Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump and Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) attended the first day of the Republican National Convention, along with Tucker Carlson, Rep. Byron Donald (R-Fla.), and House Speaker Mike Johnson.AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Towards the end After the sweltering heat of the first day of the Republican National Convention yesterday, I walked a few blocks from the red-clad crowds and MAGA merch to Milwaukee’s glitzy Symphony Hall, where former Fox News host Tucker Carlson was scheduled to keynote a day-long “policy festival” hosted by the ultra-conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. Earlier in the day, attendees had the chance to attend sessions covering the border, the Pentagon, the economy, and, of course, Project 2025, the 920-page political roadmap for the next Trump administration that the think tank helped draft. Meanwhile, Carlson, who now hosts a show on his own network, has a much broader scope: His presentation was titled “The Good Life.”
Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance had been named Trump’s running mate hours earlier, and the crowd, which didn’t even fill Milwaukee’s plush Symphony Hall, tweeted their approval when Tucker mentioned him. “I’m not going to defend J.D. Vance,” he said. “What I see now is that every bad person I’ve ever met in my life in Washington was trying to run against him.” Not only is Vance a “good guy,” Carlson explained, “he’s one of the few happily married senators.” The audience erupted in admiration and laughter.
I expected the now-familiar trope that Democrats hate Vance because he’s a regular guy who embodies the American Dream. But Carlson didn’t just rattle off the usual complaints that Democrats are elitist. He turned to the Trump assassination attempt and explained how left-wing politics are the latest incarnation of an ancient evil: “The assassination attempt on President Trump reminded many people this weekend that Many “There is a spiritual battle going on among people,” he added. “In every society there are forces that are hostile to the people, because they exist in the minds of men. These forces are dedicated to destroying the people and the civilization they have built.”
Carlson told the crowd that people on the political left are motivated by “forces of chaos and destruction that are fundamentally anti-human.”
The idea that we’re in the midst of a spiritual war between good and evil is not just a topic for Carlson, but also a central belief for adherents of the New Apostolic Reformed, a loosely-rooted network of charismatic pastors and self-proclaimed apostles and prophets who believe their followers are called to fight for Christian dominance in the U.S. It’s an unusual starting point for Carlson, a lifelong Episcopalian, one of the more staid Protestant denominations.
Carlson has spoken about his complicated relationship with the Episcopal Church, and recently has hosted prominent figures from the far-right Christian world, including Christian commentator Santiago Pliego, a former fellow at the Claremont Institute, and journalist Megan Basham, who writes about Christianity for conservative publications. The Daily Wireand far-right Idaho pastor Doug Wilson. In an interview with Wilson, Carlson argued that “Christian nationalism” is a term used by Democrats to “make Christianity look like a threat to the nation.”
At the Heritage Foundation event, Carlson expanded on this point. He told the audience that what motivates those on the political left are “forces of chaos and destruction that are fundamentally anti-human.” He added, “The people who piss them off… I would say Christians now. Christian nationalists, people who pray outside abortion clinics, people who celebrate Easter instead of ‘Transgender Visibility Day,’ those are the real enemy.” The idea that Christians will be persecuted is also central to the tenets of the New Apostolic Reformation. “What group do they hate the most,” he asked. “What group do they absolutely fear and want to eliminate? Well, it’s Christians.”
After Carlson’s speech, I met with several audience members as they made their way next door to happy hour at the Heritage Foundation and asked them what they thought about religion’s role in government.
One attendee was Katarina Stubbe, national director of the right-wing parent-rights group Moms for Liberty, who was at the Heritage event because Moms for Liberty is “very close friends with the Heritage Foundation.” When I asked her what she thought about separation of church and state, she said, “Our country was founded on biblical values,” and “I don’t understand why you want to separate something that’s not only beautiful and well-constructed, but also protects you as a person.”
I also spoke with Don Huffines, a former Texas senator who made headlines in 2022 for refusing to fire a staffer who admitted to being a member of the white supremacist Groyper movement. He said Carlson’s speech was the highlight of the day. Like Stubbe, he saw no reason for separation of church and state. “All of the founders of our country automatically understood that Christianity and Bible study were very important to what they were trying to create,” he told me. “So we’ve really drifted away from where we were originally.”
Rochelle Brooks, another Republican representative from Texas, was decked out in a bright red dress, an American flag scarf and a cowboy hat with a Trump pin. Brooks said she thinks people misunderstand the Founding Fathers’ idea of separation of church and state. “They said the country should be create “The state is not a religion,” she said. “I’m not saying we have to eliminate religion from the state.” She liked Trump because he “didn’t do identity politics,” which, as a black woman, she finds “demeaning and vulgar.” When I asked her if she thought Trump was a godly candidate, she said, “He’s done nothing that goes against my values and beliefs,” then paused. “It’s not for me to judge him.”
