Trump to ‘defend the rights of Christians,’ announces new faith initiative led by controversial televangelist
Paula White, Trump’s spiritual adviser, served in his first administration
Televangelist Paula White and President Donald Trump on Feb. 6. Photo by Schwartz/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh February 6, 2025
President Donald Trump announced on Thursday a series of sweeping faith-based initiatives, including a new presidential commission on religious liberty and an executive order targeting perceived anti-Christian bias. Speaking at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., Trump also said he would reestablish a White House faith office led by Paula White, a controversial celebrity televangelist and his longtime spiritual adviser.
“It was faith that led the pilgrims to cross an ocean and settle this majestic continent, and we’re going to keep it majestic,” Trump said in his remarks. “Here in America, we are, once again, a nation that believes in ourselves. We believe in our destiny and trust in the providence of Almighty God.”
Trump said the new task force – headed by Attorney General Pam Bondi – would “immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government” and “fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society, and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.”
Trump allies have long called for America to become a more Christian country. Christian nationalists reject the separation of church and state, believe that the U.S. is a Christian nation with a divine destiny, and want the government to maintain and foster Christianity as America’s national identity.
At the Republican convention last July, Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of famed evangelist Billy Graham who also delivered the invocation at Trump’s inauguration ceremony, said he wanted to see America as a Christian nation. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia who has previously referred to herself as “a proud Christian nationalist,” said last year on 60 Minutes that “the Founding Fathers quoted the Bible constantly and were driven by their faith.” House Speaker Mike Johnson had a flag associated with the New Apostolic Reformation, a Christian nationalist movement, outside his office.
Last year, several GOP members of Congress voted against the Antisemitism Awareness Act, a bipartisan bill aimed at addressing rising antisemitism in colleges and universities, and invoked an antisemitic falsehood to explain why: because Jews killed Jesus.
Who is Paula White?
White, 57 is a controversial pastor who is considered a “heretic” by some Orthodox Christian leaders.
She is linked to the prosperity gospel, a belief that faith in God brings material wealth and physical well-being. White has also adopted some Hebrew rituals and observances at her megachurch, like observing a version of Passover, fasting for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur and wearing a Tallit in an appeal for donations. In Passover messages on Facebook, White said that the “blood of Jesus protects” Christians and compared it to the blood of lambs that shielded the Israelites from the angel of death in Egypt.
After serving as an adviser on the 2016 presidential campaign, she was tapped to head the White House’s Faith and Opportunity Initiative — created by Trump in 2018 and revoked by President Joe Biden when he took office — to help shore up support among evangelicals.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and White House senior adviser in Trump’s first term, boasted about his relationships with the evangelical community and called White “incredible,” according to a book published in 2021. “Whoa,” Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, reportedly responded. “Never tell any mainstream evangelical that Paula White is your gold standard.”
At a prayer service for Trump’s reelection bid in 2020, White delivered an impassioned sermon heavy on rhythmic repetition, angelology and a soupçon of tongues. She suggested “Demonic confederacies” were attempting to steal the election.
In 2021, White launched the National Faith Advisory Board to push back at what the Republicans described as an “anti-faith agenda” by the Biden administration. The group held frequent calls with Trump and other officials, and most recently issued a prayer alert ahead of Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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