For years, North Korea’s and Iraq’s dictators have tortured and imprisoned their enemies; lived lavish lifestyles as their citizens starve; and fomented terrorism. Yet in the past month, President Trump has cancelled the United State’s nuclear arms agreement with Iran, criticizing its leaders as the primary catalyst of Islamic terrorism. But he has engaged the North Korean leader in denuclearization talks, praising the dictator as an honest man who cares for his people. All while waging a rhetorical and trade war with Canada, Mexico, and our European leaders.

Certainly, circumstances could partially explain these differing approaches to equally bad actors. Maybe President Trump believes that he can wield his charm and undying respect for authoritarian leaders to encourage Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un to destroy his nuclear weapons in return for fast food joints and other businesses investing in North Korea. He might also believe that the Iranian Islamofascist leaders, with strengthened sanctions and covert meddling, will be ousted before they gain access to nuclear weapons.

But these explanations don’t fully account for President Trump’s failure to try to use his authoritarian charm to cajole Iranian leaders. Nor does it explain why most Republicans strongly support these different approaches, as they have criticized Democrats for being too soft on North Korea, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and other dictatorships that President Trump has praised at the expense of our democratic allies.

Conservative Christians, President Trump’s most loyal supporters, provide a missing link. For many of them devoured Tim Lahaye’s and Joel C. Rosenberg’s series based on their interpretation of Bible prophecies concerning the days before and after the end of the world. The beliefs in these books, reinforced by sermons, films, and video games, describe how God will rescue His true believers from an increasingly sinful world. He will then give authority to the Antichrist, who, through Christ-like miracles and diplomacy, will cause fake peace and real misery before Jesus and his followers, in the nick of time, will arrive on white horses to save the world. The good guys, under Jesus’ leadership, will then rule with a “rod of iron” after Jesus sends all of their enemies to everlasting torture in Hell.

While end-of-the-world experts disagree on details, they agree that Jerusalem, Israel is the center of the world, with God blessing its supporters and cursing its enemies. They believe that the Antichrist’s power base will come from Western Europe. They are absolutely confident that they will win at the expense of everyone else.

As Donald Trump galloped to victory, most conservative Christians trumpeted his entrance into the Christian faith, with some proclaiming him as a forerunner to the Messiah. Many compare him with King David, the beloved King of Israel, but as his greedy arrogance becomes harder to ignore, more are comparing him to Artaxerxes, the non-believing Persian king who allowed Israeli leaders to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem well before Jesus was born.

President Trump, along with Christianofascists John Bolton, Sean Hannity, and others, has moved quickly to please his Christianofascist end-of-the-world supporters. He recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital while robotically supporting Israel’s military and law-enforcement actions. He has given the military more license to kill Muslims and destroy their property while providing arms to Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Islamofascist allies to destroy the more evil Shia theocracies. He has pulled out of the nuclear arms agreement with Iran, hoping to exert enough pressure to affect the downfall of the current Iranian leadership. He has started to separate us from our European allies, as Europe is where preparations are being made for the Antichrist’s arrival. And this tilt towards autocracies will begin to prepare us for Jesus Christ’s second coming, as He will rule as a benevolent dictator instead of a proponent of liberty.

As for North Korea: after threatening it with never-before-seen death and destruction, President Trump has made nice to Supreme Leader Jong-un, perhaps after learning from conservative Christian representatives that an attack on North Korea would lead to the potential deaths of hundreds of thousands of South Korean Christians.

For lives of Christians are far more important than those who worship Allah, that other God?

God bless the United States of America.