How Trump Captured Iowa’s Religious Right

Looking down at what was left of the pagan display, inside a capitol that had recently enacted a near-absolute ban on abortion, Cassidy’s sentiment seemed obviously absurd: Christians were not being boiled in Iowa. The politicians they selected largely run the state. But, for Dunwell, the Baphomet episode seemed to confirm that the split within the Christian right went much deeper than just a personal preference for Trump or DeSantis, who, in fact, has since offered to contribute to Cassidy’s legal defense. Among the Christian conservatives who had embraced Trump, Dunwell said, there was “this religious bent that says, We’re so sick and tired of losing. We’re so sick and tired of that, that what we’re going to do is try to impose our will now. They’ve been imposing their will on us, now we’re gonna try to impose our will on them.”