Trump’s 'incomprehensible' Christian 'fiefdoms' crush dissent: report

The Trump regime has an “erratic” and “theologically incomprehensible” preferred religion, a “bellicose, nationalist Christianity,” that is organized along various “fiefdoms,” argues Sarah Posner at Talking Points Memo. However, those spheres of control and influence are “aimed at protecting, and even justifying, the regime’s impunity.”

Posner writes that the “goal of the Christian nationalist project is to subvert democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.”

She posits that during Trump’s second term, the White House and federal agencies “have been bludgeoning federal employees, the press, and the public with religious pronouncements of moral superiority to perceived enemies.”

On Easter Sunday, several administration agencies posted social media messages “heralding Christ’s resurrection,” the Associated Press reported. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote: “The tomb is empty. The promise is fulfilled. Through His sacrifice, we are redeemed. We stand firm in faith, courage, and truth.”

“He is risen,” was the message from both the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.

The Department of Justice went even further.

“Today, as millions of Christians gather in their churches across the nation to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, this Department — is proud to protect and defend religious liberty,” the message read.

Posner argues how various administration officials use religion.

JD Vance “starts fights with the pope over his anti-war statements (even as Vance leaks to the press, with an eye to 2028, that he was against the war).”

Through his prayer meetings and press conferences, Secretary Hegseth “aims to compel Americans to embrace his Christian nationalist bloodlust and war crimes, and this week compared reporters to Pharisees for insufficiently cheerleading for the military.”

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer “has promoted her Catholicism in prayer meetings modeled on the ones Hegseth hosts at the Pentagon.”

“All these moves,” Posner writes, “are designed to crush dissent, marginalize other Christianities and religions, and empower government officials to violate the law. The fiefdoms, in different ways, prop up the would-be king’s corruption, and that of his allies.”