Trump Gives Bizarre Message to Half-Empty Christian Nationalist Event |
Trump Gives Bizarre Message to Half-Empty Christian Nationalist Event
Barely anyone attended the event, and even Donald Trump was absent.
Practically no one attended Donald Trump’s eight-hour religious program Sunday on Washington’s National Mall.
Even the president—or his cabinet members—couldn’t be bothered to show up to Rededicate 250, which was billed as a “national jubilee of prayer, praise and thanksgiving.” A smattering of people attended the outdoor event, held during 90-degree weather and high humidity in the nation’s capital, to hear Trump’s glitchy, prerecorded message about God. Trump, meanwhile, was at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.
Appearing from his seat behind the Resolute Desk, Trump read a verse from 2 Chronicles 7:14 that urged people to “humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways.” The three-minute missive ended on an abrupt note, sparking slow applause as the sparse audience figured out that was all they’d be hearing from the president.
The one-day event was organized by the nonprofit Freedom 250 in a public-private partnership. It is not clear how much the lone Christian assembly cost, but the Department of the Interior has thrown at least $100 million at the nonprofit to organize several events in honor of the nation’s semiquincentennial, including a government-sponsored IndyCar street race through Washington on August 23 and a “Freedom Truck” mobile history museum.
Trump couldn’t even be bothered to read a new Bible passage or film a new clip for Sunday’s event: The prerecorded message from the president originally aired in April for an event called America Reads the Bible, reported the Associated Press.
The gathering was another indication as to what kind of America the Trump administration—and its MAGA acolytes—is willing to uplift. Prior to the ceremony, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted that Christianity, rather than other religions or the freedom of religion, is a core tenant of the American identity.
“The naysayers who have created this new term ‘Christian Nationalism’ as a pejorative, a derogatory term, are trying to silence the influence and voices of Christians,” Johnson said in an interview with Fox News Sunday. “I think that’s wildly inappropriate.”
Trump Treated His Evangelical Supporters Like Dogs This Weekend
The president went golfing instead of attending a nine-hour prayer festival on Sunday.
Instead of attending his administration’s nine-hour prayer festival on Sunday, President Trump decided to play golf at his club in northern Virginia.
Rather than speak at the Christian nationalist event, held as part of the America250 celebrations for the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Trump sent a prerecorded message where he read from 2 Chronicles 7:11-22. It was the same video he made last month for a marathon Bible reading organized by a Texas supporter.
On Truth Social, Trump barely mentioned the festival, posting a note at 8:30 a.m. Sunday: “I HOPE EVERYBODY AT REDEDICATE 250 IS HAVING A GOOD TIME. IF THERE IS ANYTHING I CAN DO TO HELP, JUST HAVE OUR BEAUTIFUL, BOTH INSIDE AND OUT, RACHAEL C.D., GIVE ME A CALL. I’M BACK FROM CHINA!!! President DJT.” For some reason, the post appeared to mention Rachel Campos-Duffy, the wife of Transportation Secretary Chris Duffy and a co-host of Fox and Friends Weekend.
Despite enjoying strong support from evangelical Christians and regularly professing his Christian faith, Trump does not appear to have attended any church services since his second inauguration in January 2025. On Easter Sunday, he opted to skip attending religious services and instead drove with his motorcade around the site of his proposed “triumphal arch.”
Trump has provoked religious ire by repeatedly posting photos comparing himself to Jesus and picking fights with Pope Leo XIV. The backlash to the president has been strong in these cases, and may have even provoked the man who attacked the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last month. The president, however, has continued to golf and post through it all with no regard for consequences.
Trump Just Launched a Taxpayer-Funded $1.8 Billion MAGA Slush Fund
Taxpayers will provide roughly $1.8 billion to the president and his allies—including January 6 insurrectionists.
President Trump is officially dropping his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, opting instead to create a roughly $1.8 billion fund to further enrich himself, January 6 rioters, and virtually any right-winger who felt targeted by the Biden administration.
Trump initially attacked the IRS for allegedly allowing “a rogue, politically-motivated employee to leak private and confidential information about President Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization to The New York Times, ProPublica and other left-wing news outlets, which was then illegally released to millions of people,” Trump’s attorney said last week. “President Trump continues to hold those who wrong America and Americans accountable.” Now Trump is abandoning that in favor of using the IRS—which is under his executive purview—to get him and his friends paid without legal action.
What’s perhaps even more troubling is that Trump would be able to choose and fire members of this weaponization committee without cause, forming it in his own image with little to no oversight—as they aren’t required to reveal who the money goes to either.
“Waste, fraud, and abuse in the flesh,” California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote last Friday on X. “Donald Trump wants to settle his joke lawsuit against his own IRS department to hand out $1.7 BILLION of OUR TAX DOLLARS to Jan. 6th insurrectionists and his cronies.”........