Several top Trump administration officials and allies of the president attended a conference for Christian nationalists and other far-right evangelicals last week, raising serious doubts about how long the wall separating church and state can hold.
Evidence abounds that Christian nationalism — specifically, the idea, advocated by some right-wing evangelicals, that the United States government ought to be structured around and advance their particular strain of Christianity — is an existential crisis for American democracy. But President Donald Trump has openly instructed his White House Faith Office to “forget about” the separation of church and state. And prominent supporters of the president seem increasingly comfortable echoing that language.
That was the case at last week’s Road to Majority conference hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition. The organization is a nonprofit founded by former Republican politician and evangelical activist Ralph Reed, who has downplayed the dangers of Christian nationalism in the U.S. and written a book (the original title of which was “Render to God and Trump”) telling Christians they have a moral obligation to support Trump’s presidency.
In a speech at the event, Jennifer Korn, the director of Trump’s White House Faith Office, praised Reed and downplayed the separation of church and state. “When they say ‘separation of church and state,’ separation of church and state just means that the government can’t tell you what religion to be. It does not mean that you don’t have a voice in this government,” she said.
Korn also said the office is not the “theological office” of the White House, although, as I wrote in May, the so-called Religious Liberty Commission is filled with far-right ideologues who have pushed policies that would erode the separation of church and state.
As host, Reed introduced House Speaker Mike Johnson, who gave what amounted to a sermon about the need for a government ruled by Christian theology. Speaking about plans to keep control of the House of Representatives in 2026, Johnson remarked that “providentially,” Republicans have favorable congressional maps next year. (Although, I’d note that it was conservative politicians, not God, who drew the gerrymandered maps that seem to be buoying the party’s electoral hopes.)
Johnson framed Republicans’ potential electoral victory as if it were a means to implement God’s will (or at least Johnson’s perception of it):








