At a recent gathering of California Republicans, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas found himself on camera skirting a simple question.
Would the senator be willing to repeat the phrase “Christ is king?” asked Dennis Feitosa, 41, a Republican running for a Los Angeles congressional seat.
“Look, let me explain my hesitancy,” Mr. Cruz began. A practicing Christian and Southern Baptist, he went on to repeat a loosely-worded variation of the phrase, adding that the expression was associated with a “weird online phenomenon.”
“There are some using it in a hateful way,” Mr. Cruz explained during the awkward exchange, which has been viewed over a million times on social media.
The three-word declaration “Christ is king” may sound like a harmless statement of Christian values. But lately it has become the locus of a thorny linguistic debate. On one side sit supporters of America First-style politics, who embrace a nationalism centered on Christian belief and whose loudest voices include the commentators Candace Owens and Nicholas J. Fuentes, both known for their antisemitic views; on the other are conservatives like Mr. Cruz, who believe that the phrase has been weaponized against Jews.
Across the online realm of the far right, the phrase is commonplace, embedded in posts and bandied about on podcasts. On platforms like X, MAGA influencers and young America First conservatives alike can be found posting it as a neutral proclamation.
Political candidates running on America First platforms, such as James Fishback, a Republican candidate for governor in Florida, commonly use the phrase in their campaign posts. Many young conservatives paste it into their social media bios, often accompanied by an emoji of the Latin cross. And even Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who frequently invokes divine imagery while justifying military action, uttered the phrase during a speech in February.
But the expression has an eye-of-the-beholder quality and can be seen just as frequently in bigoted screeds from more extreme voices. Jake Shields, an MMA fighter turned right-wing podcaster, has used it in a troll-like way against Jews and Muslims.
“I use Christ is King because it makes Jews angry,” he wrote once on X.
Since 2024, Ms. Owens, a conspiracy-minded pundit and a recent convert to Catholicism, has used it habitually — in the manner of a coda — in her high-profile feuds with other conservative commentators and in her attacks against Brigitte Macron.
The flare-up over this phraseology comes during a long-running dispute within the Republican Party over mounting antisemitism within its ranks. Young Republicans, in recent months, have been linked to group chats praising Hitler and sharing bigoted remarks against Jews.
What’s emerged is a still unsettled tug of war between a younger cohort of conservatives, drawn to Christian traditionalism and increasingly skeptical of America’s ties to Israel, who view “Christ is king” as a declaration of their faith and political leanings, while an older set of Republicans, firm in their support for the Jewish state, view the phrase as an antisemitic provocation.
Critics have called it a “dialectical trap” intended to “other” Jewish conservatives and drive them out of the right.
In a recent interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Mr. Cruz said that saying “Christ is king” is just one way of saying “I hate Jews.” (Mr. Cruz did not respond to requests to comment for this article.)
Alex Bruesewitz, a 29-year-old MAGA influencer who was a former adviser to President Trump’s 2024 campaign, defended the phrase in response to Mr. Cruz’s condemnation. “It’s not ‘antisemitic’ to say that Christ IS King,” Mr. Bruesewitz posted on X. “It’s the truth.”
The expression has deep ties to the Catholic Church, having been first popularized by Pope Pius XI in 1925 as a response to rising nationalist sentiment. In contemporary times, it has largely fallen out of use.
“The idea that Christ is king is nothing new to the church,” said Mike Cosper, a Christian journalist and podcaster, who noted that the phrase can also be found in texts from the Protestant Reformation. “But it’s not exactly a common phrase in today’s church, and I’m not even sure why the far right has latched onto this particular expression.”
To Mr. Cosper, “Christ is king,” as the phrase is used today, has been largely stripped of any doctrinal meaning and reshaped into a “hostile” cultural signifier.
An analysis conducted last year by the Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University, which studies online extremism, found that the expression surged in popularity among far-right users on social media beginning in 2024. The report also noted a 400 percent increase in its use over the past decade, and said that users of the phrase often paired it with discriminatory language directed against Jews and Muslims.
Its more recent re-emergence as a hyper-politicized idiom has largely been because of Ms. Owens and Mr. Fuentes, who have transformed an esoteric religious declaration into their own digital clarion call.
Mr. Fuentes’s followers are known at public marches and political conferences to break into chants of “Christ is king” in the style of a macho sports slogan. Mr. Fuentes has been unambiguous about why he says it: “It’s a very quick way to identify who is with us, and who is a part of the church and the body of Christ, and who’s outside of it,” he explained last year during a livestream.
He added: “‘Christ is king’ is something Jewish people cannot participate in.”
Joel Finkelstein, one of the authors of the Network Contagion Research Institute report, said the phrase had been co-opted by a subset of “bad actors” on the right who had turned it into a “loyalty test.”
“It creates a shibboleth,” Dr. Finkelstein said, “which is necessarily exclusionary and used to beat opponents over the head with.”
On the far right, those who use “Christ is king” admit that the expression is intended to be used as a wedge. But they insist that this doesn’t amount to antisemitism.
Elijah Schaffer, a far-right influencer who hosts the podcast “Slightly Offensive,” makes frequent use of “Christ is king,” often slotting the phrase into his posts on X like a glib non sequitur.
He recalled first hearing it used in a political context by supporters of Mr. Fuentes during a “Stop the Steal” rally in 2020.
A vocal supporter of America First ideology and a professed Christian, Mr. Schaffer did not see anything offensive in the saying.
“It’s not about eradicating Jewish people or disenfranchising their right to exist, it’s a statement that re-establishes the hierarchy of Christianity as supreme ideology above loyalty to Israel and to Judaism,” he said in a phone interview, comparing the expression to something of a greeting among far-right adherents.
“And there’s nothing wrong with that,” Mr. Schaffer added.
Some of the right’s younger rank and file, who increasingly intertwine their Christian faith with America First stances, particularly on the topic of foreign influence, are frustrated that the term is now linked to Mr. Fuentes and his ilk.
Nate Fagen, 22, a conservative content creator who posts about “biblical masculinity,” described the phrase “Christ is king” as the “most true statement in my life.” But he believes that Mr. Fuentes has “hijacked” what he considers to be a pure statement of faith and turned it into something that doesn’t reflect the teachings of Jesus Christ.
“It’s being used as a troll sort of comment,” Mr. Fagen said. “When I think of how Nick uses it, he’ll say something absolutely disgusting. He’ll use the N-word, for instance. And then, in the same sentence, he’ll say, ‘Christ is king.’”
He added, “I don’t think that should be used as something political, but it should influence politics, if that makes sense.”
The toxicity of the phrase within certain conservative circles has led to professional blowback for some who use it. Ms. Owens is said to have been fired from The Daily Wire in 2024 for her repeated use of “Christ is king,” according to Andrew Klavan, a host for the conservative website. (Through her publicist, Ms. Owens declined to comment.)
In February, Carrie Prejean Boller, a MAGA influencer, was removed from President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, which had gathered to discuss the rise of antisemitism, after she sparred with fellow appointees over the meaning of the phrase.
As this debate drags out, some conservatives have begun to express a familiar wariness over the policing of language. As they see it, the right, which has long claimed to be a shelter for controversial thought and free speech, is now dictating what can or cannot be said.
It was this thought that was on the mind of Mr. Feitosa, the Republican who cornered Mr. Cruz this month.
“I was actually kind of taken aback when I heard Senator Cruz say that it was antisemitic,” Mr. Feitosa said in a phone interview. “I was very confused to see somebody in my party say something like that.”
A former content creator who would post about America First topics, Mr. Feitosa described himself as a lifelong Catholic and said that the expression had “always been there” throughout his upbringing in the church.
As for there being ill-intent behind his run-in with the Senator?
Mr. Feitosa claimed innocence.
“I was curious to see if he would say it,” Mr. Feitosa said. “This question came from a place of faith.”
He added: “We agreed to disagree, and that’s reasonable. But I do disagree with him. It shouldn’t be controversial to say it. Christ is king. You should be able to say it.”
Nathan Taylor Pemberton is a reporter covering politics and culture for The Times.
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