U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would create a White House faith office and direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead a task force on eradicating what he called anti-Christian bias within the federal government.
Trump delivered remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast at the U.S. Capitol and used his speech to call for “unity”, telling lawmakers his relationship with religion has “changed” after a pair of failed assassination attempts last year.
At a second prayer breakfast in Washington, Trump struck a more partisan tone, took a victory lap for getting “rid of woke over the last two weeks” and announced steps to protect Christians from what he said was religious discrimination.
“The mission of this task force will be to immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI and other agencies,” Trump said.
He vowed his attorney general would work to “fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.”
The president did not cite specific examples of anti-Christian bias during his remarks but has previously claimed that the Biden administration used the federal government to target Christians specifically.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to establish the task force and its responsibilities, which include recommending steps to terminate “violative policies, practices, or conduct.”
Biden’s administration announced a strategy in December for countering anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry, and a similar plan to fight antisemitism in September 2023.
The actions announced on Thursday could pose constitutional questions about the separation of church and state, with the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment limiting government endorsement of religion.
Trump, who has become the de facto figurehead of conservative American Christianity, has repeatedly invoked a religious anointing since he survived an assassination attempt last year. “Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason,” Trump has told supporters at events around the country.
In the last three election cycles, White evangelical Christian voters, who make up a critical piece of the Republican base, have supported Trump. He has embraced the conservative Christian world view and policies that speak to the bloc’s anxiety about changing gender norms and family patterns.
The president on Thursday also announced he will create a White House Faith Office, led by Rev. Paula White, who has served as a religious adviser to him for many years.
Trump established a similar office at the White House during his first term and regularly consulted with a tight group of evangelical advisers.
Trump also said he would create a new commission on religious liberty, and criticized the Biden administration for the “persecution” of believers for prosecuting anti-abortion advocates.
“If we don’t have religious liberty, then we don’t have a free country,” he said.
In 2023, the National Prayer Breakfast split into two events, the one on Capitol Hill attended by lawmakers and a separate private event for thousands at a hotel ballroom after some lawmakers sought to distance themselves from the private religious group following questions over how it was run and funded.
(Reuters)
