'Serious leadership' not a 'pandering hairdo': Secular group schools Eric Trump on founding principles of America

The Freedom from Religion Foundation is trolling Eric Trump after the president's son made an appearance on "Fox & Friends" Wednesday demanding people clap for his father.

"I mean, [congressional Democrats] didn’t stand for anything," Trump whined. "When he said 'In God We Trust' — when my father mentioned 'In God We Trust,' the guiding principle of this country, no one stood. … I think it’s actually very sad, I think it’s sad. There are things as Americans we should be united on and if we can’t be united on God..."

The FFRF called the comments nothing more than "ahistorical incoherence." The guiding principle of the United States might differ from person to person. For over 150 years, the defacto motto of the USA was "E pluribus unum," which means, "Out of many, one." The idea was when the 13 colonies joined together as a united group of states to form one nation. It wasn't until the mid 1950s when "In God We Trust" became the official motto as a means of distinguishing itself from communism and the former Soviet Union.

"Americans are not now, nor have we even been, 'united on God,'" FFRF said in the letter to Trump.

While religion might unite believers, FFRF explained in their letter that the U.S., indeed the world, is becoming increasingly secular and diversifying beliefs away from institutionalized Christianity.

They cited an early Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, who put it eloquently:

“There is no such source and cause of strife, quarrel, fights, malignant opposition, persecution, and war, and all evil in the state, as religion. Let it once enter our civil affairs, our government would soon be destroyed.”

Weiss v. District Board, 44 N.W. 967, 981 (1890) (Orton, J. concurring).

"The founders chose to keep state and church separate precisely because religion is divisive and they were seeking to build a pluralistic nation. They didn’t build that nation or secure our freedom with theology or cheap religious slogans, but with a document that puts all power in us, in We the People," FFRF wrote. "Anything less would have been un-American."

They went on to encourage Trump to consider actual unification of the nation, which requires serious leadership and "not a pandering hairdo."

"He should work on being a president to all American including atheists, agnostics, the nonreligious, nonbelievers and nonChristians of every stripe and of every color," they closed.

Read the full letter below:

FFRF Open Letter to Eric Trump by Sarah Burris on Scribd