On The Weeknight, Angelo Carusone discusses how the Iran war is seen in the Christian nationalist media space: “They're getting impassioned because he's making these very explicit calls to their religion”
Published
Citation
From the April 6, 2026, edition of MS NOW's The Weeknight
LUKE RESSERT (CO-HOST): Angelo, something that you've studied extensively that I think we've seen come out through this administration, there's little bits of, I would say, an undercurrent of Christian nationalism. I want to play some video of Pete Hegseth today that struck me in a troubling way.
...
RESSERT: Now, we should say that the pope and a bunch of other bishops and religious leaders from many different faiths have all said that this is an unjust war, that there's no justification for it. But in terms of the messaging here, Angelo, it seems like they're setting themselves up in this existential holy war in a way. And the rhetoric to say a pilot is reborn on Easter, I mean, that is getting into a very dangerous space.
ANGELO CARUSONE (GUEST): Yep. And they are, you know — that was very scary, and the general gave us sort of the reality of what's happening here. And the undercurrent that's taking place that this is in fact a Holy War, that it is biblical. And the rhetoric that you pointed to is the most mild examples of that. I mean, Trump has posted a video, tapping into a notion that he is the prophecy come to life, that part of what he is doing now was prophesized in the bible. And that lit up Christian nationalist communities. I mean, Pete Hegseth sees the military as essentially a flaming sword for Christ. I mean, he has advocated for the using the military to project Christianity when he was a Fox News host. Not only was he pushing for war against Iran, but I think it's worth pointing out the things that he was advocating for, which was to destroy their cultural heritage sites in the process of doing it, even though it had no purpose whatsoever because it was going to serve God's purpose. And so there was a larger biblical benefit of it.
So, one of the things that's happening to sort of intensify the feedback loop here is the notion that this is God's war. He's on our side, so, it doesn't matter if we're burning through all these supplies or we're wasting all this money because God is going to be our sort of our shield. And the scariest piece of it is that they're starting to tee up a notion, Tucker did a whole show on Friday about demons. Vice President Vance talked about the fact that demons are among us with all these UFO flyings. One of the things that's also happening is they're making — they're adding in new villains that somehow these demons have come into this dimension. And this is not lunatics saying it, although in theory, but these are people in power that are out there saying the demons are among us and we need to start using our weapons and all of our military might not only to execute God's will, but so that we can attack.
...
SYMONE SANDERS-TOWNSEND (CO-HOST): It's not just the rhetoric about the Christian nationalist rhetoric. People are believing what they're saying. That's part of the problem.
CARUSONE: Without a doubt. I mean, you know, the reason why Trump is tapping into that is because — there's been a lot of coverage about the fractures within the right-wing about over this war. The one thing that has been growing in popularity in support for this war is the Evangelical communities, the Christian space. All of that part of their media ecosystem is excited about this. So, not only are people believing it, but they're getting impassioned because he's making these very explicit calls to their religion.