The Freedom From Religion Foundation is calling out President Trump for using the presidency to promote Christianity and perpetuate the false narrative that the United States is a Christian nation.
In two official presidential messages issued just one day apart, Trump celebrated Christian religious holidays while repeatedly portraying Christianity as the foundation of American identity, morality and national greatness. The messages, issued on Oct. 31 for Reformation Day and Nov. 1 for All Saints’ Day, are the latest examples of the administration’s troubling efforts to blur the constitutional separation between state and church.
“Donald Trump is president of the United States, not pastor-in-chief of a Christian congregation,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “His constitutional responsibility is to represent all Americans, not to use the White House as a platform for Christian evangelism. Our government derives its authority from ‘We the People,’ not from Jesus Christ.”
In his Reformation Day message, Trump declared: “From the earliest days of our republic, prayer and faith in Almighty God have stood as the foundation of our strength, the source of our unity, and the fount of our greatness.” He went further, explicitly connecting his administration’s political agenda to Christian religious doctrine: “Guided by an unwavering faith in Jesus Christ, my administration is working to restore the moral and religious foundations that have sustained our republic for generations.”
FFRF strongly objects to the president’s suggestion that the United States was founded on Christianity or that his administration has a mandate to restore supposedly lost Christian foundations. The United States was founded on a secular Constitution, not the bible. The Constitution contains no reference to God or Jesus Christ, expressly prohibits religious tests for public office and guarantees that the government will neither establish religion nor interfere with its free exercise.
The nation’s Founders deliberately rejected the European tradition of governments exercising religious authority. The First Amendment protects the religious liberty of all Americans precisely because the government has no business deciding which religious beliefs should guide the nation.
Trump’s message also ignores the tens of millions of Americans who are not Christian, including the growing population of religiously unaffiliated Americans who now constitute roughly three in 10 adults.
The following day, Trump issued an equally sectarian All Saints’ Day message, celebrating Catholic saints and emphasizing their influence on American culture.
The president cited cities, universities, hospitals and even the New Orleans Saints football team as examples of the enduring influence of Christianity on American life. He praised Catholic figures including Junípero Serra, Elizabeth Ann Seton, Katharine Drexel and Frances Xavier Cabrini.
However, the existence of religiously named cities, universities and football teams is hardly evidence that the United States is, or should be, a Christian nation. America’s cultural history includes religious influences from many traditions, as well as the indispensable contributions of nonreligious Americans.
Trump’s praise for Junípero Serra is particularly troubling when you take into account the history of California’s Spanish missions, where Indigenous peoples experienced coercive conversion, forced labor and devastating cultural disruption. Romanticizing missionary expansion without acknowledging its victims presents a profoundly incomplete account of American history.
The All Saints’ Day message concluded with an explicitly theological declaration about salvation through Jesus Christ: “Christians believe that through the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the grave has been conquered and eternal life has been opened to all who believe in Him.”
There is nothing inherently objectionable about a president acknowledging religious holidays or extending good wishes to Americans who celebrate them. But Trump’s messages go well beyond recognition. They promote the idea that Christianity is the defining source of American morality, unity and national identity, and explicitly connect the administration’s governing mission to Christian faith. While Christians are free to celebrate their religious holidays and profess these beliefs, the president should not use official government communications to elevate Christian theology above the beliefs of other Americans.
FFRF emphasizes that these messages are not isolated incidents. They reflect the Trump administration’s broader pattern of elevating Christianity through federal government institutions, rhetoric and policies, including its establishment of a White House Faith Office and a task force purportedly dedicated to eradicating anti-Christian bias. The administration’s repeated insistence that Christianity must be restored to the center of American public life is especially alarming at a time when Christian nationalist movements are actively seeking to impose religious doctrines through public schools, government institutions and public policy.
The White House should be defending the constitutional rights of all Americans, not advancing a sectarian vision of the nation. America’s strength has never depended on religious conformity. It comes from the constitutional promise that every person is free to believe, or not believe, without government favoritism or interference.
FFRF urges the president to respect that promise and to stop using official presidential communications to promote Christian nationalism.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With about 40,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
