily give their vote due to transgenderity, they mostly agreed with Trump on this issue, which allowed the run to present the Democrats, especially Former Vice president Kamala Harris, as extreme. 1 of the most memorable ads in the 2024 series, which was conducted by Trump’s campaign, argued that “Kamala is for them. president Trump is for you.”
— If you ask what's the most crucial issue that's decided on their voice, They will answer us that inflation, border security, crime “ McLaughlin says. “Transgender issues did not appear on that list. However, erstwhile you ask them whether they agree or not, that there are only 2 sexes or that biological men should practice girls’ sports in advanced schools and colleges, they definitely disagree.
