Trump's 'God squad' holds increasing sway at White House

by Danny KEMP

Donald Trump said at his inauguration that he had been "saved by God." Now he appears to be returning the favor with an increasingly conservative, religious focus in his second term as US president.

The three-times-married billionaire signed an executive order on Friday to open a "Faith Office" at the White House, led by the televangelist Paula White, Trump's so-called spiritual advisor.

A day earlier Trump had unveiled a task force under new Attorney General Pam Bondi to root out what he called the "persecution" of Christians in the United States.

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The Republican has also appointed several cabinet members with links to Christian nationalists, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

All of this comes despite the fact that Trump has long had an ambiguous relationship with religion.

Unlike his predecessor Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, Trump rarely appears in Church. He was confirmed into the Presbyterian church but said he was "non-denominational."

Then there are the sexual scandals -- and a criminal conviction in a porn star hush money case -- and the selling of $60 Trump-branded Bibles on the campaign trail.

Yet evangelical Christians continued to back him in the 2024 election, just as they did in 2016.

- 'Changed something' -

During his first term Trump certainly dabbled with religion.

He posed with a Bible outside a church near the White House after security forces cleared out "Black Lives Matter" protesters, and had prayer meetings in the Oval Office with evangelicals.

But now Trump claimed to have had what amounts to a religious awakening.

The 78-year-old said that he had become more religious since he narrowly escaped death when a gunman's bullet hit him in the ear at an election rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last year.

"It changed something in me," Trump told a prayer breakfast at the US Capitol on Thursday.

"I believed in God, but I feel much more strongly about it."

Not that this stopped Trump lashing out at the bishop who gave the sermon at his inauguration service, Mariann Budde, after she called on him to show "mercy" to immigrants and LGBTQ people.

But the people Trump has chosen to surround himself in the White House are also telling.

A number have ties to the New Apostolic Reformation church -- a Christian nationalist movement that calls for the levers of government and society to come under Christian control.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has been linked to the movement, as has Paula White, who will head up his new Faith Office.

White hit the headlines in 2020 when she led a marathon -- and widely mocked -- prayer session to call for Trump to win the US election against Joe Biden.

Vance converted to Catholicism in his 30s and appeared at a town hall hosted by a leading figure in the New Apostolic Reformation Church.

- 'Bring religion back' -

Former Fox contributor and military veteran Hegseth, meanwhile, belongs to a church affiliated to the right-wing Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), a Christian nationalist group.

The movement wants to reestablish Biblical law, with some of its adherents calling for the repeal of women's right to vote, US media reported.

While Trump has not expressed support for such views, he has increasingly adopted positions that have delighted America's religious right.

He repeatedly boasted that the Supreme Court justices he picked in his first term helped lead to the 2022 overturning of the nationwide right to abortion.

Since his inauguration he has sent a video message to a huge anti-abortion march attended by far-right groups and signed a series of executive orders tackling liberal causes, from diversity to transgender rights and abortion.

His prayer breakfast speech at the US Capitol this week was unusually explicit in its call for an increased role for religion.

"We have to bring religion back," said Trump. "Let's bring God back into our lives."