David T. Buckley's <i>Blessing America First</i> is a hugely important book. It sheds so much light on areas that have received little academic and journalistic attention: the growing role of religion in American diplomacy over a long period and the radical substantive and bureaucratic transformations around these issues during the Trump years. This is also an extraordinary participant-observer study, since Buckley was able to see the transition between the Obama and Trump administrations firsthand as an academic fellow in the State Department. Buckley’s account—smart, eye-opening, and constructive—deserves a very wide audience. And here’s hoping that future policymakers pay attention to his guidance.

- E. J. Dionne Jr., author of <i>Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country</i>,

Weaving firsthand personal experience with dispassionate scholarly analysis and methodological rigor, Buckley’s book offers a masterful account of the Trump presidency’s populist approach to religion in foreign policy. Highly recommended to students, scholars, policymakers, and anyone interested in the evolving nexus among faith, politics, and American diplomacy.

- Gregorio Bettiza, author of <i>Finding Faith in Foreign Policy: Religion and American Diplomacy in a Postsecular World</i>,

Buckley's <i>Blessing American First </i>is an important addition to our understanding of religion and populism. It is one of the first academic analyses that questions the narrow approach of Trump politics as Christian nationalism that dominates the scholarship. It also investigates the neglected international dimension of Trump’s populism. It is a must-read for scholars and students of religion and politics.

- Jocelyne Cesari, University of Birmingham and Georgetown University,