For years, Donald Trump has enjoyed an extraordinary level of loyalty from America’s religious conservatives, winning over evangelical Christians and many Catholic voters despite a personal life that has often sat uneasily alongside the values they publicly champion.
Even as the President’s rhetoric and conduct have repeatedly courted controversy, many within the Republican Party have remained reluctant to publicly break with him.
That reluctance now appears to be softening.
The arrest of a Catholic nun by US immigration agents has become the latest flashpoint exposing growing unease among Republican politicians, with several moving swiftly to distance themselves from an administration whose hardline immigration agenda they have long supported.
The backlash has fuelled a wider debate over whether Trump’s political grip on his own party is beginning to loosen.
