President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he wants to root out “anti-Christian bias” in the US, announcing that he was forming a task force led by attorney general Pam Bondi to investigate the “targeting” of Christians.
Speaking at a pair of events in Washington surrounding the the national prayer breakfast, Mr Trump said the task force would be directed 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 – terrible – and other agencies.”
Mr Trump said Ms Bondi would also 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”.
An hour after calling for “unity” on Capitol Hill, though, Mr Trump struck a more partisan tone at the second event across town, announcing that, in addition to the task force, he was forming a commission on religious liberty, criticising the Biden administration for “persecution” of believers for prosecuting anti-abortion advocates.
And Mr Trump took a victory lap over his early administration efforts to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion programmes and to limit transgender participation in women’s sports.
“I don’t know if you’ve been watching, but we got rid of woke over the last two weeks,” he said. “Woke is gone-zo.”
Mr Trump said at the Capitol that he believes people “can’t be happy without religion, without that belief. Let’s bring religion back. Let’s bring God back into our lives.”
The Reverend Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, a Baptist minister and head of the progressive Interfaith Alliance, accused Trump of hypocrisy in claiming to champion religion by creating the task force.
“From allowing immigration raids in churches, to targeting faith-based charities, to suppressing religious diversity, the Trump administration’s aggressive government overreach is infringing on religious freedom in a way we haven’t seen for generations,” Mr Raushenbush said in a statement.
Kelly Shackelford, head of First Liberty Institute, a conservative Christian legal organisation, disagreed, praising the creation of the task force and religious liberty commission.
“All Americans should be free to exercise their faith without government intrusion in school, in the military, in the workplace, and in the public square.
“We are ready to stand with President Trump to ensure that the religious liberty of every American is safe and secure,” Ms Shackelford said in a statement.
Trump also announced the creation of a White House faith office led by Paula White-Cain, a long-time pastor in the independent charismatic world.
An early supporter of Trump’s 2016 presidency bid, she led Trump’s Faith and Opportunity Initiative in 2019, advising faith-based organizations on ways to partner with the federal government.
At Thursday’s prayer breakfast, she praised him as “the greatest champion” any president has been “of religion, of faith and of God.”
