Trump is a serial violator of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
On April 21, 2026, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 9-8 decision that Texas public schools are permitted under Senate Bill 10 (2025) to display the King James version of Ten Commandments (Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5), a ruling that clears the way for a legal battle with the Supreme Court. The SCOTUS previously ruled in Stone v. Graham (1980) that displaying religious posters in classrooms violates the First Amendment, specifically the Establishment Clause.
During his first term, President Trump appointed six judges to the 17-member Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. The Fifth Circuit is considered the most “conservative” United States federal appeals court. The court covers Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.
While backers in Arkansas and Louisiana support the ruling and say it reflects the nation’s historical foundations, opponents argue displaying the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms is essentially a government endorsement of religion. According to the majority opinion, the requirement does not amount to religious coercion or does it violate the constitutional rights of students.
Proponents contend the Ten Commandments represent a crucial historical document that has significantly influenced the legal and moral frameworks of Western civilization and American history. They argue that the display serves a secular educational purpose by assisting students in comprehending the “fundamental concepts” of US law. In addition, supporters insist the display is passive and therefore does not amount to religious indoctrination.
The Wall of Separation between Church and State
However, as Thomas Jefferson pointed out in 1814, the Ten Commandments were not part of English common law, from which American law was derived. Jefferson noted that “Christianity was not introduced till the seventh century” in England, therefore it did not influence common law. Jefferson believed arguing the Ten Commandments served as the foundation of common law was a “manifest forgery” advocated by Puritan ideologues.
Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists in 1802 emphasized the importance of establishing a “wall of separation between Church and State.” He contended that “religion is a matter solely between man and his God,” and that the government should only intervene in matters of action, not mere opinions. Jefferson wrote that “no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever.” The “wall of separation between Church and State” metaphor was used to describe the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
In the landmark ruling of Everson v. Board of Education (1947), the Court determined that the Establishment Clause is among the liberties safeguarded by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, thereby rendering it applicable to state legislation and local ordinances. The clause was based on several precedents, including the Constitutions of Clarendon, the Bill of Rights of 1689, and the first constitutions of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Both Jefferson and James Madison advocated for the separation of church and state. In his Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, Madison opposed government-supported religion, while Jefferson’s Virginia Bill for Religious Freedom, passed by the Virginia Generally Assembly in 1786, underscored the separation. The document serves as a fundamental pillar of American religious freedom, asserting that individuals should not be compelled to support any particular church.
Madison and Jefferson, supported by religious dissenters such as Presbyterians and Baptists, worked to dismantle the Anglican Church in Virginia. These dissenters also advocated for the separation of religious institutions from government power. Jefferson and Madison contended that compelling citizens to support through taxation a faith they did not adhere to infringed upon their natural right to religious freedom.
The Trump administration has challenged the separation of church and state. It advocates for a greater religious role in public life and has presented challenges to the Establishment Clause. This includes supporting faith-based initiatives like school prayer, imposing Executive Order 14291 to review religious liberty, and promoting Christian-aligned values. The actions have faced criticism for violating the prohibition against government favoring or establishing religion.
“The new administration has shown a disturbing commitment to write the First Amendment out of the U.S. Constitution,” argues Professor Katherine Franke of the Law, Rights & Religion Project. “In its first week in office, the Trump White House has been remarkably aggressive in both embracing a particular religious agenda in violation of the Establishment Clause and discriminating against people whose faith it disfavors in violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.”
The administration has urged the Supreme Court to revisit long-standing precedents, including rulings from the 1980s that prohibited the government from permitting religious displays in schools. Trump supports voluntary prayer in public schools, has incorporated faith-based initiatives in federal agencies, and established an “anti-Christian bias” White House Faith Office and also created the Religious Liberty Commission. “Trump’s anti-Christian bias task force will lead to a further chilling of free speech, political opposition, and investigations of corruption,” warned Katherine Stewart, a journalist and author of Money, Lies and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy.
Trump Appoints Christian Nationalists to Key Positions
“The Trump administration has green-lit political endorsements from the pulpit and encouraged religion in the federal workplace,” reported the Associated Press. Trump put Christian nationalists in key government positions, most notably the prosperity gospel and tongues-speaking preacher Paula White-Cain, appointed to lead the Faith Office. She proclaimed that in Trump’s administration, faith “has been brought back to where it always belongs, and that is center.”
“We are on the side of goodness. We are on the side of God,” declared White House advisor Stephen Miller, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a sermon at a Charlie Kirk memorial service that concluded with discussion of the Second Coming.
JD Vance “is famously a convert to Catholicism, who not only advertises his newfound faith but also has made a habit of peppering his policy statements with references to Catholic teaching and other professions of Catholic doctrine,” explains Tony Badran for Tablet Magazine.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, a practicing and outspoken Roman Catholic, said she wears a cross during press briefings “because I love Jesus.” She holds “team prayer” sessions before each briefing. “We just said a little loud prayer as a team,” she announced prior to a briefing before Easter. “In this Holy Week, President Trump and the first lady are joining in prayer with Christians celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” She was roundly criticized on social media for the remark.
“This isn’t piety—it’s a blatant Establishment Clause violation,” a post on X complained. “Federal employees don’t sign up for government-sponsored Christianity. The separation of church and state exists precisely to stop this performative theocracy. But norms don’t apply in Trump World.”
Last July, Trump’s revamped an IRS issued a directive stating that pastors who endorse political candidates from the pulpit should not face the risk of losing their tax-exempt status. In response, the IRS and the National Religious Broadcasters Association filed a lawsuit to dismantle the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 provision within the US tax code that prohibits 501(c)(3) organizations, such as churches, charities, and foundations, from endorsing or opposing political candidates.
Pete Hegseth, the self-proclaimed Secretary of War, has close ties to an Idaho-based Christian nationalist church that aims to turn America into a theocracy, writes Heath Druzin. Douglas Wilson, the pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, advocates for America to adopt a Christian theocracy and follow a biblical interpretation of society.
Hegseth characterized Trump’s war against Iran as “God’s almighty providence.” He implored the American people to pray for victory “in the name of Jesus Christ.” In a bizarre rant following the alleged rescue of a downed pilot in Iran, Hegseth said during a news conference: “Shot down on a Friday, Good Friday, hidden in a cave, a crevice, all of Saturday and rescued on Sunday. Flown out of Iran as the sun was rising on Easter Sunday, a pilot reborn.”
Prior to Trump’s second term, Russell Vought, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget during his first term, and presides as president of The Center for Renewing America think tank, developed plans to merge Christian nationalist ideas in Trump’s second administration. In 2021, he wrote for Newsweek that the United States should be recognized as a Christian nation in which its “rights and duties are understood to come from God.”
Many evangelical Christians perceive Donald Trump as a divinely appointed leader or “chosen” vessel tasked with safeguarding Christian values and countering perceived existential threats. They often draw parallels between him and biblical figures like the Persian King Cyrus the Great, who was the only non-Jewish figure in the Hebrew Bible to be titled “messiah” or “anointed one” (Isaiah 45:1). This comparison is at odds with Trump’s personal life, including his connection to the pedophile Jeffery Epstein.
Franklin Graham, the son of the late Reverend Billy Graham, is a staunch supporter of Donald Trump. He firmly believes that the president was divinely chosen. In response to Trump’s non-Christian behavior, Graham said: “Remember when Jesus told the crowd, ‘Let the one without sin cast the first stone’ and that slowly, the entire audience began to disappear? All of us have sinned.”
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 presents a comprehensive plan to incorporate conservative Christian beliefs into the federal government. “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” is a 922-page manifesto posing numerous proposals aimed at advancing a Christian nationalist agenda. Critics argue that this agenda poses a threat to the separation of church and state. The document uses terms such as “religion,” “faith-based,” “Christian,” and “Sabbath” over 170 times. Russell Vought is one of the main authors and architects of Project 2025.
Trump’s Republic of Gilead
Christian nationalists not only undermine the separation between church and state, but also advocate for “dominionism,” which is the belief that they must seize control of the “seven mountains” or domains of society—government, education, media, arts and entertainment, religion, family, and business.
Dominionism, also known as Christian Reconstructionism, founded by R.J. Rushdoony, promotes the application of strict Old Testament theonomic laws to modern society, including capital punishment for offenses such as blasphemy and adultery. Additionally, it calls for the abolition of public schools and the establishment of a theocratic government.
Christian nationalism, a form of authoritarianism, is characterized by a belief that true patriots may resort to violence to save the country. Studies reveal that Christian nationalists are significantly more likely to hold this view. By asserting that “real” Americans are Christians, this ideology marginalizes religious minorities, including Muslims, Jews, and the non-religious demographic. Furthermore, followers frequently possess a strong conviction that Christians are facing persecution, which they use to rationalize the increased prominence of their faith in public policy.
Critics often compare the dystopian Republic of Gilead from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale to the policies of Donald Trump’s administration. “The parallels between this administration and Atwood’s Gilead are far too alarming to ignore,” writes Mai Clifford. “The question now is: how much damage will be done before this country realizes that we are no longer warning against a dystopia? We are living in one.”
In order to impose an authoritarian regime, laws protecting the natural rights of individuals must be diminished, and then completely eradicated. Trump has already made a mockery of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. During his second term, Trump “seized key congressional powers, defied federal court orders, and violated Americans’ constitutional rights,” writes Gary Peters, a ranking member of the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Although the Constitution provides the means necessary to check the Trump administration and its desire to rollback individual rights and the rule of law, Congress remains immovable, unable or unwilling to protect the core values of the republic they swore an oath to uphold.
Article posted with permission from Kurt Nimmo
