Hardline Christian Nationalists to Meet in Texas to Chart Post-Trump America
After the Republican Party's debacle in the US midterm elections, divisions within the MAGA camp have begun to surface. Hardline Christian nationalists and far-right leaders are gathering in Dallas, Texas to determine the outline of a post-Donald Trump America and the future of the Republican Party. The conference has been called for late May next year.
Organised by an organisation called the 'New Christian Right' (NXR), the conference, titled 'Christ is King – America After Trump', is giving importance to controversial ideological issues such as abolishing women's voting rights, according to a report by the US media outlet The Independent.
The conference is organised by Joel Webbon, a pastor from Georgetown, Texas. He identifies himself as a Christian nationalist and believes women's voting rights should be taken away. The list of books kept as gifts for early registrants at the conference includes a book written in favour of repealing the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, through which women gained the right to vote.
Although the list of 11 speakers at the conference includes no current cabinet member or senior official of the Trump administration, it features several familiar faces from right-wing media and political circles.
One of them is Alex Jones, founder of the far-right media network 'Infowars'. On the night the midterm results were released, he criticised Trump in a livestream, saying, 'I have gone to war 100 percent against Trump.'
Another speaker is Buckley Carlson, brother of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. He served as Vice President JD Vance's deputy press secretary until April this year and now works as a political consultant.
The speaker list also includes Calvin Robinson, a British-born pastor and former GB News presenter who moved to the United States in 2024. He had earlier described universal women's suffrage as a 'mistake' and argued that only male heads of Christian families should be allowed to vote and stand in elections.
US religion expert Matthew Taylor, author of the book 'The Violent Take It by Force', told The Independent that after the midterm defeat this is not the last attempt of a decaying movement; rather, it reflects a kind of 'low-level civil war' for power among America's Christian right in the post-Trump era.
According to Taylor, major cracks have appeared in recent years among the hardline Christian groups that Donald Trump had brought under one umbrella. He cited three main events behind the split. The first is the Gaza war and Israel policy: after 7 October 2023, while one section of American nationalists continued to support Israel over the Gaza war, the hardline section led by Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Joel Webbon opposed it.
The second event is the killing of Charlie Kirk. The founder of the right-wing organisation 'Turning Point USA', Kirk long worked as a bridge between conservatives and young online right-wingers. After he was shot dead by an assassin in September 2025, the conflict between the two camps came into the open.
The third event is the Iran war. Angered by Trump's decision to go to war with Iran, Tucker Carlson publicly broke ties with Trump and the Republican Party.
According to Taylor, this new 'America First' section believes Donald Trump could not be tough enough on immigration and that he is being influenced by Israel. He also noted that the group's influence is growing among young people.
On the question of whom this group will support in the 2028 US presidential election, Vice President JD Vance's name has come up in discussion. According to Taylor, Vance's post-election comments on the Iran war and re-evaluating relations with Israel align with Tucker Carlson's statements.
Political observers believe this split among Christian right-wingers could become a major challenge for the Republican Party in the 2028 election. That is because Trump won the national popular vote in the 2024 election by a margin of only 1.5 percentage points. So to win the next election, the Republican leadership will need the support of all sections of society, including women voters, which is the complete opposite of the hardline agenda of this Texas conference.
