Senior Republican politician and former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has said she believes God raised up Donald Trump to win the US presidential election.

Bachmann, who retired last year and serves as one of Trump's evangelical advisers, said in an interview with The Brody File released yesterday: "This is one thing I know from the Book of Daniel: the bottom line of the Book of Daniel is this: it teaches us that the most high God lifts up who he will and takes down who he will."

In comments reported by The Hill, she continued: "I actually supported Ted Cruz. I thought he was fabulous but I also see that at the end of the day God raised up, I believe Donald Trump who was going to be the nominee in this election. I don't think God sits things out. He's a sovereign God. Donald Trump became our nominee."

Bachmann said: "I think it's very likely that in the day that we live in, that Donald Trump is the only individual who could win in a General Election of the seventeen who ran. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know but I do know that the Bible is true and that Daniel teaches the most high God which is one of God's names is the one who lifts up who he will and takes down who he will..."

She said Trump's advisers were "solid as a rock" in terms of their Christian values, in contrast to those surrounding President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

White evangelicals overwhelmingly support Trump, though many evangelical leaders have expressed serious misgivings about his candidacy. In the party at large his support is far from solid: a Huffington Post/YouGov poll released on Monday found that 54 per cent of Republican-leaning voters believe Trump is not the best choice as the party's nominee.