In 2023, the Trump campaign hired Christian Nationalist Jackson Lane to recruit Christian Nationalists from across Iowa into a new part of the Trump political machine called the Iowa Faith Leader Coalition. The Iowa Faith Leader Coalition included many Christian Nationalists who have been telling their followers that there is a supernatural war taking place across America, with Donald Trump at the head of the armies of the Christian god.

One such member of Donald Trump’s Iowa Faith Leader Coalition, Katherine Watsey of Fire on the Altar Ministries out of Fairfield, Iowa, has been traveling across the Midwest, visiting churches as a guest preacher, telling audiences that the United States has been infested by an army of demonic sorcerers who have used dark spellwork to create a network of secret underground magical altars hidden across the country. These magical altars, Watsey says, are giving supernatural powers to worshippers of the ancient Babylonian god Baal, who is at war with the Christian god. Baal, she says, is really just a demon pretending to be a god.

This battle between the Christian god and evil American wizards working for the demon Baal, Watsey says, is what explains current political conflicts. Watsey has endorsed Donald Trump, and joined the Trump for President campaign’s Iowa Faith Leader Coalition, as a means of battling demons.

Donald Trump has, in turn, officially recognized the support of Katherine Watsey, and tacitly endorsed her battle against demons. Trump has welcomed Katherine Watsey as a Christian Nationalist leader into his campaign organization. It was through the centrally-organized political campaign work of hundreds of Christian Nationalists like Katherine Watsey, many of them declaring themselves to be at war against armies of demons who want Joe Biden to remain in the White House, that Donald Trump won the Iowa caucuses.

Now, in the wake of the Iowa caucuses, Donald Trump is bringing this story of his campaign being anointed by the Christian god in a magical war against demons to the rest of the nation. That’s where the extreme declarations by Eric Trump and his attorney Alina Habba come from. They weren’t spontaneous declarations inspired by a swelling of religious faith in the moment. They were part of a consistent plan by the Trump for President campaign to sustain the Christian Nationalist conspiracy theory that demons, evil sorcerers, and other dark magical powers are in control of Joe Biden, the Democratic Party, federal prosecutors and judges, and anyone else who dares to stand in the way of Donald Trump.