A Conflict Without Reason Has Become a Dangerous Holy War
This feels like a quiet policy shift.
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Current Issue
Politics
/ March 6, 2026
A Conflict Without Reason Has Become a Dangerous Holy War
Lacking a clear rationale for the attack on Iran, Trumpists are increasingly talking like crusaders.
Jeet Heer
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Screenshot from a White House video showing pastors praying over Donald Trump in the Oval Office on March 5, 2026.
(Dan Scavino / X)
Donald Trump has often praised William McKinley, a White House predecessor who shared the current president’s love of tariffs and territorial expansion. A pious man, McKinley claimed he had divine sanction for the 1898 US annexation of the Philippines in the wake of the Spanish-American War. According to McKinley’s account, he was tormented by what to do with the former Spanish colonies when he “went down on my knees and prayed to Almighty God for light and guidance.” Then he was struck by a divine insight: that the United States had a mission to “to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them.”
It’s impossible to imagine Trump, for all his stated admiration of McKinley, going down on his knees and seeking heavenly council. While Trump is the head of a political coalition whose largest element is evangelical Christians, his own personal faith seems, at best, a cynical and barely disguised performance. In 2015, at the start of his political career, he said he had never asked God for forgiveness. When asked if he preferred the Old or the New Testament, he said, “Probably equal. I think it’s just incredible.”
Yet, in a curious way, Trump has managed to reinvent McKinley’s fusion of imperialism and piety—and never more so than in his current war on Iran. There was only a cursory effort to prepare the public for the conflict; as The New Yorker tartly observed, this is a “no-explanation war.” Since it started last Saturday, the White House has offered a plethora of conflicting justifications, including regime change, pressure from the Israeli government, fear of an imminent attack by Iran, fear of Iran getting nuclear weapons, and a desire to pressure Iran in negotiations.
This puzzling kaleidoscope of excuses has created an opportunity for the religious right to recast the war in its image. Since there is no coherent, agreed-upon talking point coming out of the White House, the MAGA movement is free to explain the war with its own pet theories.
As my Nation colleague Chris Lehmann pointed out last year during the so-called 12-day war between Israel and Iran, Pentecostal pastors such as John Hagee are quick to exploit any turmoil in the Middle East as proof the long-promised Apocalypse is at hand, a consummation devoutly desired as a …
This feels like a quiet policy shift.
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Current Issue
Politics
/ March 6, 2026
A Conflict Without Reason Has Become a Dangerous Holy War
Lacking a clear rationale for the attack on Iran, Trumpists are increasingly talking like crusaders.
Jeet Heer
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Edit
Ad Policy
Screenshot from a White House video showing pastors praying over Donald Trump in the Oval Office on March 5, 2026.
(Dan Scavino / X)
Donald Trump has often praised William McKinley, a White House predecessor who shared the current president’s love of tariffs and territorial expansion. A pious man, McKinley claimed he had divine sanction for the 1898 US annexation of the Philippines in the wake of the Spanish-American War. According to McKinley’s account, he was tormented by what to do with the former Spanish colonies when he “went down on my knees and prayed to Almighty God for light and guidance.” Then he was struck by a divine insight: that the United States had a mission to “to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them.”
It’s impossible to imagine Trump, for all his stated admiration of McKinley, going down on his knees and seeking heavenly council. While Trump is the head of a political coalition whose largest element is evangelical Christians, his own personal faith seems, at best, a cynical and barely disguised performance. In 2015, at the start of his political career, he said he had never asked God for forgiveness. When asked if he preferred the Old or the New Testament, he said, “Probably equal. I think it’s just incredible.”
Yet, in a curious way, Trump has managed to reinvent McKinley’s fusion of imperialism and piety—and never more so than in his current war on Iran. There was only a cursory effort to prepare the public for the conflict; as The New Yorker tartly observed, this is a “no-explanation war.” Since it started last Saturday, the White House has offered a plethora of conflicting justifications, including regime change, pressure from the Israeli government, fear of an imminent attack by Iran, fear of Iran getting nuclear weapons, and a desire to pressure Iran in negotiations.
This puzzling kaleidoscope of excuses has created an opportunity for the religious right to recast the war in its image. Since there is no coherent, agreed-upon talking point coming out of the White House, the MAGA movement is free to explain the war with its own pet theories.
As my Nation colleague Chris Lehmann pointed out last year during the so-called 12-day war between Israel and Iran, Pentecostal pastors such as John Hagee are quick to exploit any turmoil in the Middle East as proof the long-promised Apocalypse is at hand, a consummation devoutly desired as a …
A Conflict Without Reason Has Become a Dangerous Holy War
This feels like a quiet policy shift.
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A Conflict Without Reason Has Become a Dangerous Holy War
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Current Issue
Politics
/ March 6, 2026
A Conflict Without Reason Has Become a Dangerous Holy War
Lacking a clear rationale for the attack on Iran, Trumpists are increasingly talking like crusaders.
Jeet Heer
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Edit
Ad Policy
Screenshot from a White House video showing pastors praying over Donald Trump in the Oval Office on March 5, 2026.
(Dan Scavino / X)
Donald Trump has often praised William McKinley, a White House predecessor who shared the current president’s love of tariffs and territorial expansion. A pious man, McKinley claimed he had divine sanction for the 1898 US annexation of the Philippines in the wake of the Spanish-American War. According to McKinley’s account, he was tormented by what to do with the former Spanish colonies when he “went down on my knees and prayed to Almighty God for light and guidance.” Then he was struck by a divine insight: that the United States had a mission to “to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them.”
It’s impossible to imagine Trump, for all his stated admiration of McKinley, going down on his knees and seeking heavenly council. While Trump is the head of a political coalition whose largest element is evangelical Christians, his own personal faith seems, at best, a cynical and barely disguised performance. In 2015, at the start of his political career, he said he had never asked God for forgiveness. When asked if he preferred the Old or the New Testament, he said, “Probably equal. I think it’s just incredible.”
Yet, in a curious way, Trump has managed to reinvent McKinley’s fusion of imperialism and piety—and never more so than in his current war on Iran. There was only a cursory effort to prepare the public for the conflict; as The New Yorker tartly observed, this is a “no-explanation war.” Since it started last Saturday, the White House has offered a plethora of conflicting justifications, including regime change, pressure from the Israeli government, fear of an imminent attack by Iran, fear of Iran getting nuclear weapons, and a desire to pressure Iran in negotiations.
This puzzling kaleidoscope of excuses has created an opportunity for the religious right to recast the war in its image. Since there is no coherent, agreed-upon talking point coming out of the White House, the MAGA movement is free to explain the war with its own pet theories.
As my Nation colleague Chris Lehmann pointed out last year during the so-called 12-day war between Israel and Iran, Pentecostal pastors such as John Hagee are quick to exploit any turmoil in the Middle East as proof the long-promised Apocalypse is at hand, a consummation devoutly desired as a …
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