(RNS) — In a speech last week to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, President Donald Trump announced an executive order creating a new task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias” in the federal government. He promised his administration would “move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.”
These promises from Trump aren’t surprising. For decades, the political right has tried to claim the mantle of defenders of religious freedom, crying wolf about “government overreach” and “the left” attacking religious institutions. In his speech, Trump claimed that the Democratic Party “opposes religion. They oppose God.”
In reality, now that it has once again taken power, it’s the political right and its Christian nationalist allies who are proving to be a grave threat to faith communities — including most Christians. In just its first few weeks since taking office, the Trump administration has quickly become the most harmful to religious freedom in modern American history.
In shocking fashion, Trump, his close ally Elon Musk and their entire administration have marshaled government resources and used their bully pulpit to attack individual faith leaders and major religious institutions.
With his executive order rescinding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection guidance that prevented armed government agents from entering houses of worship without prior authorization, Trump has exposed sanctuaries to desecration and violence — outraging faith communities across the board. A number of Quaker groups are suing the administration to overturn the policy on religious freedom grounds. The top Southern Baptist public policy official warned that the policy change will cause immigrants to “be fearful to attend our churches, and our central mission of Gospel proclamation and biblical formation will be inhibited.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a rare statement, declaring, “We follow Jesus Christ by loving our neighbors. The Savior taught that the meaning of ‘neighbor’ includes all of God’s children.”
While these Christian communities appeal to the fundamental concepts of mercy and care for their neighbors, Trump couldn’t care less. When the Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the bishop of Washington for the Episcopal Church, bravely included a plea for mercy for immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community in her sermon at the Washington National Cathedral’s inaugural prayer service on Jan. 21, Trump’s administration rallied his base to harass, bully and threaten her. His allies in Congress drafted a resolution condemning Budde.
Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during the inaugural parade inside Capitol One Arena, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Video screen grab)
Other communities have been impugned, mocked and threatened. Musk, whose own companies receive billions of taxpayer dollars, singled out Lutheran-affiliated social service agencies and falsely accused them of illegality. Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, issued a strong denunciation of the attacks — referencing the Roman Empire’s persecution of Christians in 258.
Musk’s attacks on the Lutheran-affiliated social service agencies followed on what appeared to be his fascist salute at Trump’s inaugural rally, Holocaust jokes made online and a speech to a far-right German political party calling for Germany to “move beyond past guilt” over the Holocaust. All of this has horrified and alarmed Jewish Americans. “We know precisely where this extremist behavior leads, normalizing and emboldening avowed neo-Nazis and white supremacists who take this as a stamp of approval for their targeting of Jews, immigrants, people of color and so many others,” warned Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
Vice President JD Vance delivered one of the ugliest attacks on the Catholic Church by a political leader in modern American history. He suggested Catholic bishops are out for financial gain rather than serving the vulnerable: “I think that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line?”
While they mock the work of faith-based relief charities, the Trump administration’s blanket pause on foreign assistance will limit the good work these agencies can conduct. USAID’s top NGO nonmilitary foreign assistance grant recipient from fiscal years 2013 to 2022 was Catholic Relief Services, receiving $4.6 billion, while the Christian relief group World Vision received $1.2 billion.
Demonstrators and lawmakers rally Feb. 5, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., against President Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk over their disruptions of the federal government, including dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, which administers foreign aid approved by Congress. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
The aborted OMB memo freezing funds across the federal government would also have terrible consequences for religious institutions, including those whose safety and security measures are dependent on funds from the Department of Homeland Security’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
All of these dangerous policies and vitriolic attacks targeting faith communities have taken place in just a few short weeks. There’s certain to be much more to come as the Trump administration takes aim at fundamental principles of religious diversity and equality and rolls back critical civil rights protections guaranteeing equal treatment under the law. We have yet to see the far-reaching impact on religious communities of Trump’s attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, but already a Christian-affinity group formed during the first Trump administration at the State Department has suspended its operations in response due to the anti-DEI executive order.
If this track record is any indication, Trump’s new “task force” won’t make Christians or anyone else safer or freer. Instead, it’s likely to be just another tool for persecution and publicity stunts that undermine religious freedom in America, cravenly using religion for political gain.
Trump often tries to obscure his attacks on religious freedom by citing his support from Christian nationalist allies. But in truth, he is a false prophet claiming he acts to protect religion while he systematically attacks it.
Throughout history, authoritarians have attempted to force faith communities to bend the knee. We must stand strong and speak out knowing that faith-based activism is a powerful counterforce to extremism.
(The Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush is president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance and an ordained Baptist minister. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)