Conference Week 2026: “America’s Warriors for God”
2026-03-26 Historian and podcaster Annika Brockschmidt is considered one of the leading German voices on the political role of the religious right in the United States. During the conference week, she spoke with first-year students.
Trump banners, gallows, or Jesus flags: The religious dimension of the MAGA movement became apparent during the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. “The presence of religious imagery helped bring the issue more strongly into the public consciousness,” Annika Brockschmidt noted during her visit to the conference week.
The author of the book “America’s God Warriors and Arsonists” has been researching the religious right in the United States for many years. In her view, today’s American right is not centered around a homogeneous movement, but rather a strategic coalition. Evangelical Christians, right-wing populist actors, tech elites, and political hardliners are united by a common ideological denominator: “white Christian nationalism” .
But this way of thinking has long since ceased to be “a purely American phenomenon,” she said, pointing to international exchanges through think tanks, at conferences, or in politics: “International connections have existed for a very long time,” explained Annika Brockschmidt. This is not just about ideology, but also about concrete political strategies: “We have to see this as a kind of testing ground.” The globally organized network also has growing influence in Europe.
The role of the Vatican and Pope Leo XIV was also discussed in this context: “The concept of gender ideology is a term that was actually coined in the Vatican’s right-wing reactionary circles in the 1990s,” she explained. Nevertheless, positions within the Catholic Church are quite heterogeneous. A student pointed to a recent statement by Leo XIV: “A few days ago, there was a meeting between the Pope and Spanish bishops, during which he described the far right as the greatest danger to society,” he argued.
The discussion highlighted the breadth and complexity of the topic: One student, for example, wanted to know how stable the coalition of the American right is and whether cracks are already beginning to show. Annika Brockschmidt pointed to growing tensions: parts of the movement are attempting to strategically distance themselves from Donald Trump without fundamentally questioning his agenda—following the motto: “Trump promised you ‘America First,’ but he didn’t deliver.” The influence of social media was discussed particularly intensely. A student asked about platforms like TikTok. Annika Brockschmidt warned of structural effects: “Social media gives extreme content a built-in advantage. Users can end up exposed to far-right content within a short time.”