Trump announces plan to launch task force against ‘anti-Christian bias’

United States President Donald Trump has announced the creation of a task force aimed at eradicating what he called an “anti-Christian bias” within the federal government.

Trump made the announcement on Thursday at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, an annual event that brings together religious groups with government leaders.

During his speech, Trump said that he would sign an executive order later in the day and appoint US Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead the effort.

He also pointed to several government agencies that may be scrutinised under the effort, including the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

“The mission of this task force will be to immediately hold all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI and other agencies,” Trump said.

Bondi, he added, would also work to “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”.

While Trump did not give examples of what constitutes “anti-Christian bias”, the planned executive action could pose constitutional questions about the separation of church and state.

Under the First Amendment of the US Constitution, the government protects freedom of religion.

Legal experts have often pointed to the “establishment clause” of that amendment — which says Congress “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” — as prohibiting the government from imposing or promoting religious beliefs.

But some evangelical advocates have argued that Christianity is a fundamental part of the US government system. Trump has courted that interest group throughout his campaigns for president.

On Thursday, Trump urged Americans to “bring God back” into their lives. In addition to the new task force, he also announced the establishment of a commission on religious liberty.

“If we don’t have religious liberty, then we don’t have a free country,” Trump said.

He also reflected on his relationship with religion after facing a pair of failed assassination attempts last year, saying it “changed” him.

“I feel even stronger,” Trump, a nondenominational Christian, said. “I believed in God, but I feel, I feel much more strongly about it. Something happened.”

Speaking later at a second prayer breakfast sponsored by a private group, Trump remarked, “It was God that saved me.”

He also took aim at his predecessor, Democratic President Joe Biden, accusing him of “persecution” for his administration’s prosecution of anti-abortion rights advocates accused of blockading reproductive healthcare clinics.

Trump’s new task force on “anti-Christian bias” has already drawn criticism.

“Rather than protecting religious beliefs, this task force will misuse religious freedom to justify bigotry, discrimination, and the subversion of our civil rights laws,” Rachel Laser, the president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said.

Andrew Seidel, a lawyer at the Freedom From Religion Foundation, also questioned the motivation behind the new task force.

“This task force is not a response to Christian persecution; it’s an attempt to recover their declining Christian privilege and supremacy,” he wrote in a post on X.

“Christians are still the majority in this country. They are overrepresented in Congress and almost every other government body. But the demographics are shifting. Rapidly. And that’s precisely why we are seeing this rise of Christian Nationalism.”

President Trump and his administration have already clashed with certain religious leaders. The day after his second inauguration, for instance, Trump attended a sermon delivered by Reverend Mariann Budde at the Washington National Cathedral, where she called for “mercy” for members of the LGBTQ+ community and undocumented immigrants.

Trump responded afterwards on his online platform Truth Social, calling Budde a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater”.

Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, has also sparred with the top US leaders of his own church over immigration issues. Other clergy members across the country have voiced concerns about the removal of churches from a list of locations previously protected against immigration enforcement actions.

Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast is a 70-year-old tradition in Washington, DC. Dwight D Eisenhower was the first president to attend the prayer breakfast, in 1953, and every president since has spoken at the gathering.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies