Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Conservatives Accuse Jared and Ivanka For Watered-Down Executive Order On Religious Freedom

Did President Trump’s Executive Order on religious freedom signed Thursday please anyone? Liberals fret that it went too far, while some conservatives feel that the it fell short of Trump’s campaign pledge to “totally destroy” the Johnson Amendment which prohibits clergy from pulpit politicking.

Why the sudden softening in Trump’s approach?

Robert P. George, a Princeton law professor and leading voice on religious conservatism, believes its the fault of the president’s Jewish daughter and son-in-law.

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump were widely reported to have a moderating influence on the President and have convinced him to drop anti LGBTQ measures from a previous version of the religious freedom executive order.

The promise to repeal the Johnson Amendment was made by Trump to evangelical leaders during the campaign and was repeated after the elections.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.