Karoline Leavitt got called out for her “performative” preamble to the White House press briefing on Monday.
“Good afternoon, everyone,” she chirped. “Could you hear our ‘amen’ in there? We just said a little loud prayer as a team. In this Holy Week, President Trump and the first lady are joining in prayer with Christians celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
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The White House press secretary’s advertising of her piety and testifying to Christ on the job rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, with critics on X calling it a “disgrace,” “not appropriate” and a diss to the separation of church and state.
“Truly spiritual people don’t need to tell the world that they are praying,” another wrote. “Hypocrites do.”
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Someone else gave all of “Trump World” hell for Leavitt’s antics:
“White House ‘team prayer’ audible in the briefing room, complete with the Press Secretary name-dropping ‘our lord and savior Jesus Christ’? This isn’t piety—it’s a blatant Establishment Clause violation. Federal employees don’t sign up for government-sponsored Christianity. The separation of church and state exists precisely to stop this performative theocracy. But norms don’t apply in Trump World.”
Plenty of detractors would give an amen to that.
As President Donald Trump’s war against Iran drags on, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been leaning into what The Hill called “combative Christianity.”
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In a press briefing, Hegseth asked Americans to take a knee and pray to Jesus for an American victory.
He has also read a psalm.
“Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield in whom I take refuge,” he said.
He led a Pentagon service last week in which he prayed for American troops to inflict “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy … We ask these things with bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ.”
Here’s the White House’s video of the press briefing.
