Story highlights Trump's moves on religion dovetail with other initiatives appealing to staunch conservatives

Much of Trump's evangelical support last year appeared to derive not from who he is but rather who he was not

Washington (CNN) In recent weeks, the Trump administration has plunged into fights long sought by the religious right, issuing a 25-page memo bolstering legal protections for people of faith, rolling back employers' requirement for birth-control coverage and reversing a policy that included LGBT employees under US anti-discrimination law.

"I pledged that, in a Trump administration, our nation's religious heritage would be cherished, protected, and defended like you have never seen before," President Donald Trump said on Friday at the Values Voter Summit in Washington. "That's what's happening. ... We are stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values."

Overall, the Trump administration has revved up the culture wars, appealing to religious conservatives and recalling elements of President Ronald Reagan's administration which emphasized positions against abortion rights and for school prayer, and, in one of his Justice Department's first moves, sought tax-exempt status for the fundamentalist Christian Bob Jones University in South Carolina, despite its racially discriminatory practices.

As candidates, both Trump in 2016 and Reagan in 1980, won office with significant support from white religious conservatives.

Trump, however, drew a greater percentage and now seems even more intent on catering to that constituency.

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