On election night, a Southern California pastor wearing a red MAGA hat filmed a message to his Instagram followers cheering for President-elect Donald Trump’s victory.
Rob McCoy thanked God and Charlie Kirk, one of the most influential power brokers in the Republican Party.
“This is the epicenter of freedom renewal,” McCoy said from the Phoenix headquarters of Kirk’s group, Turning Point USA.
Kirk, a 31-year-old conservative flame-monger, rallied his millions of online followers to support Trump, prompting conservative podcast host Megyn Kelly to say: House of Representatives and US Senate. ”
The Atlantic called Kirk “the right’s new kingmaker.”
And the man the Kingmakers refer to as their pastor is McCoy of Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Newbury Park.
God saved us
— Rob McCoy on Donald Trump’s victory
McCoy gained notoriety during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic by defying public health orders and continuing to hold indoor church services without masks.
He sees in Trump a man persecuted by the left, a man who, despite being “just as flawed as the rest of us,” condones too many abortions and embraces transgender rights too much. He sees himself as a man chosen by God to lead a sinful nation.
“God saved us,” McCoy told the congregation in his first sermon after Trump’s victory. “He gave us mercy. We didn’t deserve this.”
McCoy, a vaccine skeptic who has been the lead pastor at Godspeak for 25 years, said he thinks Trump’s choice of anti-vaxxer activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services is “a good person,” according to the Times. told the paper. My friend. ” His church has hosted MAGA figures such as Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn. And of course, Kirk.
Charlie Kirk, founder and executive director of Turning Point USA, speaks at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.
(Jason Almond/Los Angeles Times)
Kirk, a billionaire known for his memes and “getting free” college campus tours, said it was McCoy who convinced him to fuse right-wing politics, nationalism and evangelical beliefs. I believe that.
Mr. Kirk founded Turning Point USA in 2012 as an avowedly secular youth organization, but now God is on the side of American conservatives and pastors have been asked to believe that God is on the side of American conservatives and preach against progressive policies. declares that there is an obligation. “There is no separation of church and state,” he said.
“Democrats stand for everything that God hates,” Kirk said in a speech to Trump supporters in Georgia last month, adding, “There is a spiritual battle going on all around us.” said.
Kirk’s online reach is vast, with 1.5 million followers on Rumble, 2.7 million on YouTube, 4 million on X, and 5 million on TikTok. His nonprofit organization, Turning Point Action, ran Trump’s ground campaign primarily in battleground states like Arizona and Wisconsin.
After Trump’s victory, McCoy joked from the pulpit, “This week, Charlie’s going back to Washington to meet the president, because he’s going to bring in Marker.”
Kirk has posted on social media in recent days from his Mar-a-Lago mansion, where President-elect Trump is nominating MAGA supporters to his cabinet. After President Trump nominated former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz to be attorney general, Kirk posted a video to X from the passenger seat of his car. Gates got behind the wheel and joked that his new job was “chauffeuring Charlie Kirk.”
Asked whether Kirk was advising the president-elect or being considered for a role in the administration, President Trump’s press secretary, Caroline Leavitt, said in a statement that Trump’s appointment was “determined. Further announcements will be made by Mr. Kirk in due course.”
McCoy ran unsuccessfully for the state Legislature in 2014. But as Mr. Kirk’s power grew, so did Mr. McCoy’s.
At the start of the pandemic in early April 2020, former Thousand Oaks Mayor McCoy resigned from the city council, saying he intended to violate public health orders banning in-person church services as unnecessary and dangerous.
He called Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom “newsolini,” accused government “tyranny,” and shut down his YouTube page as the platform cracked down on misleading and inaccurate content about the virus and vaccines. It was shut down — “censored,” he says.
After a judge in San Diego allowed strip clubs to reopen, McCoy followed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s suggestion that his church be an “essential” adult entertainment venue. In the sanctuary, people danced to strip music and threw neckties into the congregation, where worshipers held up dollar bills.
Ventura County sued McCoy Church for violating public health orders. The county ultimately dropped the lawsuit, but Godspeak countersued, claiming its First Amendment rights had been violated. In 2022, the state Court of Appeals sided with the county, but one effect of the pandemic was that the number of congregations quadrupled to about 1,500 people, McCoy said.
Although Kirk’s ability to speak at universities has been hampered by campus closures, he has been welcomed at churches like McCoy’s.
In a 2021 interview, Kirk said McCoy told him when they first met. There’s a lot about how we should talk to our leaders, and I think we should talk about it more publicly. ”
The Rev. Rob McCoy, pictured in 2020, resigned from the Thousand Oaks City Council in protest of government-imposed restrictions on gatherings during the pandemic.
(Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)
Three years ago, Kirk shared the power of his Turning Point brand with McCoy, who helped launch TPUSA Faith, which provides training and networking for pastors who want to be more politically outspoken. I cooperated.
Turning Point USA and TPUSA Faith did not respond to requests for comment from the Times.
Matthew Boddy, a professor of rhetoric and composition at the University of North Georgia, says, “Rob McCoy calls Charlie Kirk a symbol of Christian nationalism, specifically the Seven Mountains Mandate, that Christians should seek to influence the world. He is the person who changed this idea.” Seven Pillars of Cultural Influence: Arts and Entertainment, Business, Education, Family, Government, Media, and Religion.
Christian nationalism asserts that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and that Christianity should take precedence in government and law.
“Charlie Kirk has tremendous power in the evangelical world, in the Trump world, and nationally, and he’s putting tremendous resources into all seven areas of cultural influence,” Kirk said. said Bodhi, who is writing a book on the subject. “President Trump gave him the space to do it and allowed him to do it. But Rob McCoy was the one who convinced him to do it.”
In an interview with the Times, McCoy insisted he was “not a dominionist,” meaning he did not believe the country should be ruled by Christians. He said President Trump appears to be “exploring” and growing in his faith, but he has found success in each of the seven pillars and that God appears to be working through him.
“He’s the bull in the China shop,” McCoy said. “But he also keeps his word. … I’m not looking for a senior pastor. I’m looking for a bodyguard for Western civilization.”
McCoy, like pastors on both sides of the political spectrum, openly flouts the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 law that prohibits tax-exempt organizations from participating in political campaigns or endorsing candidates. . (Trump has said he wants to “completely destroy” the Johnson Amendment, which would require an act of Congress).
McCoy said he is tired of Christians saying, “We don’t do politics because it’s dirty, as if the rest of the world and themselves are pure.”
He also railed against the term “Christian nationalist,” saying there was nothing wrong with loving God and country at the same time.
Trump, whose polls show he won the support of eight in 10 white evangelical voters in this election, is one of many Republican politicians courting evangelicals. is.
But more than many other presidents, Trump has portrayed himself as God’s chosen protector of unjustly persecuted Christians, urging his supporters to “get you and get you.” “We’re standing between the secular left and the secular left,” said history professor Barry Hankins. He is a professor at Baylor University and has written a book on evangelicalism.
As the United States becomes more progressive and secular, while congregations shrink and age, Christians have lost much of their cultural power and many feel under attack, Hankins said. said.
“Trump is very good at sensing this and marketing and branding it for his own political purposes.”
The Republican platform, although vague on many topics, specifically states that the party will defend prayer and Bible reading in schools.
McCoy called Trump’s election a “miracle,” citing Trump’s ability to overcome indictments, setbacks and assassination attempts.
He likens Trump to Samson, a flawed Biblical figure who was used by God for a greater purpose. “He’s got the iconic hair and the femme fetish,” McCoy said of Samson. “Trump has iconic hair and female fetishes.”
When it comes to restricting abortion, President Trump has wavered on the issue, and while he’s not quite in the position the pastor would like, he has “done more for the pro-life movement than any president in modern history.” said McCoy.
Evangelical activists say they expect more from him. In a letter to the Trump transition team, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission urged President Trump to take steps to restrict access to the abortion drug mifepristone.
McCoy said Trump’s return to the White House marks a golden age for Trump and the TPUSA faith’s efforts to “remove wokeness” from the American church, including diversity efforts and critical race theory. He said he is looking forward to it.
He said he plans to start a podcast discussing politics. And next July, he will step down as Godspeak’s senior pastor to take on an increased role in the TPUSA faith (although he will still have a speaking role).
Days before the election, Mr. McCoy preached that if Mr. Trump lost, his “life would be ruined” because of the evils espoused by the left.
But after Trump’s victory, he changed his tune.
“Those who disagree with us are not our enemies,” he wrote on Instagram. “They are an opportunity.”
