Let us Prey
Trump does the Prayer Breakfast
Really, I have to ask, what is the point of the inaptly named “National Prayer Breakfast”?1 Because it doesn’t really seem to be about prayer, does it? There was lot of talk about “religion” and its “hotness” in the Age of Trump, but not really all that much about God, or what he might think about the bizarre scene unfolding before Him.
Donald Trump used the occasion of the prayer breakfast to fling insults at his critics, whine about his election defeats, mock people who prayed, embrace a Christian heretic, and basically admit that he didn’t bother reading the Bible.
And that was not even close to the low point of his day.
On the day of the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump posted a video depicting former President Barack Obama and First Lady, Michelle Obama, as apes.
In a remotely sane universe, this would be disqualifying and career-ending. The political world would recoil, and the fundamental decency of the America people would be outraged. The raw rancid racism is neither a joke nor a close call.
In Trump’s world, though, it was just another day that ends in y.2
Happy Friday. Short newsletter today, because I’m headed east for some family time. But I had to get some things off my chest.
What fresh hell?
You knew what kind of a “prayer” event the Breakfast would be when it featured Nayib Bukele, the thuggish president of El Salvador. As Sam Stein: noted “Having the guy who runs an infamous torture detention facility where we unlawfully shipped immigrants speak at the National PRAYER breakfast is truly the encapsulating image of 2026.”
Then there was Trump, who was very much the star of the event.
The AP headline reads: “Trump takes on critics with a litany of insults at National Prayer Breakfast. But that sanewashes what actually happened.
Here’s Trump at the National Prayer Breakfast:
“They rigged the second election. I had to win it. I had to win it. I needed it for my own ego. I would’ve had a bad ego for the rest of my life. Now I really have a big ego. Beating these lunatics was incredible ... the first time they said I didn’t win the popular vote. I did.”
**
“I don’t know how a person of faith can vote for a Democrat. I really don’t. *crowd groans* I know we have some here today. I don’t know why they’re here, because they certainly don’t give us their vote ... they cheat.”
**
Trump called Thomas Massie a “moron”. “There’s something wrong with him. We call him Rand Paul Jr. They love voting NO.”
Trump mocked prayer: “Mike Johnson is a very religious person. He does not hide it. He’ll say to me sometimes at lunch, ‘Sir, may we pray.’ I’ll say, ‘Excuse me? We’re having lunch.’”
And suggested he didn’t read the Bible. Giving a shout to right-wing evalgelist Robert Jeffries, Trump said: “Robert Jeffress was on television in 2016 when I had just announced I was running, and he said, ‘I know every candidate very well, and I know Trump a little bit. He may not be as good with the Bible as some of them, and he may not have read the Bible as much as some of them. In fact, he may not have ever read the Bible. But he will be a much stronger messenger for us.’”
**
Andrew Egger notes: “ Trump now just completely declines to tailor his rants to his audiences. Goes to Davos to threaten Ilhan Omar. Goes to the National Prayer Breakfast to complain about Thomas Massie. Just pure ‘I’ve got a lot of problems and you’re gonna hear about em’.”
But there was more. And worse.
Trump was introduced by his senior faith advisor, Paula White Cain, who gushed: "President Trump has brought religion back to this nation and beyond. It is my great honor to introduce the GOAT -- the greatest of all time. The greatest champion of faith that we have ever had in the executive branch."
Speaking of Paula White Cain…
The NYT noted that many Christians believe that White’s prosperity gospel — “which teaches that God blesses people he deems to be of strong faith with wealth, good health and other gifts” — is a heresy.
Indeed, Trump’s relationship with White has angered orthodox evangelicals for years, including some of the president’s most fervent fans.
“Trump Enrages Christian MAGA By Naming ‘Heretic’ Pastor to White House.”
President Donald Trump angered some of his Christian supporters on Friday when he named a televangelist who even some conservative evangelicals have labeled a “heretic” as part of his White House administration.
Scott Ross, a Texas-based leadership coach and self-described “Orthodox Christian,” called the move “an abomination.”
“Paula White, head of Trump’s White House Faith Office, is no Christian leader,” he wrote. “She preaches the heresies of Word of Faith & Prosperity Gospel, both utterly opposed to authentic Christianity. Worse, she has lived a life of scandal, with multiple husbands, twisting the Gospel for profit.”
Daniel N. Gullotta provides some background on Trump’s “Christian” adviser:
[White] has long held that Trump was divinely chosen to lead the nation and that he is engaged in an ongoing battle against demonic forces. This rhetoric reached its apex and nadir simultaneously during the 2020 election.
In November that year, she led a prayer service calling for “angelic reinforcements” from Africa and South America to intervene on Trump’s behalf. She also warned that Christians who voted against Trump would have to “answer to God” for their ballots.
On January 6th, [White] delivered the opening prayer at the Ellipse before Trump addressed the crowd, reinforcing—along with many other Charismatic activists who were there that day—the narrative that the election was not just a political contest but a cosmic battle between good and evil. Even after the violence at the U.S. Capitol, she remained a staunch advocate of Trump’s claims of election fraud while continuing to frame his presidency as a battle between God and Satan.
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So let’s return to our original question: What, on earth, is the point of this blasphemous load of bollocks? Jay Nordlinger writes: “The National Prayer Breakfast is now a national joke. Retire it. Or take some years off, for penance. But to hell with this pseudo-religious stunt of a breakfast.”
Amen.
**
Bonus takes
Michael Wear, President/CEO, Center for Christianity & Public Life:
I’ve attended the National Prayer Breakfast for much of the past two decades. I staffed the President and worked on his speech there for four years. I wrote extensively about the breakfast in my first book. One purpose of the Breakfast in history has been to position presidents and political leaders in such a way that they are humbled--their remarks typically focused on ways they fell short, the nation’s reliance on grace that politics and politicians can’t provide, etc.
Not until this president has someone gone to the breakfast to make so much of himself, and so little of God. And he does it every year. These aren’t policy disagreements. These aren’t differences resulting from Church-State separation. This is Donald Trump going to a convening that has a central focus on the power of relationship with Jesus as the transformative force in the world, and he uses that opportunity to make light of prayer and suggest he’ll go to heaven because he’s earned his way in. He goes to a convening built on the premise that Jesus transcends all divides in society, including partisan ones, and says an entire group of people *who are specifically recruited and asked to be in the room and on the program* actually do not belong there. Like he did at a memorial service for one of his most prominent supporters, in previous years he’s gone to the breakfast to directly contradict Jesus’ teachings on loving your enemies.
During the Clinton years, the Clintons sat on the dais while Mother Teresa lovingly confronted him on the issue of abortion. Now, people sit at their own breakfast while this president mocks their deepest beliefs to their face. And he tells them they love it. He tells them they’re lucky to have him.
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Bonus, bonus: Yesterday’s MAGA-fied event reminded me of this piece from “That Episcopal Priest.”
We tend to treat the Beatitudes like inspirational slogans reserved for coffee mugs and cross-stitch samplers. But they aren’t sentimental, and they aren’t safe. They’re Jesus’ blueprint for a different way of being human in a world obsessed with power, certainty, domination, and control.
They are words of resistance. Because the world has its own set of beatitudes:
Blessed are the strong, for they will never have to need anyone.
Blessed are the loud, for they will control the room.
Blessed are the certain, for they will never have to listen.
Blessed are the winners, for they will be praised as righteous.
Blessed are the privileged, for they will never have to feel what others feel.
Blessed are the untouchable, for consequences will pass them by.
Blessed are those who never apologize, for they will mistake pride for strength.
Blessed are those who can make other people disappear, for they will call it order.
Blessed are those who can quote Scripture while doing harm, for they will call it faithfulness.
That is the gospel according to the world. It’s persuasive. It’s everywhere. And it is killing us.
Finally
Tom Nichols: “Yes, sure, he’s fine.”
Friday dogs
You may be stressed, but the boys are pretty mellow.
Who runs National Prayer Breakfast?
Since 2023 the National Prayer Breakfast has been hosted by a new congressional foundation led by former Sen. Mark Pryor, a Democrat from Arkansas. Previously, the annual event was organized and run by The International Foundation, also known as “The Family,” for decades as part of the organization’s multi-day convention….
What is the history of the breakfast? In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower was the first president to speak at a prayer breakfast at the Capitol after being invited by evangelist Billy Graham. The gathering is held every year on the first Thursday of February, and every American president has spoken at the meeting since Eisenhower began the tradition.
“White House Shrugs Off ‘Fake Outrage’ Over Trump Post Depicting Obamas as Apes”
Responding on Friday, Leavitt defended the post in comment to PBS and said the controversial clip was from a meme that had depicted Trump as “King of the Jungle” over other lawmakers.
FFS.
Wonderful column, Charlie. A lot of our fellow Christians insist he's God's tool. And he's definitely got the "tool" part covered. As for whether he's God's, I suspect he might be God's hammer, to help America hit itself in the face. Sometimes, God gives us what we ask for, good and hard.
The current point of the “National 🙏 Breakfast” is to prove how morally hollow attendees are.