Christian Leaders Applaud Fascism At National Prayer Breakfast
The Jesus of Fury and Vengeance has arrived in Washington DC…
...making Christian Nationalism a cruel new government program.
A few days ago, Donald Trump gave a long and rambling speech at the 2025 National Prayer Breakfast, a privately-run, nongovernmental Christian Nationalist gathering. The following is what Trump said at the event:
“From the earliest days of our republic, faith in God has always been the ultimate source of the strength that beats in the hearts of our nation. We have to bring religion back. We have to bring it back much stronger. It's one of the biggest problems that we've had over the last fairly long period of time. So there could be nothing more beautiful than for us to gather in this majestic place, it is majestic, and reaffirm that America is and will always be one nation under God. At every stage of the American story, our country has drawn hope and courage and inspiration from our trust in the Almighty. Deep in the soul of every patriot is the knowledge that God has a special plan and a glorious mission for America, and that plan is going to happen. It's going to happen. I hope it happens sooner rather than later. It's going to happen, and it's his hand that guides us every single step of the way. And all of you and the things we have to do is to see the defining role that faith and prayer have played in the life of our nation. We see that with the Lord's help, the city stands taller and shines brighter than ever before, or at least it soon will. Without faith in God, there would be no American story. Every citizen should be proud of this exceptional heritage. We have an unbelievable heritage and we have to use that. And God was watching me. The chances of me being here, my sons are shooters. They're really good shooters, Don and Eric. And they said the chances of missing from that range with that gun are. But Don equated it to a one-foot putt. That's pretty bad. Two feet I can see missing, but one foot you can't miss. It was the equivalent of a one-foot putt is what he told me. He said, in fact, he gained some religion. He gained he went up 25 percent. So you never know. But God did that. I mean, it had to be the chances of turning. There's no reason to turn to the right. I feel even stronger. I believed in God, but I feel I feel many of you are very religious. I know so many of you are very religious. And I just think that our country has been so badly hurt. We're very hurt by what COVID did to religion. It really hurt it badly, but it is starting to come back. So today we join our hearts and prayers and recommitting to putting our country first. We have to put our country first, making America stronger and greater and more exceptional than ever before. And we have to make religion a much more important factor. Now we have to make it an important factor. If we do that, it's going to be our job is just going to be much easier. It unifies people and brings people together. We really have to get together. We all know what's right and what's wrong. And we have to unify. And God bless everybody. We want to come together and the happiest person, the element, the everything that's going to be happy. People of religion are going to be happy again. And I really believe you can't be happy without religion, without that belief. I really believe it. I just don't see how you can do. So let's bring religion back. Let's bring God back into our lives. Well, we want to bring religion back stronger, bigger, better than ever before. Very important. And this is a good start. This is really good. We have to have religion and it suffered greatly over the last few years, but it's coming back. It's coming back strong. And I want to thank you, Pastor Paula, who I have known for a long time. She's a fantastic person. And thanks to the thousands of believers here today from all across the country and from all around the world. They say, I can't run again. That's the expression, sir. Then somebody said, ‘I don't think you can.’ Oh, it's great to be back at the prayer breakfast. And I hope you all agree it's nice to once again have a president that shows up to the prayer breakfast, and that agrees to be interviewed for the Super Bowl. I'm doing that, too. From the very beginning of our republic, America has always been a nation founded by people of faith and strengthened by the power of prayer and united by four simple but very beautiful words: In God we trust, just like they don't want to say ‘Merry Christmas’, but now they say it. Remember, in 2016, I was a whole big part of my campaign. You’re going to say ‘Merry Christmas’. Well, now they do it again. But we I don't know if you've been watching, but we got rid of woke over the last two weeks. Woke is gone-zo, despite the other side stealing hundreds of millions of dollars to promote woke. Did you see what happened? And I have great respect for the people that are doing it. Elon Musk is helping us on it. He's really good. He's pretty good. It's pretty good at it, but it was faith that led the pilgrims to cross an ocean and settled this majestic continent. God works in very strange ways. I'm a believer like you're a believer, and we want to have a believer in this position. And it was confidence in America's God given destiny. I have to remember unyielding faith in America's mission that inspires us to make our country great again. And after years of decline, Americans are reasserting our true identity as a people ordained by God, believe in our destiny and trust in the providence of Almighty God. And I can tell you the opposite side, the opposing side, and they oppose religion, they oppose God. But I'm announcing that I will be creating a brand new presidential commission on religious liberty. It's going to be a very big deal. But religion, what they've done and the persecution that they've executed have been just horrible. We won with evangelicals. We won with Christians by a lot. Today, I'm signing an executive order to make our Attorney General, who's a great person. She's going to be a great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, the head of a task force brand new to eradicate anti-Christian bias about time, right? Anti-Christian bias. Yeah, I'd never heard of that one before, right? But there's it's about time, isn't it? That really 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. In addition, the task force will work to fully to move Heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide. This week, I'm also creating the White House Faith Office led by Pastor Paula White, who is so amazing. Well, in the White House, we will protect Christians in our schools, in our military, in our government, in our workplaces, hospitals and in our public squares. And we will bring our country back together as one nation under God. At the same time, every nation with big dreams and great ambition has recognized that there is no recourse more precious than the faith in the hearts of our people. It's the thing that makes our nation great. It makes other nations great. When you don't have it, you don't see great nations. Without God, we are isolated and alone. But with God, the scripture tells us all things are possible. Well, look at me. I'm standing before you today. I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be here. And, you know, my son, Don, said, “Dad, I'll tell you, you got saved by God.” This is, you know, I shouldn't say this, but that was a big statement for him to make. You know, you could say it's a miracle or you could say something, but it was, really was God that saved me. But even in the dark. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's very nice. We know that God is good, our future is bright and America's glorious destiny is just within our reach. And so together, we will make America stronger and prouder, safer, freer, greater and more faithful to our God than ever before. Thank you very much. God bless you all, and God bless America. God bless you.”
These comments were made shortly after he announced that he was freezing funding for programs that provide medicine for the sick, food for the hungry, and shelter for the homeless. All the Christian leaders sitting in that audience and applauding Donald Trump knew that he was withholding help for people in need, all across the country, and all around the world.
When Donald Trump talks about the Christian god, he’s talking about how he wants to be treated as a leader. Donald Trump takes the Christian god, who has claimed all-mighty authority over everybody and everything, as his model of what the President of the United States should be. In these lines from his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, the ideological roots of Trump’s totalitarianism in Christian Nationalism are obvious.
“At every stage of the American story, our country has drawn hope and courage and inspiration from our trust in the Almighty. Deep in the soul of every patriot is the knowledge that God has a special plan and a glorious mission for America, and that plan is going to happen. It's going to happen. I hope it happens sooner rather than later. It's going to happen, and it's his hand that guides us every single step of the way.”
Pay attention to the language that Trump uses to describe the relationship between the cult of American nationalism and the divine Christian monarch. Only a person who interprets history through the ideological lens of their religion could believe that trust in the almighty is the defining characteristic of American identity. The United States of America was born, after all, in the rejection of the almighty Christian Nationalist authority of the British king. The Constitution of the United States of America is designed to prevent any person from becoming almighty. At every stage of the American story, our country has drawn hope and courage and inspiration from our DISTRUST in the almighty.
Donald Trump loves the Christian god not because the Christian god is good, but because the Christian god is powerful. He draws inspiration from the power of the Almighty God to make a plan, and execute that plan, with no hope for anyone to disagree or stand in his way. Just as the Christian god is supposed to be the totalitarian ruler of the universe who controls people’s lives “every single step of the way”, Donald Trump wants to control every aspect of Americans’ lives.
Trump says that Christianity unites people, but even as he says this, he can’t help but complain about “the opposite side, the opposing side, and they oppose religion, they oppose God.” The truth that Trump can’t escape is that religion doesn’t unite people. It divides people. With every passing year, fewer Americans identify as Christians, and fewer Americans go to church, because they see Christian leaders like those at the National Prayer Breakfast doing everything they can to drive Americans into opposing sides, and to persecute those who are not on their side.
Donald Trump makes it clear that he is not just going to remove bias against Christians. He is going to use his power as a fascist leader with absolute power to impose Christianity on Americans, whether they like it or not. He’ll start by forcing Americans to recognize the supremacy of Christmas in the winter holiday season. No “season’s greetings” or “happy holidays” will be allowed. Now, Trump says, people are going to have to say ‘Merry Christmas’ and “In God we trust”, whether they want to or not. Forcing people to say these things is what Trump calls “unity".
“America has always been a nation founded by people of faith and strengthened by the power of prayer and united by four simple but very beautiful words. In God we trust. Just like they don't want to say ‘Merry Christmas’, but now they say it. Remember, in 2016, I was a whole big part of my campaign. You're going to say ‘Merry Christmas’. Well, now they do it again.”
Trump is centering his fascist campaign to control Americans’ private lives by using the power of the federal government to impose Christianity on all Americans
“We will bring our country back together as one nation under God.”
The Constitution states clearly that the federal government must have no role in establishing an official national religion, but Donald Trump doesn’t care about the Constitution. He’s violating the Constitution every day to increase his own power. The Constitution of the United States of America is effectively defunct. Raw power is now the highest law of the land, and Christianity is, at its core, a worship of power. The Almighty God of the Christian Bible is a god of raw authoritarianism.
Authoritarians believe that individual freedom is a danger to the safety of society. That’s why Donald Trump hates what he calls “woke”. So, when Donald Trump says that he’s going to “protect Christians” from “anti-Christian bias”, what he means is that he’s going to end the equality of all Americans regardless of religion, and give Christianity the special power to force all Americans to submit to its authority. Donald Trump’s protection is all about control.
“We will protect Christians in our schools, in our military, in our government, in our workplaces, hospitals and in our public squares.”
Donald Trump will use his power to allow Christians to control what our children learn in schools. Donald Trump will use his power to allow Christians to use the military to indoctrinate soldiers in their militant faith. Donald Trump will use his power to enforce civic religion as an explicitly Christian control of the federal government. He will allow Christians to compel religious practice in workplaces, in hospitals, and in public squares.
Donald Trump envisions an America in which Christianity controls every aspect of life. Donald Trump promised to make the United States a nation where nobody can escape the power of Christianity.
Donald Trump announced that he is creating a White House office dedicated to imposing Christian Nationalism, and that the Attorney General of the United States will form a task force to identify ways to impose Christianity through the American legal system. He bragged about his power, and praised the Christian god as a god of power.
He did these things having just ordered an end to US government spending on food for the hungry, medicine for the sick, and shelter for the homeless. He did this right after breaking the law to impose his power as an absolute fascist leader of the United States.
Over and over again, Christian leaders applauded the new fascist leader. They clapped and cheered for the man who gleefully made others suffer as a demonstration of his power.
At the National Prayer Breakfast, American Christian leaders showed their adoration for the raw power of fascism. They did so because they know that as Donald Trump’s power grows, the power of Christian leaders to enforce their religion across America will grow as well.
Christian Nationalism in a nation where the law is defined by one unchecked strongman is nothing more than a cult of power.
Christian Nationalists have sacrificed compassion to seize power, and in doing so, they have brought with them the worship of the Jesus of the Book of Revelation, a messiah of fury and vengeance. Theirs is a Jesus who lets the hungry starve, who treats the homeless as despicable plague, and who withholds medicine from the sick, all the while blaming them for their lack of faith.
Their Jesus is cruel and cold, and is ready to punish all those who refuse to accept his Almighty authority. Their Jesus is like their Trump. Their Trump is like their god. Theirs is a worship of power.