Despite former President Donald Trump’s bizarre remarks and behavior, his felony conviction and pending criminal charges, polls show him still in a dead heat with Vice President Kamala Harris. One reason could be that a number of forces each with special interests buttress his candidacy in different ways. One is billionaires who have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to his campaign. They are confident that a second Trump presidency, like the first, will be very good for them. In fact, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, performed a previctory dance on the stage at a Trump campaign rally.

Corporate and other business interests know Trump will continue gutting federal regulatory agencies. Private equity companies are certain he will not interfere as they continue buying up property, whether in housing, retail or the medical field, making super-profits at the public’s expense.

Bureaucrats and wannabe bureaucrats will be able to enrich themselves through unchecked corruption. So, too, will career politicians, including many past Trump critics who now walk, shovel in hand, behind the proverbial horse on which

The Don rides in his parade.

Nativists such as Stephen Miller with a variety of grievances, who extol the virtues of European American culture, are determined to preserve it in the face of demographic changes that will make them a minority. They include heavily armed militiamen standing by for the call to go into battle with “leftists, communists and Marxists” to save the republic.

And then there are the Christian nationalists, who are dedicated to converting the United States into a Christian nation – like Iran’s theocracy — with the Ten Commandments replacing the Constitution and the Bible as the source of all wisdom – not science. Mother Jones reporter Kiera Butler turned the spotlight on them in the November-December issue.

They include members of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) which the Southern Poverty Law Center has described as “the greatest threat to U.S. democracy that you have never heard of,” Butler reported. The NAR surfaced around 1990s, its name originating from evangelical writer C. Peter Wagner, to become “the fastest-growing spiritual movement” in the country. It has no defined leader and operates as “a coming together of several smaller sects that shared a belief that God appointed apostles and prophets who possessed special ‘gifts of the spirit,’ like the ability to perform miracles, for instance, or speak in tongues,” Butler reported.

Affiliated NAR churches are organized in a “fivefold ministry” of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers who are urged to “use their influence to create an environment in which the blessings of the Kingdom of God can permeate all aspects of society.” That means “conquering” the “Seven Mountains: Religion, Family, Education, Government, Media, Arts & Entertainment, and Business” — the 7MM.

The NAR proposes “the transformation of an entire society … something so transcendentally revolutionary that most people never even thought about something like this,” Fred Clarkson of the extremism watchdog Political Research Associates, told Butler.

Butler cites a Denison University poll showing that the percentage of Christians who believe in the 7MM increased from less than 31 percent to 41 percent between March 2023 and January 2024. Overall, as of 2023, 66 percent of Americans identified as Christian — a big drop from 90 percent 50 years earlier. Their declining number means they could become a minority in a few decades. That is undoubtedly why the NAR regards it as imperative for Trump to win – so he can fulfil what many regard as a divine mission to make America totally Christian.

The NAR itself comprises between three million and 33 million members and Trump has been in contact with the movement for years. While many of them “fit the stereotype of the white, male Christian nationalist, some of the most prominent American apostles are African Americans and women; some of the most powerful global apostles come from African nations,” Butler reported.

Prominent NAR figures Butler identified include Michael Flynn, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and national security adviser in Trump’s 2016-2020 administration who has been conducting a “ReAwaken America” national tour. Flynn, who served briefly in the Defense Intelligence Agency, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during an investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election. Trump pardoned him and is almost certain to give him a prominent role in his administration if he is elected.

Lance Wallnau, who has called Harris a “Jezebel” and, according to Butler, believes leftwing politicians are controlled by demons, developed a Project 19 plan to help Trump win 19 key counties in swing states. Russell Vought, also a former Trump administration official, is likely to be put in charge of remaking the federal bureaucracy in Trump’s image if he is elected. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson is certain to use his power to advance the cause.

However, the NAR is a small part of the Christian population. While the nationalists complain that the religion is threatened, Christians as a whole number about 140 million or 66 percent of the nation – including 21 percent non-European Americans. They attend between 350,000 and 400,000 churches and operate 2,400 radio stations or about 42 percent of non-commercial broadcasters, along with 100 full-power TV stations.

Pastors preaching from the pulpit and on the airwaves have a powerful influence on their listeners, just as do some personalities on rightwing media such as the Fox ecosystem, and many of the more than 90,000 Christan podcasters.

It is most likely through them that the bulk of Trump’s support originates.

The NAR has an even less known twin, the TheoBros, whose members are younger and who, Butler reported, are even more conservative. Some observers describe the movement as “muscular Christianity.” Many members object to having women preachers and women voters and they want to repeal the 19th Amendment — which enshrines that right. Some advocate executing heretics and gay people and replacing imprisonment with public flogging.

The TheoBros have an ally in Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, Butler suggested. She reported that “over the last few years his political orbit has increasingly overlapped” with theirs “so much so that to careful observers his public echoes of their ideas are beginning to sound less like coincidence and more like dog whistles. And those dog whistles signal the major themes of this election: hypermasculinity, declining birthrates, ethnonationalism – and no small measure of carefully crafted misogyny.”

And then there is autocracy. National Public Radio (NPR) reported that Trump has made more than 100 threats to “investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived opponents.” He told attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2023, “I am your retribution.” He claims that the “radical left” constitutes “an enemy from within” and has named several of them.

NPR’s Tom Dreisbach identified them from Trump’s tweets: President Joe Biden and his family, for whom a special prosecutor will be appointed; Vice President Kamala Harris, to be “impeached and prosecuted;” former President Barack Obama and former Arizona Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, to face military tribunals.

Others are former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and California Rep. Adam Schiff; former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley; those who filed criminal charges against Trump, including prosecutors, judges and a member of the Georgia Grand Jury that indicted him; critics of the U.S. Supreme Court; and journalists. Trump’s threats may be mere exaggerations – or not. Some of his former top aides describe him as a fascist and hundreds of them oppose his candidacy. His longest-serving chief of staff, John Kelly, has said Trump told him he likes generals like those Adolf Hitler had and that the Nazi mass murderer “did some good things.”

Trump can accomplish much of what he threatens, especially with the Supreme Court’s ruling that a president has almost total immunity for official acts. So, in reality, this is not just an election; it is a referendum on the future. Also, if Trump loses, he and his allies can be expected not to just fold their tent and steal away into the night.