Trump Regime Sponsors Taxpayer-Funded Rally Promoting White Christian Nationalism

Interview with Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder and co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, conducted by Scott Harris

trump taxpayer-funded white christian nationalist rally

On Sunday, May 17, thousands of people attended a daylong prayer rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., organized by Freedom 250, a public-private partnership backed by the Trump administration.  The event was dubbed, “Rededicate 250,” or a rededication of the United States as “one nation under God” coinciding with the nation’s 250th anniversary.

The rally, funded by taxpayer dollars, was criticized for blurring the lines between church and state, as prominent Republican party officials spoke alongside mostly white Christian nationalist and right-wing evangelical speakers.  Among those addressing the gathering, some in pre-recorded comments, were President Trump, GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Longtime Trump ally evangelist Franklin Graham described the U.S. as “morally rotten” and “completely sick with sin.” He explicitly condemned same-sex marriage and “transgenderism” as evidence of the nation’s moral depravity.

Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder and co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Here Gaylor critiques the tax-payer funded Trump regime’s religious rally, which she and others protested in Washington, D.C. with an inflatable 15-foot-tall golden calf balloon with a face resembling Donald Trump.

ANNIE LAURIE GAYLOR: This was a white Christian nationalist event put on compliments of the taxpayers to the tune of we do not know how much because our Freedom of Information Act request was turned down in early March and then we did an appeal and it takes so long. We’re still waiting. The government said we’re going to be getting this information, but we haven’t got it yet. And it’s a public-private event. They got corporate sponsors. We’re telling people to please boycott United Airlines and MasterCard, tear up your MasterCard and tell them why among the other corporate sponsors.

But we know taxpayer money went to it because it was part of Freedom 250, which was a creation of President Trump in December to siphon off money that Congress designated for the America 250 birthday celebration. $150 million in a bipartisan move by Congress and apparently $100,000 of that has been siphoned over to Trump’s Freedom 250.

And the purpose of Freedom 250 is largely to promote that America is one nation under God. And the purpose of this rally yesterday was to “rededicate America to one nation under God.” And it was all white Christian nationalists. There was on very archconservative rabbi they trotted out and that’s about it.

One thing I can say, however, is that they were talking about 80 million people coming. Well, it was thousands of people. We’re sort of seeing 10,000 as being the typical figure we’re hearing. President Trump sent a video. Many of the cabinet members sent a video. Even Franklin Graham didn’t come in person. So Paula White in D.C. there didn’t come in person, sent a video. So I think that it wasn’t what they hyped it to be, but its purpose, of course, is clearly to unite church and state and also to pander to Trump’s Christian nationalist base.

Most people don’t really understand what Christian nationalism is. And it’s not to oppose Christian nationalism; it is not to oppose Christians. Christian nationalism is a form of theopolitics where it’s based on the idea that certain Christians are the preferred citizens and that our American identity is tied up with that kind of Christian identity and it is typically conservative, evangelical Christian. So it would turn those people into the insiders and other people, even other Christians into outsiders.

And I’m very proud to say that our protest yesterday in Washington, D.C. was joined by Faithful America, which is a coalition of a number of religious groups, churches and so on. People who oppose Christian nationalism.

SCOTT HARRIS: Well, Annie, I did want to ask you about the explicit message of many of these speakers at this prayer rally, taxpayer-funded prayer rally in Washington linked to Donald Trump and the Republican party. They challenged really some of the foundations of our Constitution where the founders were quite specific in the language of the Constitution to separate church and state in the new country that they founded in the 1700s. How do you respond to this idea that the founders somehow didn’t mean what they said in the Constitution?

ANNIE LAURIE GAYLOR: Yes. Well, the founders did. We were first in the world to adopt a godless Constitution and it gave sovereignty not to a divinity, but to “we the people.” That’s right in the preamble and that was revolutionary and it was deliberate. They never prayed once during the four monthlong constitutional convention that was very acrimonious. They provided that there should be no religious test for public office in the Constitution.

And then they adopted the Bill of Rights, with the very first part of the First Amendment that government should not establish a religion. So this has been hated and despised by Christian nationalists really since the beginning. There have been many movements, many Christian nationalist movements over time in our country to try to do away with our secular government. But I would say this moment is probably supreme in being a threat to our secular democracy.
And so what they’re doing is a big lie. They’re saying we’re a Christian nation. They’re saying we’re one nation under God. Well, that phrase didn’t come up until the mid ’50s during the height of the McCarthy era when there was supposed to be a war between the United States and godless communism. And it was the religious lobby.
Various ministers and religious groups have taken credit for it, but it was several of the religious groups and lobbies that made sure that got in the Pledge of Allegiance, but it was not part of our original wording. “E plurabis unum” was the motto of our country, “from many come one.” Not “In God we trust.” That was also a 1950s tampering with our historic roots. So it’s just terribly important that people realize history is being completely distorted. There’s great big lies out there and we have to protect the First Amendment because it protects all of us. Because once government gets behind one religion, it invariably means the other religions or non-religious people will be persecuted.
And today the conservatives are working together. But if the evangelicals get control like they want, Catholics would not really have freedom or vice versa. They’re kind of working together right now, but it wouldn’t last. Persecution invariably follows when you have religion in government.

Listen to Scott Harris’ in-depth interview with Annie Laurie Gaylor (17:43) and see more articles and opinion pieces in the related links section of this page. To subscribe to our podcasts, email newsletters, our Trump authoritarian playbook Substack or social media, subscribe here.

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