By Rob C.
Art by Mike Luckovich
TL;DR: The Trump administration just hosted “Rededicate 250” on the National Mall—a nine-hour, taxpayer-funded infomercial for Christian Nationalism. While Pete Hegseth and Mike Johnson screech about returning the republic to God, history reminds us that the actual founders were largely Deists and Rationalists who explicitly codified a secular government, famously declaring in the Treaty of Tripoli that America is “not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
Christian Nationalists have convinced themselves that America was founded as a Christian country and that Donald Trump — a man who sells Bibles like late-night steak knives and probably thinks Corinthians is a luxury hotel chain — is God’s chosen vessel. The problem? The founders themselves would laugh this nonsense straight out of Philadelphia.
America was deliberately founded as a secular republic to prevent exactly this kind of religious extremism from hijacking the government.
Good morning, fellow citizens of the secular republic—or at least, what’s left of it. If you tuned in this weekend, you got to watch the Trump administration officially set fire to the constitutional separation of church and state on the National Mall.
They called it “Rededicate 250,” a daylong, taxpayer-funded prayer spectacle masquerading as a celebration of America’s upcoming 250th anniversary. But let’s call this circus exactly what it was: an overt, nine-hour infomercial for Christian Nationalism. We had Defense Secretary “Pickled” Pete Hegseth on screen proclaiming an opportunity to “rededicate this republic to God,” right alongside Speaker Mike Johnson and a parade of evangelical influencers. This group of zealots—who are the absolute farthest thing from actual, Christ-following Christians—have completely convinced themselves that our country was founded as a private club for their specific brand of theology, and that Donald Trump is their gold-plated Messiah sent to deliver it.
There’s just one tiny, glaring issue with this historical fan-fiction: the actual history.
There are few things more aggressively American than people loudly misunderstanding American history while wrapped in a flag the size of a studio apartment. And nowhere is that more obvious than the Christian Nationalist movement currently trying to turn the United States into a theocratic reality show hosted by Donald Trump — a man whose understanding of Christianity appears to come primarily from televangelists, casino carpeting, and whatever Bible verse someone printed on a commemorative AR-15.
This week, Trump took another sledgehammer to the constitutional separation of church and state by holding a taxpayer-funded “prayer event” on the National Mall. And before anyone says, “Well, what’s wrong with prayer?” let’s be clear: this was not some inclusive gathering celebrating America’s vast religious diversity. This wasn’t Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, atheists, agnostics, and everyone else coming together in mutual respect.
No, this was specifically tailored for the Christian Nationalist crowd — the people who believe America belongs exclusively to their version of Christianity and that everyone else is basically renting space until the Rapture starts.
These are the same people who scream about “freedom” while trying to force public schools to teach their religion, display their commandments, censor books, control women’s bodies, and turn the government into a church potluck with nuclear weapons.
And somehow they’ve convinced themselves this is what the Founding Fathers wanted.
Which is adorable.
The Founders Were Not on the Roster
The Christian Nationalists love to invoke the “Faith of our Fathers,” but if Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin had shown up to their rally this weekend, they would have been thrown out for heresy. The heavy hitters of the Enlightenment—the era that actually birthed this country—were largely Deists. Jefferson and Franklin widely embraced a philosophy that recognized a Supreme Creator but thoroughly rejected traditional religious dogmas like the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus, and the idea of divine intervention in your daily spreadsheet management.
As for the rest? George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton are more accurately described as holding theistic rationalist or Unitarian views. They viewed religion through the lens of reason and morality, not apocalyptic crusades. Jefferson famously took a razor blade to the Bible and removed the supernatural parts he thought were nonsense, creating what was essentially the world’s first “director’s cut” of the New Testament. These historical facts completely flatline the foundation of the Christian Nationalist worldview. The Preamble to the Constitution didn’t open with an invocation to the heavens; it opened with “We the People,” establishing a secular contract for a diverse population.
Because the actual founders would have viewed modern Christian Nationalism the same way most people view a guy screaming Bible verses outside a Cracker Barrel parking lot.
The central myth of Christian Nationalism is that the United States was founded as an explicitly Christian nation. The problem is that history stubbornly refuses to cooperate with this fantasy.
Imagine the reaction if a Democratic president did that today. FOX News would spontaneously combust into a mushroom cloud of powdered patriotism and tactical crosses.
The founding fathers valued reason, skepticism, and Enlightenment philosophy far more than rigid religious dogma. These men were deeply influenced by the Enlightenment — a movement built around reason, science, individual liberty, and skepticism toward concentrated religious authority. You know, all the things currently labeled “woke Marxism” by people who think dinosaur fossils were planted by Satan.
The founders understood something extremely important because Europe had spent centuries demonstrating it in blood-soaked detail: mixing religion and state power almost always ends horribly.
The founders didn’t stumble into this secular framework by accident. They looked at centuries of European history—bloody inquisitions, holy wars, and state-sanctioned torture—and said, “Let’s not do that.” A radical concept, apparently.
They deliberately built a wall of separation between church and state to protect both the government from religious corruption and religious communities from government interference. Europe’s history was basically one long advertisement for separating church and state. Religious wars. Persecution. Executions. Forced conversions. Governments controlled by whichever flavor of Christianity happened to have the sharpest swords that decade. Catholics killing Protestants. Protestants killing Catholics. Everybody occasionally killing Jews because apparently Europe needed a hobby.
That’s why the Constitution contains no declaration that America is a Christian nation. None. Zero. In fact, the Constitution is remarkable for what it leaves out. There’s no mention of Jesus Christ. No official church. No requirement for religious loyalty. Article VI explicitly bans religious tests for public office, which was revolutionary at the time.
The First Amendment then makes the point even clearer: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” And just in case anyone still wants to pretend the founders secretly intended America to be a Christian state, let’s talk about the paper trail.
Receipts from the 18th Century
If the personal journals of the founders aren’t enough to burst the bubble, their official government documents do the job nicely. Let’s talk about the Treaty of Tripoli, signed into law in 1797 by President John Adams. This wasn’t a radical underground pamphlet; it was a legal document ratified unanimously by the United States Senate. Article 11 states it with brutal, unmistakable clarity: “As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion...” one of the clearest statements ever made about the nature of the American government.
That should have settled the debate forever, but unfortunately Christian Nationalism operates less like a historical argument and more like a chain email forwarded by your racist uncle at 2:00 a.m.
The modern Christian Nationalist movement isn’t really about faith anyway. It’s about power.
If this movement were truly centered on the teachings of Jesus, they’d be talking about feeding the poor, healing the sick, forgiving debts, welcoming immigrants, and maybe not worshipping wealth like it’s the golden calf with a stock portfolio. Instead, the loudest Christian Nationalists in America somehow ended up worshipping Donald Trump — a man whose entire personality is basically the seven deadly sins wearing bronzer.
Seriously, if you were trying to create the least Christ-like political figure imaginable, you’d accidentally invent Trump halfway through the brainstorming session.
The guy sells luxury merchandise from gold-plated penthouses while evangelical leaders describe him as divinely chosen. This is less Christianity and more prosperity gospel fever dream mixed with authoritarian cosplay.
The Exclusionary Crusade
The absolute absurdity of trying to enforce Christian Nationalism in 2026 is that America is home to hundreds of different religious varieties, philosophies, and non-believers. It is a vibrant tapestry that has thrived precisely because the government wasn’t allowed to pick a favorite.
America is one of the most religiously diverse countries on Earth. Christians themselves are wildly diverse: Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Pentecostals, Mormons, Orthodox Christians, Unitarians, evangelicals, progressive Christians, Black churches, Latino churches, megachurches, tiny rural congregations, and countless others. Then add Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Indigenous spiritual traditions, atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, and people who just want to eat brunch in peace without being dragged into a culture war sermon.
Because once a government starts deciding which religion is the “real” American religion, somebody inevitably becomes the outsider. Somebody loses rights. Somebody becomes suspect. Somebody gets labeled unpatriotic, immoral, dangerous, or ungodly.
When Paula White and the White House Faith Office claim this is about “reclaiming our roots,” they are sending a chilling, exclusionary message to millions of Americans: You are a guest here, and your security is conditional.
That’s how theocratic movements always work. They promise moral order. They deliver authoritarianism. And history is littered with the wreckage left behind by governments convinced they were carrying out God’s will.
The irony is that the founders created secular government not because they hated religion, but because they understood religion flourishes best when government keeps its hands off it. State-controlled religion eventually corrupts both the church and the state. Religion becomes propaganda. Politicians become messiahs. Faith becomes tribal identity weaponized for political power.
As I have argued across my analytical articles, from The New Dark Ages to The Great American Heist, this administration thrives on division, using the language of faith to mask a corporate kleptocracy. They wrap themselves in the flag and carry a cross, but their true devotion is to power, profit, and the “Epstein Class.”
Which is exactly where we are now.
Christian Nationalists aren’t defending Christianity from government. They’re trying to turn government into Christianity’s enforcement arm. And once that happens, freedom of religion quietly becomes freedom to obey.
The founders would have recognized this danger immediately because many of them spent their lives escaping societies dominated by state religion and inherited hierarchy. They believed liberty required protecting individual conscience from government control.
That includes protecting people from religion imposed by the state.
I’ll leave you with this thought: Jesus spent his time flipping tables in the temples to protest corruption and greed. The modern Christian Nationalist movement has invited the money-changers to run the government. If Donald Trump were put in charge of my church, I’d become an atheist by Sunday afternoon.
The truth is simple: America was founded as a secular constitutional republic where citizens were free to practice any religion — or none at all. That wasn’t an accident. It was one of the founding principles of the entire experiment.
Christian Nationalism doesn’t honor that tradition. It betrays it.
F*CK ICE. RELEASE ALL THE FILES!
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Robert Cain, author of Democracy for Sale: How Corporate Greed Is Corrupting Democracy and Endangering the Planet. Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and booksellers everywhere.