President Donald Trump’s inauguration and first hours back in office signaled what Americans United for months had been warning about and preparing for: Trump plans to implement a Christian Nationalist agenda.
“Trump used the inaugural ceremony to claim he was chosen and anointed by god to lead this nation, but this Christian Nationalist idea is fundamentally un-American,” AU President and CEO Rachel Laser said in a press statement. “In this country, ‘We the People’ choose our leaders and our leaders are answerable to us.”
Trump spoke of god’s supposed intervention in his presidency, noting of the failed assassination attempt last summer: “I was saved by God to make America great again.” Several of the predominantly Christian faith leaders who also spoke at his inaugural ceremony on Jan. 20 similarly alluded to divine intervention.
“Father, when Donald Trump’s enemies thought he was down and out, you and you alone saved his life and raised him up with strength and power by your mighty hand,” said the Rev. Franklin Graham. He prayed that Americans would continue “to keep our eyes fixed on [god] … We know America can never be great again if we turn our backs on [god].”
The Rev. Frank Mann of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn also presented a vision of America as a Christian nation: “Let us go forth with these words of President Trump’s emblazoned on our hearts: As long as we have pride in our beliefs, courage in our convictions, and faith in our god, then we will not fail. We stand tall, we stand proud, because we are Americans, and Americans kneel to god and to god alone.”
Even the lone non-Christian faith leader to speak, Rabbi Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University, promoted the Christian nation myth by saying he hoped Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance would “unite us around our foundational biblical values of life and liberty, service and sacrifice, and especially of faith and morality.”
Trump also spoke of one supposed American god: “National unity is now returning to America, and confidence and pride is soaring like never before. In everything we do, my administration will be inspired by a strong pursuit of excellence and unrelenting success. We will not forget our country. We will not forget our Constitution. And we will not forget our god. Can’t do that.”
AU’s Laser pointed to the contradiction in Trump’s words: “Our Founders understood that when the government favors one religion over others, it divides us. That’s why they built a country based on church-state separation. Mixing religion and government divides people along religious lines, favoring some while excluding all others. Trump cannot be a ‘peacemaker and a unifier’ without separating church and state.”
During both his inaugural address in the U.S. Capitol and in celebratory remarks at Capital One Arena, where his supporters gathered after cold weather was blamed for canceling the inaugural parade and other outdoor festivities, Trump touted an array of executive actions he planned to take in the first days of his new administration. Executive actions included rolling back protections for LGBTQ+ people to pardoning the insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to overthrow the 2020 presidential election that Trump had lost.
AU’s Laser said Trump’s remarks, especially his intention for the federal government to only recognize a narrow definition of gender that ignores nonbinary and transgender people, signaled he planned to implement the Christian Nationalist agenda outlined in Project 2025, a 920-page playbook for dismantling the federal government and our democracy.
“All Americans deserve to live according to our beliefs and identities, so long as we are not hurting others, and that includes our gender-nonconforming and transgender children, coworkers, friends and neighbors,” Laser said.
For months AU had been warning about Project 2025 and its undemocratic proposals, which include eliminating the Department of Education; funneling public money and students to private, mostly religious schools; rolling back LGBTQ+ rights while preferencing “biblical,” non-LGBTQ+ families; further restricting access to abortion and reproductive health care; and redefining religious freedom as a license to discriminate.
By the end of Inauguration Day, Trump had issued dozens of executive orders, many of them dealing with immigration, the federal workforce and environmental regulations among other causes championed by conservatives. Trump also issued an order that purports to rescind a slew of former President Joe Biden’s executive actions.
AU’s experts were reviewing the orders as this issue of Church & State went to press, but the rescission order appeared to include other efforts to undermine LGBTQ+ equality, as well as the religious freedom protections for vulnerable people who rely on government-funded social services like food banks, job training, elder care and shelters for the unhoused and people escaping domestic violence. Trump had rolled back those protections during his first administration, an action AU and allies fought in court.
In addition to the deluge of day-one executive orders, Americans United has identified many other attacks on church-state separation that Trump could launch, based on policies enacted by his first administration, coupled with the Project 2025 agenda. These attacks likely include:
- Supporting state efforts to impose religion on public school students. In an interview earlier in January with The Associated Press about Trump’s likely impact on public schools, Laser noted, “The effect of even Trump being the president-elect, let alone the president again, is that Christian Nationalists are emboldened like never before.”
- Last summer, Trump celebrated the new Louisiana law requiring all public schools to display the Ten Commandments. (AU and allies are challenging the law in court.) During his first administration, Trump also supported state legislation to create “Bible literacy classes” in public schools; in the last few months, both Oklahoma and Texas public education officials have proposed Bible-infused curricula. Trump 1.0 also had championed misleading school-prayer guidance and the 1776 Commission that aimed to whitewash American history and reframe America as an officially Christian nation.
- Creating the first-ever nationwide, federally funded private school voucher program. Trump has voiced support for vouchers, including in his nomination of Linda McMahon as Education Secretary. Congress is expected to push for a new $100 billion federal voucher scheme in the coming months.
- Misusing religious freedom as a license to discriminate in the provision of government services, health care, employment, education and other areas of life. Trump 1.0 actions in this area included the Denial of Care Rule, which invited health care providers to deny care based on their religious beliefs, and allowed taxpayer-funded foster care agencies to deny prospective parents who don’t meet a religious litmus test. AU challenged both policies in court.
- Undermining the Johnson Amendment. This important federal law protects the integrity of our elections and nonprofit organizations by ensuring nonprofits – including houses of worship — don’t endorse or oppose partisan political candidates for office. Trump unsuccessfully tried to “get rid of and totally destroy” this law during his first administration.
In an email message the day after the inauguration, Laser assured supporters that AU was ready: “Extraordinary moments demand extraordinary action. We are lawyering up, staffing up and leveling up Americans United with the tools, resources and resilience necessary to defend the rights of every American and protect the fundamental promise of religious freedom without favor and equality without exception. Make no mistake — their overreach is our opportunity for progress.”
The message included an invitation to support the new Freedom Without Favor Fund, a four-year, $5 million initiative to fortify AU’s work. The email also listed other actions supporters could take, including joining AU’s Action Network, participating in an upcoming week of action to protest private school vouchers, and attending the Summit for Religious Freedom (SRF) in April. (For more information, visit www.au.org/freedom-without-favor.)
“America doesn’t need more Christian Nationalism,” Laser said in her press statement. “We need a national recommitment to keep church and state separate — our freedoms, equality and democracy depend on it.”