'Never happened before': Trump admin workers flooded with 'grotesque' Christian nationalism
U.S. President Donald Trump and Pastor Paula White attend the annual National Prayer Breakfast at Hilton hotel in Washington, U.S., February 6, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Sarah K. Burris
April 14, 2026
ALTERNET
Speaking to several federal workers, Wired revealed that the Department of Agriculture, Office of Management and Budget, Department of Labor and Department of Health and Human Services have all ramped up references to religion.
According to one person at the Department of Labor, the new focus on religion left a bad taste. “The vibes are bad, and people don’t like it."
“They always spend a lot of time carrying on like, ‘No one's forcing you to pray, these are voluntary,’” the employee told Wired. “But it's happening in the middle of a government workplace.”
They were particularly concerned about Alveda King, niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. She manages faith and community outreach at the USDA.
In January, King made comments about atheists and nonreligious people, saying they were going to Hell.
“We have different denominations, different faiths, and some have no faith — and those are the ones I would be more concerned about. If someone is totally without hope, can’t believe in anything, think the world is just falling apart, then that’s when we want justice to stand. And you bring justice every day you come to work," King told staff.
An employee told Wired, “People are uncomfortable. I know several who are offended and angry. These [worship services] are very Christian in nature.”
“I've thought about complaining, but I would worry about some form of retaliation if I were to do that, to be honest,” an employee at the Department of Labor said.
The Small Business Administration launched a Fellowship Prayer Service in March, something that staff there found "weird" and "uncomfortable."
“Honestly, I don’t know anyone who actually went to them because they are optional but it’s still uncomfortable to know that there’s a Christian prayer service happening in a government building, which is supposed to be religiously neutral," said the SBA employee.
A spokesperson for the DOL made it clear that the events are voluntary and that the service was nondenominational.
However, it has been clear to non-Protestant Christians that they aren't part of the services. On Good Friday, the Pentagon sent an email about a service and specifically called out Catholics, saying there would be no Mass. Catholics don't typically have a Mass on Good Friday.
“I guess so the Catholics know their kind ain’t welcome,” an employee, who requested anonymity, told the Huffington Post. “It’s so ridiculous.”
The Pentagon confirmed to HuffPo that there was no additional service for Catholics.
“The Protestant service is the only service scheduled in the Pentagon chapel today,” they said in a statement.
The report noted that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, "a far-right evangelical Christian, has tried to infuse his religious views into Pentagon activities."
He has openly hailed President Donald Trump as divinely appointed. The report came a week before Trump posted an AI image depicting himself as Jesus Christ. Trump claimed he thought it was a "doctor."
Even Trump's own allies questioned the move, with one far-right pastor questioning if Trump was the anti-Christ.
Meanwhile, Trump has been in his own war of words with Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope. It has played into anti-Catholic sentiment, one historian explained.
Wired cited recent data from 2025 showing that only 22.5 percent of federal workers feel safe reporting wrongdoing without fear of retaliation from superiors. In 2024, that number was 71.9 percent.
“This has never happened before,” said a USDA employee, who, like others who spoke to Wired was too fearful to have their name disclosed publicly. The Ag. Department got an email from Secretary Brooke Rollins celebrating Jesus as "the greatest story ever told."
"I have never gotten a message like this from anyone," the employee said, noting that even military chaplains don't operate like this and it's part of their job.
Donald J. Trump walks from the White House Monday evening, June 1, 2020, to St. John’s Episcopal Church, known as the church of Presidents’s, that was damaged by fire during demonstrations in nearby LaFayette Square Sunday evening. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
April 14, 2026
ALTERNET
President Donald Trump and his administration are making people “uncomfortable” with their overt calls to religiosity, according to a recent report — and federal workers are sick of it.
“On Easter Sunday, US Department of Agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins sent out an email titled ‘He has risen!’ to the entire agency,” Wired reported on Tuesday. “In the email, Rollins calls the story of Jesus Christ the ‘greatest story ever told, the foundation of our faith, and the abiding hope of all mankind.’”
An employee for the Agriculture Department described the email as “grotesque” while another employee, Ethan Roberts, complained to the Office of Special Counsel by alleging that the email has “eroded the separation of church and state.”
“The secretary is within her rights to send a message to employees and the public on the Easter holiday,” a USDA spokesperson told Wired. “Just like secretaries of agriculture and presidents have in the past.”
“On February 11, the [Department of Labor] hosted pastor Leon Benjamin, who runs two churches and previously ran for Congress as a Republican, to speak to employees during the monthly prayer service,” Wired reported, and employees say they they're unnerved by the ubiquitous presence of religion.
"I've thought about complaining, but I would worry about some form of retaliation if I were to do that, to be honest," one employee told Wired. And recent data shows that in 2025 only 22.5 percent of federal workers believed they could report wrongdoing without fear of retaliation, down from 71.9 percent in 2024.”
On January 12, Wired reports that Alveda King, the niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., told DOL employees during a monthly worship service that "We have different denominations, different faiths, and some have no faith—and those are the ones I would be more concerned about.”
“People are uncomfortable. I know several who are offended and angry,” an employee told Wired. "... They always spend a lot of time carrying on like, ‘No one's forcing you to pray, these are voluntary. But it's happening in the middle of a government workplace.” The employee added that they were particularly concerned about King’s comments concerning atheists and nonreligious people, saying they felt King had implied atheists are for sure going to hell.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is hardly known for his religiosity, but his department has also reportedly become explicitly religious.
“Last year, HHS lent full support to religious exemptions for vaccines; in February, the agency announced the expansion of funding for ‘faith-based’ addiction treatments,” Wired reported. “In his announcement, Kennedy called addiction a ‘spiritual disease.’”
But of all the government departments, perhaps none have been so impacted as the Defense Department.
In a sermon delivered before Christmas, evangelical pastor Franklin Graham told members of the military that ‘God is also a god of war," reports WIRED. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has also framed the U.S. war in Iran as a ‘holy war,’ calling Iranians ‘barbaric savages’ and calling on Americans to pray for victory ‘in the name of Jesus Christ.’”
“On Easter Sunday, US Department of Agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins sent out an email titled ‘He has risen!’ to the entire agency,” Wired reported on Tuesday. “In the email, Rollins calls the story of Jesus Christ the ‘greatest story ever told, the foundation of our faith, and the abiding hope of all mankind.’”
An employee for the Agriculture Department described the email as “grotesque” while another employee, Ethan Roberts, complained to the Office of Special Counsel by alleging that the email has “eroded the separation of church and state.”
“The secretary is within her rights to send a message to employees and the public on the Easter holiday,” a USDA spokesperson told Wired. “Just like secretaries of agriculture and presidents have in the past.”
“On February 11, the [Department of Labor] hosted pastor Leon Benjamin, who runs two churches and previously ran for Congress as a Republican, to speak to employees during the monthly prayer service,” Wired reported, and employees say they they're unnerved by the ubiquitous presence of religion.
"I've thought about complaining, but I would worry about some form of retaliation if I were to do that, to be honest," one employee told Wired. And recent data shows that in 2025 only 22.5 percent of federal workers believed they could report wrongdoing without fear of retaliation, down from 71.9 percent in 2024.”
On January 12, Wired reports that Alveda King, the niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., told DOL employees during a monthly worship service that "We have different denominations, different faiths, and some have no faith—and those are the ones I would be more concerned about.”
“People are uncomfortable. I know several who are offended and angry,” an employee told Wired. "... They always spend a lot of time carrying on like, ‘No one's forcing you to pray, these are voluntary. But it's happening in the middle of a government workplace.” The employee added that they were particularly concerned about King’s comments concerning atheists and nonreligious people, saying they felt King had implied atheists are for sure going to hell.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is hardly known for his religiosity, but his department has also reportedly become explicitly religious.
“Last year, HHS lent full support to religious exemptions for vaccines; in February, the agency announced the expansion of funding for ‘faith-based’ addiction treatments,” Wired reported. “In his announcement, Kennedy called addiction a ‘spiritual disease.’”
But of all the government departments, perhaps none have been so impacted as the Defense Department.
In a sermon delivered before Christmas, evangelical pastor Franklin Graham told members of the military that ‘God is also a god of war," reports WIRED. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has also framed the U.S. war in Iran as a ‘holy war,’ calling Iranians ‘barbaric savages’ and calling on Americans to pray for victory ‘in the name of Jesus Christ.’”
Critics sound alarm as Trump official calls separation of church and state 'a lie'
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (Wiki Commons)
Religion News reports the leader of President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission said out loud that church and state separation is a falsehood at the group’s final meeting — which immediately drew fire from a pro-Constitution advocacy group.
At a Monday hearing at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican and the chair of the commission, broached his claim, saying: “Would it not be a good recommendation that every school, every university, every business, has to have that one sheet on the bulletin board about protecting people’s religious liberty, and that the separation of church and state is the biggest lie that’s been told in America since our founding?”
Patrick said posts proclaiming the death of church and state could be similar to federal notices from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration promoting safety and preventing hazards. Religion News reports Patrick posed his question to George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School professor Helen Alvaré, who agreed.
“You’re responding to the signs of the times where this has been misunderstood, and like any other thing, where people are unclear about their rights, this might be a way to clarify them,” Religion News reports Alvaré saying.
But Rachel Laser, the president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, had none of it, arguing that the Constitution protects freedom of religion specifically by accepting the separation of church and state as granted.
“Church-state separation ensures we are all free to live as ourselves and believe as we choose, as long as we don’t harm others,” Laser said. “It allows us all to come together as equals to build a stronger democracy. It is an American original, something we should be proud of, fight for, and cherish.”
Laser went on to hammer Trump’s so-called "‘Religious Liberty’" Commission, saying it “once again demonstrated that its mission isn’t about protecting religious liberty for all. Instead, today it rebuked a foundational pillar of religious liberty: the separation of church and state,” Laser said. “Chairman Patrick repeatedly calling the separation of church and state a ‘lie’ is an attack on our democracy.”
Trump created the commission by executive order last year to “bring cases before the Supreme Court” that provide the opportunity “to remake the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, which bars the government from endorsing a national religion.” Since it’s formation, the commission has been plagued by infighting as anti-Israel board members were jettisoned from the board and further deepened the Israeli rift among Trump’s MAGA followers.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (Wiki Commons)
April 14, 2026
ALTERNET
Religion News reports the leader of President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission said out loud that church and state separation is a falsehood at the group’s final meeting — which immediately drew fire from a pro-Constitution advocacy group.
At a Monday hearing at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican and the chair of the commission, broached his claim, saying: “Would it not be a good recommendation that every school, every university, every business, has to have that one sheet on the bulletin board about protecting people’s religious liberty, and that the separation of church and state is the biggest lie that’s been told in America since our founding?”
Patrick said posts proclaiming the death of church and state could be similar to federal notices from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration promoting safety and preventing hazards. Religion News reports Patrick posed his question to George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School professor Helen Alvaré, who agreed.
“You’re responding to the signs of the times where this has been misunderstood, and like any other thing, where people are unclear about their rights, this might be a way to clarify them,” Religion News reports Alvaré saying.
But Rachel Laser, the president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, had none of it, arguing that the Constitution protects freedom of religion specifically by accepting the separation of church and state as granted.
“Church-state separation ensures we are all free to live as ourselves and believe as we choose, as long as we don’t harm others,” Laser said. “It allows us all to come together as equals to build a stronger democracy. It is an American original, something we should be proud of, fight for, and cherish.”
Laser went on to hammer Trump’s so-called "‘Religious Liberty’" Commission, saying it “once again demonstrated that its mission isn’t about protecting religious liberty for all. Instead, today it rebuked a foundational pillar of religious liberty: the separation of church and state,” Laser said. “Chairman Patrick repeatedly calling the separation of church and state a ‘lie’ is an attack on our democracy.”
Trump created the commission by executive order last year to “bring cases before the Supreme Court” that provide the opportunity “to remake the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, which bars the government from endorsing a national religion.” Since it’s formation, the commission has been plagued by infighting as anti-Israel board members were jettisoned from the board and further deepened the Israeli rift among Trump’s MAGA followers.
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