Thank God for the President: Explaining Leader-centered Flattery in Democracies

Why do political elites engage in exaggerated, personalized praise of their leader? Existing research highlights top-down career incentives in authoritarian regimes but struggles to explain similar behavior in democracies. Focusing on the United States, we argue that Republican lawmakers use effusive praise of Donald Trump to signal loyalty to a key segment of the party’s base: evangelical Christians. Evangelical Republicans who compete in evangelical-heavy districts are especially likely to adopt this strategy, as the religious subculture provides a moral framework for justifying Trump’s agenda. Analyzing over 90,000 Trump-related tweets from 276 Republican members of the 119th U.S. Congress, we find that evangelical lawmakers produce significantly more flattery, especially in evangelical-heavy districts. A difference-in-differences design exploiting Trump’s 2024 primary victories shows that evangelicals increased their praise precisely when electoral incentives intensified. Our theory illuminates how populist leaders can leverage bottom-up religious mobilization to consolidate personal rule and erode democratic institutions.