A red state leader's claim during an Oval Office visit was met with an outpouring of corrections by online critics.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told reporters on Friday, "Separation of Church and state is not in the Constitution," while standing behind Trump. The Texas Board of Education approved a required reading list earlier that day that included passages from the Bible.
The reactions online included fact-checking posts that pointed out where the Separation of Church and State comes from and its relationship to the Constitution.
"The word religion appears in the Constitution twice," writer and podcaster Hemant Mehta posted on X. "Both times, it's preceded by the word 'No.'"
"'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion' are the first 10 words in the Bill of Rights," political commentator Jim Stewartson noted. "Treaty of Tripoli (1797): The U.S. is 'in no sense founded on the Christian religion.' The Enlightenment & the Constitution are ABOUT separation of church & state."
"The Establishment Clause is literally the first protection in the Bill of Rights," Congressman Mike Levin (D-CA) wrote. "Thomas Jefferson famously described it as creating a 'wall of separation between church and state.'"
"What Earth are we on?" asked editor and reporter Mike Freeman.
"This is what it sounds like when idiots gather, pound their religious breasts and sow stupidity," conservative MS NOW weeknight host Michael Steele wrote. "The words 'separation of church and state' do not appear in the Constitution, but the words are a metaphor (you know what that is, right?) from a 1802 letter written by Thomas Jefferson (since relied on as precedent by our Supreme Court) in which he stated that the First Amendment built a 'wall of separation between Church & State.'"