President Donald Trump hailed his administration’s return to supporting people of faith, the “power of prayer,” and the proverbial “one nation under God,” detailing the actions he says his administration has taken or will take for religious liberty and cultural policy.
“America has always been a nation that believes in the power of prayer, and we will never apologize for our faith, ever, ever, never, never,” Trump told the Presidential Commission on Religious Liberty meeting Monday in a speech at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., which aired live and in its entirety on Newsmax and the Newsmax2 streaming platform.
“We will never surrender our God-given rights. We will defend our liberties, our values, our sovereignty, and we will defend our freedom.
“And with the help of amazing faith communities across the land, so many are represented with us today: We will truly make this the golden age of America.”
Among the administration’s achievements on faith and cultural policy hailed by Trump in the hour-long speech:
- School prayer guidance: New Education Department guidance “protecting the right to prayer in our public schools.”
- Gender policies: Trump signed an executive order to cut federal funding from schools “that push transgender insanity,” backing bans on “chemical and surgical” interventions for minors, and set the “official policy” that “there are only two genders, male and female.”
- Pulpit speech: Trump took credit for neutralizing the Johnson Amendment’s chilling effect on clergy political speech, saying faith leaders “have your voices back.”
- Civil-rights enforcement on campus: The administration launched “sweeping civil rights and Title IX investigations” into more than 60 colleges over speech and religious-liberty concerns and touted major settlements, including what he described as a $200 million payment from Columbia University, also referencing ongoing litigation involving Harvard.
- Task force: The creation of the first Justice Department task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias” has been both “tremendous” and underreported, according to Trump.
- Parental rights and school choice: Trump highlighted what he called “a massive tax credit for school choice scholarships” so parents can send children “to a school that shares your values.” He invited a 12-year-old student to recount objections to a classroom assignment the child said conflicted with his religious beliefs. Trump tied such anecdotes to a broader promise: “To support parents’ rights, we’re fighting for school choice, which most people want.”
- Crime, safety, and faith: Referencing recent high-profile crimes, including a fatal light-rail stabbing in Charlotte, North Carolina, Trump said, “There are evil people. We have to be able to handle that,” issuing pointed criticism for Democrats’ push for “cashless bail.” Washington, D.C., has rapidly become “a safe zone,” Trump noted. “When you have horrible killings, you have to take horrible actions,” he said, vowing “no tolerance” for terrorism or political violence, including hate crimes “against Christians, Jews, or anybody else.”
All of the above will help achieve reaching Trump’s campaign promise of bringing America back to a “golden age,” he concluded.
“That’s what we’re doing: We’re in a golden age,” Trump said in closing. “We’re at the very beginning of a golden age. So much progress has been made in the last eight months. Progress like nobody’s ever seen before.
“They’re writing about it. They’re actually saying it. They’ve never seen anything like what’s happened in the last eight months. And together we will make our country greater, stronger, more united and more faithful than ever before. Thank you. God bless you and God bless America.”
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