Trump allies fear stagnant evangelical support could make him 'a 1-term president'

Some of President Trump's allies are worried that stagnant support among evangelicals, especially in light of his Syria pullback, could be detrimental to his 2020 prospects.

A new Politico report details how those close to Trump are urging him to take note of some troubling recent signs that he could be in danger of losing some support among evangelicals, including a Fox News poll in which 28 percent of white evangelicals said Trump should be impeached and removed from office, and an NPR/Marist survey showing only 62 percent of white evangelicals definitely plan to vote for Trump in 2020. This is compared to the 81 percent of white evangelicals who did back Trump in 2016.

Those are just two polls, and a recent Public Religion Research Institute study found that 82 percent of Republican or Republican-leaning white evangelical Protestants want Trump to be the Republican nominee. Still, fears among Trump allies about the potential of some evangelicals abandoning him come as he faces heavy criticism from evangelical leaders over his decision to pull troops back from Syria, with some of these leaders urging him privately to reverse himself and televangelist Pat Robertson recently declaring Trump is "in danger of losing the mandate of heaven."

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"If he's going to win in 2020, he has to be north of the 81 percent [of white evangelicals] he won in 2016," a longtime Trump friend told Politico. "I'm not suggesting that the polling is all of a sudden going to show that his support is plummeting because of Syria. But if it stays stagnant, he's a one-term president." One scholar of religion, Elesha Coffman, suggested to Politico that this may all come down to the network that has recently been drawing Trump's ire, explaining, "My gut says white evangelicals will jump when and if Fox News does."