Civil Religion

She sells magical crucifixes and has warned of consequences from God for those who don’t stand with the president.

The president’s spiritual advisor, Florida-based televangelist scammer Paula White-Cain, said at a book-signing event this week that saying no to Donald Trump is the same thing as saying no to the Christian god.

While speaking during the event, White-Cain recounted how the president asked her to join his Evangelical advisory board before his 2016 inauguration, saying, “He’s got a strong persona, don’t get me wrong. Don’t start a fight with him.”

“Why would the evangelicals come out and vote for him?” she asked before saying that “God told me to” join his advisory board.

“Because one thing I said, ‘I’ll never do politics,'” she said. “But when it came down to it, it wasn’t about doing politics. It was about an assignment. To say no to President Trump would be saying no to God. And I won’t do that.

A New York gallery has transformed into a chapel-style installation exploring ‘Trumpism’ as a modern American belief system in ‘The Holy Babble!’. The exhibition includes a 250-page book that rewrites Trump’s rhetoric in a religious style, accompanied by biblical imagery, stained glass elements, and an altar-like display.

President Trump on Friday unveiled official architectural renderings for the triumphal arch he plans to add to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The proposed monument would stand at one end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge next to the Arlington National Cemetery. In addition to the president's post on Truth Social, the plans were released by the Commission on Fine Arts, a federal agency that has review authority over the design and aesthetics of construction within Washington, D.C., and produced by Harrison Design, an architecture, interior and landscape design firm with offices in six U.S. cities, including D.C. The mockup shows a structure very similar to the 3D model that Trump touted at a fundraising dinner at the White House last October.

At 250 feet tall, the overall height of the structure is intended to serve as, "a fitting recognition of America's 250th birthday," the White House said in an email to NPR.

A monument aimed at honoring what and whom?

The proposed arch bears a striking resemblance to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris — though would stand almost 100 feet taller — and is topped with two golden eagles and a winged, crowned figure reminiscent of the

Statue of Liberty (which was gifted to the U.S. by France in 1884.) On one side, the words "One nation under God" appear, with the phrase "Liberty and justice for all" on the other. The structure would also loom over the nearby Lincoln Memorial — at more than twice the height. "The Triumphal Arch in Memorial Circle is going to be one of the most iconic landmarks not only in Washington, D.C., but throughout the world," said White House spokesperson Davis Ingle in an email to NPR. "It will enhance the visitor experience at Arlington National Cemetery for veterans, the families of the fallen, and all Americans alike, serving as a visual reminder of the noble sacrifices borne by so many American heroes throughout our 250 year history so we can enjoy our freedoms today. President Trump will continue to honor our veterans and give the greatest Nation on earth — America — the glory it deserves." When asked by CBS political correspondent Ed O'Keefe whom the monument was intended to honor after Trump initially unveiled his plans in October, Trump responded: "Me." The exchange was captured in a social media video. A group of Vietnam War veterans launched a lawsuit in February seeking to bar the Trump administration from constructing the arch. The plaintiffs argued the project violates statutes requiring express congressional authorization for the erection of commemorative works or any "building or structure" on federal park grounds in D.C., among other issues.

"It's textbook Trump," said Sue Mobley, director of research at Monument Lab, of the proposed plans for the arch, in an interview with NPR. The nonprofit design studio based in Philadelphia reimagines public art and structures. "It has to be the biggest. That's the authoritarian impulse." Trump has repeatedly pushed back on accusations of authoritarianism, rejecting the label of dictator. Mobley added that she doesn't think the plans will come to fruition. "It will likely get tied up in court," she said.

Approval process

The White House said it will "follow all legal requirements" in constructing the triumphal arch. As part of that process, it mentioned the National Park Service's recent request to present potential designs to the Commission on Fine Arts. The plans are scheduled to be reviewed next week. At this point, that commission is composed entirely of members appointed by Trump. (In October 2025, Trump took the unusual step of firing six sitting members of the commission.) The National Capital Planning Commission, the federal government's central planning agency for the National Capital Region, is alsoexpected to weigh in on the plans. The White House said the estimated cost of the project, which it anticipates will draw on a combination of public and private funds, is still being calculated. Harrison Design, the architecture firm behind the plans, did not immediately respond to NPR's request for information about the price tag.

Multiple D.C. makeover projects

The arch plans are the latest in a series of current and potential architectural interventions from the White House in and around Washington, D.C. Most dramatically, the administration is pushing for the creation of a $400 million neoclassical ballroom at the White House. A federal appeals court on Saturday temporarily allowed the construction of the ballroom to move forward while the administration challenges a March ruling that it required congressional approval. Whatever the outcome, the historic East Wing has already been demolished to make room for the new structure. Trump has converted the White House Rose Garden into a stone- covered patio. He aims to shut down The Kennedy Center for two years to facilitate a major renovation (a coalition of groups including the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the American Institute of Architects, and the D.C. Preservation League, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in March opposing the plans.) And he has proposed architectural changes to the Washington Dulles International airport through an initiative the Department of Transportation launched late last year to overhaul the Northern Virginia airport. Several prominent architecture firms including Zaha Hadid Architects and Adjaye Associates have submitted proposals. In August, the president also signed an executive order requiring that new federal buildings with construction budgets of more than $50 million be designed in "classical" or "traditional" styles.

Since the 15th century, movements had emerged to create civic religions, ranging from secret societies (Freemasonry, the Illuminati, Opus Dei) to Jacobinism and positivism. Faith in the nation and in nationalism was a way to combat socialism and contain Catholicism. The revolutionary socialism of the early Mussolini was intended to be more of a belief than a science. As he often said: “Humanity needs a belief.” It was about appealing to an experience of faith in the religion of the Nation. The patriotic religion. Giovanni Gentile argued that fascism had a religious character, “insofar as it takes life seriously,” and “as a movement it arose from the very soul of the nation.” It aimed to create an ethical state.

The sacralization of politics has always involved the sacralization of war, purifying violence: the ultimate sacrifice of body and soul for a sublime cause. Death and resurrection appear transfigured in the cult of martyrs and heroes. The connection between war and the awakening of religious sentiment is as evident in D’Annunzio as it is in Marinetti. In Il Fascio from 1921, it was written: “We are the custodians of a generation that, long ago, transcended the limits of its own historical reality and advances unstoppably toward the future… We are the highest of the high… The Holy Communion of war has molded us all with the same spirit of generous sacrifice.” Fascist belief transcended the natural attachment to life on earth.

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The new promised land is Silicon Valley, theorized with reference to Carl Schmitt and, in a distorted and perverse way, to René Girard (the theory of the scapegoat and imitation as the flip side of rivalry). The new Antichrist is the entire historical accumulation of knowledge, organization, and struggle that has been warning of the existential risks humanity and planet Earth face if nothing is done to curb social, historical, environmental, racial, and sexual injustice; if democracy cannot defend itself against anti-democrats; if imperial will replaces international law; if war, genocide, and the plundering of resources are the only means of “resolving” conflicts. For the fascists of the Antichrist, all this historical accumulation of the last two hundred years is a training ground of stagnation that impedes the only possible redemption, technological redemption.

The fascism of the Antichrist and the extremist identitarianism—both Christian and Zionist—on which it is founded, are nonetheless manifestations of Eurocentric thought, which should come as no surprise since every civilization contains “its own” barbarism. And in true European fashion, the “laboratory” experiments of this fascism begin outside the Eurocentric metropolises, in Western Asia (Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Iran, and Lebanon), but one never knows where they end. After all, wasn’t the genocide of the Herero and Namaqua peoples of Namibia carried out by the Germans between 1904 and 1908 a rehearsal for the Holocaust of the Jews in Europe?

History's first U.S.-born pope didn't mention the United States or President Donald Trump in his prayer, which was planned before the talks were announced. But Leo's tone and message appeared directed at Trump and U.S. officials, who have boasted of U.S. military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.

"Enough of the idolatry of self and money!" Leo said. "Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!"

The phrase “Christ is King” isn’t new — it’s sometimes used by Christians to refer to the belief that Jesus’s divine rule goes beyond that of earthly leaders. But the phrase has recently become “a kind of rallying cry for Christian supremacy,” historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, told Truthout.

Over the last few years, the slogan has spread from far right provocateurs like Nick Fuentes to Trump’s cabinet and the military. In February, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth used the phrase at a convention of the National Religious Broadcasters, galvanizing Christian nationalists’ thirst for authoritarian rulers whose Jesus is defined by militant masculinity — more like a crusader or cowboy than the peace-loving, “sacrificial lamb” celebrated on Easter, who was executed for challenging the hierarchies of empire.

Along the way, the phrase has become a dog whistle for antisemitism, and it’s often combined with other Christian nationalist “holy war” rhetoric that has been spiking since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.

"Blasphemous," Rich Raho, a Catholic theologian, posted on X. "It’s stunning to see a US Bishop standing right there on the stage while Paula White compares Trump to Jesus Christ."

A recent string of revelations about abuses by the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps presents an opportunity to rein in the military’s presence and power in public schools.

A federal commission tasked with approving designs for coinage has approved a 24-karat gold coin featuring President Donald Trump, flouting precedent regarding commemorating living presidents and possibly violating federal law.

The coin, formally meant to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the United States, shows Trump standing behind a desk, firmly pushing his two fists on top of it while giving a stern look in the direction of the coin holder.

The unanimous vote from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts occurred on Thursday. The commission is composed entirely of people appointed by the president, following his firing of its former members last fall.

“This is how we should order our lives together,” he said. “And frankly, yes, we are going to impose it upon you. If you don’t like it, I’m sorry, but this is good and right and just if it lines up with God’s standards, and I am going to enforce my morality on you in as much as our morality is God’s morality.”

“You should always check yourselves,” he continued. “Do I believe what God believes? Am I defending what God says is good?”

“And if it is, then you should have the courage to say, ‘This is how we’re going to run our town, this is how we’re going to run our county, this is how we’re going to run our state, and this is how we should run the United States of America by legislating the morality that we can find in the Bible.'”

The Christian Zionist movement has long pushed for regime change in Iran. With allies in Donald Trump’s inner circle and its ideas seeping into the US military, it has played a key role in building support for the current war.

Today, however, it seems Christian Zionism’s influence has risen to a new level in government.

Since the strikes on Iran began on Feb. 28, 2026, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a watchdog group, reported over 200 complaints about commanders telling troops across branches of the U.S. armed forces that the current war with Iran was part of a divine plan, invoking biblical ideas about the “end times.”

“Anytime Israel or the U.S. is involved in the Middle East, we get this stuff about Christian nationalists who’ve taken over our government, and certainly our U.S. military,” Air Force veteran Mikey Weinstein, the foundation’s president, told The Guardian.

A further sign of Christian Zionism moving into government was the 2025 appointment of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. Among the most influential and prominent Christian Zionists, Huckabee, a Baptist minister, for years led “Holy Land tours” to Israel.

“I believe it is a special place because God made it special,” Huckabee told conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September 2025. “I believe the Scripture, Genesis 12: Those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed. I want to be on the blessing side, not the curse side.”

In conclusion, Pete Hegseth represents a new model of American leadership that does not hide its ideological agenda, putting US relations with the Islamic world to a real test. As the military and political war continues, the question remains about the extent of the impact of this 'crusading' vision on regional stability and the future of international alliances.

THE UNITED STATES is waging a religious war. This is, at least, how dozens of fanatical U.S. military commanders understand President Donald Trump’s illegal assault on Iran: a messianic battle to bring about Jesus Christ’s return.

“President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” one military commander told his combat unit, which could be deployed to fight in Iran “at any moment,” according to a complaint reportedly filed by one of the unit’s officers to a military watchdog group.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation says it has been “inundated” with more than 200 calls across dozens of military installations, including 110 complaints filed between Saturday morning and Monday evening, from service members reporting their commanders have invoked similar extremist rhetoric of Christian Zionist messianism when justifying the unprovoked war on Iran.

Florida public schools will force students to take a Heritage Foundation-backed class on the “evils of communism.”

Carr closed out his statement by asking those networks down to patriotically clown on Independence Day to swear their fealty and commitment to the above requests by joining his Pledge America Campaign. Carr said he looks forward to broadcasters “taking the Pledge and fulfilling their public interest mandate” before noting that this is all completely voluntary, of course.

Time will tell what amazing displays of jingoism await us this summer. But it America’s birthday is anything like that lit parade they had last year to the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary—brought to you by Coinbase—we’re all in for an unforgettable experience.

For roughly half a century, a certain strain of American evangelical theology has taught millions of believers to read conflicts like Trump’s war with Iran not simply as geopolitics in action but as prophecy unfolding in real time. I was one of them.

You look at Trump and it's like, I don't know you. I don't know who you are. I don't know what you are. You are demonic. You are a demonic force. And what's really freaky is now he's always talking about going to heaven, “I'm not going to heaven.” Yeah, I think you might be right about that because you are a demonic force. You are a liar. You are diabolical. You are a traitor.

(this post is not an endorsement of any of these people)

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By attempting to frame the conflict as a holy war, leaders are using theological beliefs to “justify action, mobilise political opinion, and leverage support”, Jolyon Mitchell, a professor at Durham University in the UK, told Al Jazeera.

“Many on both sides of this conflict believe that they have God on their side. God is enlisted in this conflict, as with many others, to support acts of violence. The demonisation and dehumanisation of the enemy, the ‘other’, will inevitably make building peace after the conflict even harder,” Mitchell said.

“There are several overlapping reasons, and they operate at different levels: domestic mobilisation, civilisational framing, and strategic narrative construction,” Ibrahim Abusharif, an associate professor at Northwestern University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera.

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Abusharif said that the war on Iran is about power and politics, but using religious rhetoric energises supporters and “moralises” the conflict.

“The war itself is not theological. It is geopolitical. But the language surrounding it increasingly draws on sacred imagery and civilisational narratives. That rhetoric can mobilise supporters and frame the conflict in morally absolute terms,” Abusharif said.

“Yet it also carries risks: once a war is cast in sacred language, political compromise becomes harder, expectations become higher, and the global perception of the conflict can shift in ways that complicate diplomacy.”

A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing Monday that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” according to a complaint by a non-commissioned officer.

From Saturday morning through Monday night, more than 110 similar complaints about commanders in every branch of the military had been logged by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).

The complaints came from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations, the MRFF told me Monday night.

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