Trump’s Evangelist in Israel Won’t Let MAGA Rift Divert Him

capital of israel— piece chair ruff’s MAGA fusion wrestles with a deepening split over U.S. Support for Israel, his ambassador to the country, Mike Huckabee, knows exactly where he stands.

An evangelical Christian, Huckabee first visited Israel more than 50 years ago at 17 and was immediately taken with what he saw as a pioneering, scrappy democracy fighting for independence like early America. In the land of the Bible, he felt he was witnessing prophecies being fulfilled as Jews returned to their God-given homeland.

It was the first of more than 100 trips to the country, many of them with a tour company he ran that organized pilgrimages for tens of thousands of other evangelicals looking to strengthen their connection to the Holy Land.

“Unlike for some people who would be in culture shock, I feel very much at home. And I am very comfortable here, and I love it here,” Huckabee, 70 years old, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.

That unapologetic affection has left him out of step not only with diplomatic positions designed to balance support for Israel with Palestinian desires for statehood, but also with an increasingly vocal MAGA cohort that is skeptical of U.S. Support for Israel.

Commentators and political figures including Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) argue Israel is bending American policy away from U.S. National interests. On the other side are evangelical Christians, key donors like billionaire Miriam Adelson, and foreign-policy traditionalists who support a close Israel relationship as a cornerstone of U.S. Policy in the Middle East.

The rift has burst into the open, with Carlson, who like Huckabee once had his own Fox News show, debating Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) about America’s support for Israel and interviewing white nationalist Nick Fuentes on his podcast in late October. In the interview, Carlson took aim at Huckabee among a number of Republican supporters of Israel.

“Christian Zionists—like, what is that?” Carlson said. “I can just say for myself, I dislike them more than anybody…because it’s Christian heresy, and I’m offended by that as a Christian.”

The debate is raising questions about the durability of America’s support for Israel at a time when the heavy toll of Israel’s military operations during the war in Gaza has already alienated many voters on the left. Israel depends heavily on the U.S. For supplies of weapons and has counted on American help to fend off missile and drone attacks from Iran.

Huckabee isn’t backing down.

“I’m very sad for Tucker, who has revealed a level of hate toward me and other Christians,” Huckabee said. “I’m not sure Tucker is the right person to give me a theology lesson or to define what a ‘real Christian’ is. I’ll leave that to God. Tucker should as well.”

Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate, is the first outspoken evangelical Christian leader to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Israel. He represents an administration that has dispensed with standard policy toward the country—instead recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem in Trump’s first term—without setting clear guidelines for what comes next.

His appointment has energized a key Republican constituency. Evangelical Protestants make up nearly a quarter of U.S. Adults, and white evangelicals were among the Trump ticket’s strongest supporters, with more than 85% giving it their votes in November 2024, according to a postelection survey from the Public Religion Research Institute.

Current and former U.S. Officials said Huckabee’s ambassadorship is in part thanks to Adelson, who donated around $100 million to the president’s election campaign and lobbied Trump to give him the job. Adelson didn’t respond to a request for comment.

According to Pew Research Center polling conducted in March, 72% of white evangelicals have a favorable opinion of Israel, virtually equal to the approval rate among Jews, at 73%. By comparison, less than half of U.S. Adults and only 45% of Catholics say they view Israel favorably.

Trump and Vice President JD Vance each nodded to that important evangelical constituency in recent trips to Israel. “The God who once dwelled among His people in this city still calls us in the words of Scripture,” the president said in a speech at Israel’s parliament in October.

But that support is aging out, while views of Israel like Carlson’s are gaining traction. Although 69% of older evangelical Republicans say their sympathies lie more with Israelis than with Palestinians in the conflict, only about 32% of those in the 18-34 age group agree, according to polling this summer by the University of Maryland.

In February, as Huckabee was preparing to be confirmed by the Senate as ambassador, he was interviewed by Charlie Kirk. They discussed the drop in support for Israel among Americans, particularly young Christians.

“What troubles me is that many young people have been raised in churches that kind of gave them a soft shoe on the Bible,” Huckabee said on the show.

Richard Land, a longtime president of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention who says he has known Huckabee since the late 1970s, has similar concerns.

“There is a generational divide,” said Land, who is in his late 70s. “If this trend continues, Mr. Trump may be the last strongly pro-Israel president.”

Israel has deep spiritual significance for many evangelicals. The connection is rooted in biblical prophecy and verses identifying Jews as God’s chosen people. Though interpretations vary, many evangelicals believe establishing a significant Jewish presence in Israel will precipitate the end times, including the return of Jesus to defeat evil and establish his kingdom on Earth.

“If God does not keep his promises to the Jews, how do I know he will keep his promises to me?” evangelical thinking goes, Land said. “Supporting Israel means that we are going to be advocating policies for which God will bless the United States.”

Huckabee grew up in poverty in a small Arkansas town, where he attended a Missionary Baptist church. The wealthy father of a teenage friend paid for Huckabee’s first trip to Israel so the friend wouldn’t have to travel alone. The pair arrived in the country just months before the Yom Kippur war in 1973, when a surprise attack by Egypt and Syria overran Israel’s front line.

The trip inspired him to eventually build a business, Blue Diamond Travel, that brought religious pilgrims on similar trips. He has described how Americans who joined his tours fell in love with Israel the way he did and became advocates for the country.

“Christian heritage is built upon a Jewish foundation,” Huckabee told the Journal. “Without the Jewish foundation, there is no Christian faith.”

Huckabee said he divested his interest in Blue Diamond Travel to his son before he was confirmed as ambassador.

As ambassador, Huckabee has been an extraordinarily strong advocate of Israel’s interests. He has made several visits to Israeli settlements in the West Bank and has long pushed back against the view in much of the world that they are illegal.

“There’s no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria,” he said in 2017, using the biblical term for the territory, to which he said Israel has the title deed. “There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.” He has also questioned the notion of a distinct Palestinian identity.

His comments have antagonized supporters of a Palestinian state and drawn concern from some former U.S. Officials.

Huckabee stood by all those comments in his interview with the Journal. Regarding annexation of the West Bank, which the U.S. Has long opposed, he said, “It’s really a decision for people here to make.”

“You can’t separate who you are, what your values are, what your worldview is, and I don’t try to separate mine from who I am,” Huckabee said in the interview. “When I make a speech, you know, I don’t try to make it in some sterile way as if I don’t have any views. Of course I do, and I express those, because I think that is an honest thing that one should do.”

Write to Omar Abdel-Baqui at omar.abdel-baqui@wsj.com

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