Trump Begins Branding America’s 250th Anniversary as a Christian Celebration
Donald Trump’s MAGA-style celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence ramped up Sunday with a federally funded prayer service that organizers said would “rededicate America as One Nation Under God.”
“Rededicate 250,” is one of a series of events that the Trump administration is holding to mark the country’s semiquincentennial on July 4. A UFC fight at the White House planned for Trump’s 80th birthday and an IndyCar race around the National Mall in August seem more the style of the 47th president, who was at his golf club in Virginia, not church, on Sunday. But the prayer event nods to his evangelical supporters by asserting that the United States is a Christian nation.
“We welcome Jesus into this place!” proclaimed one performer on a stage on the National Mall, in the shadow of the Washington Monument.
Speakers at the event, which I checked out on Sunday, included House Speaker Mike Johnson, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who controversially used a prayer service to ask God for “overwhelming violence against enemies” in the US war against Iran. Trump also addressed attendees via video.
The religious event drew substantial........
