In this episode of The Powell House Press, an examination of how faith and religious identity have become tools of financial and political leverage at the highest levels of American power.
On one side, Donald Trump has built a lucrative operation around evangelical Christianity — selling bibles, branded merchandise, and casting himself as a defender of the faithful, while framing any legal or political scrutiny as religious persecution. On the other, the Kushner family has monetized their Jewish identity and proximity to power in ways that blur the line between belief, access, and influence — parlaying White House relationships into foreign investment deals worth billions.
Neither phenomenon arrived in a vacuum. For decades, the prosperity gospel laid the cultural groundwork — a theological framework that equates financial giving with divine favor, enriching preachers and insulating them from accountability behind a shield of perceived persecution. What was once the domain of televangelists has now migrated directly into politics.
