(RNS) — Christianity Today’s Marvin Olasky recently called the passage of Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” the “final burial of compassionate conservatism.” It was a telling statement coming from the former University of Texas journalism professor whose work inspired the “compassionate conservative” theme of George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign.
Bush gave his first speech on compassionate conservatism in 1999 in Indianapolis. He promised, if elected president, to put $8 billion into the federal budget for compassion-oriented programs and policies. Congress never appropriated the money, forcing Bush to advance his new brand of conservatism through executive orders that established centers for faith-based and community initiatives in five executive departments.
The goal was to use the power of the federal government to fund faith-based charities working with the poor. This was Bush’s version of Christian nationalism. He believed that a society defined by the teachings of Jesus would bring aid to the most vulnerable members of society. He took on the libertarian, business wing of the GOP: “My party has confused the need for limited government with a disdain for government itself.”
In his speech accepting the GOP nomination for president, Bush committed to shoring up Medicare. He told stories about the hopeless people he met at faith-based ministries and organizations. He called upon the American people to consider their responsibilities to these men, women and children — the poor, the immigrants and the addicts.
When social ills are not confronted, Bush said, “we are all diminished.” It was time to “tear down the wall” that separated the rich and the poor, the privileged and the “trapped.”
Several months later, on Jan. 20, 2001, Bush delivered his inaugural address. With the help of evangelical speechwriter Michael Gerson, the new president seasoned his compassionate message with Christian language and biblical references. He challenged the country to encounter people as God does, as men and women made in God’s image.
Olasky once told Bush that “compassion” meant literally “to suffer with.” The president got the message. His speech invoked the parable of the good Samaritan. “I can pledge our nation to a goal. When we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side.”
Two years later, at his 2003 State of the Union address, Bush unveiled his Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (which became known as the Presidential Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR). He gave Congress and the American people the relative statistics: 30 million dead in Africa from AIDS, including 3 million children; African nations where one-third of the adult population had HIV; 4 million in need of immediate drug treatment, but only 50,000 receiving medicines.
Bush’s words, again written by Gerson, echoed through the House chamber: “Ladies and gentlemen, seldom has history offered a greater opportunity to do so much for so many.” He described PEPFAR as a “work of mercy.”
Bush asked for $15 billion in spending over the next five years to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. Congress obliged this time. PEPFAR became one of the greatest humanitarian efforts in global history.
A lot has changed in the GOP over the last quarter century.
There is little compassion in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” The bill will cause millions of people to lose their health care. Its expansion to the Child Tax Credit will only benefit middle- and high-income families. The bill provides money to complete Trump’s border wall but does little for immigrant families. The bill’s cuts to clean energy incentives will lead to more pollution, harming children and the unborn.
Demonstrators display signs at a Moral Mondays rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court, June 2, 2025, in Washington. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)
And what about PEPFAR? The federal government distributed this humanitarian program through the U.S. Agency for International Development. Today, USAID is all but closed, a victim of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency budget cuts.
Middle-class evangelicals who share the faith of George W. Bush are some of the strongest supporters of both Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and the DOGE cuts that led to the dismantling of USAID. Most of them will enjoy their tax cuts and try not to think too much about the people who will suffer as a result of these initiatives.
In the early morning hours of July 3, House Speaker Mike Johnson brought four GOP holdouts onto the floor and, to win their votes, prayed with them. What exactly did they pray for? How did it square with the teachings of the New Testament?
Maybe they were praying that America would become a Christian nation.
(John Fea is Distinguished Professor of History at Messiah University and a fellow in history at the Lumen Center in Madison, Wisconsin. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)
