Trump State Department to Focus on God-Given Rights

 November 20, 2025 
By David Badash

THE REAL CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

President Donald Trump’s State Department is revising its country-by-country human rights reports to emphasize rights “given to us by God, our creator” and “moral law,” while shifting away from the traditional focus on discrimination and persecution against groups and minorities.

The Washington Post describes it as “radically” altering the reports, and as an “unapologetically U.S.-centric and religiously tinged view of human rights around the world.”

The State Department has directed all U.S. embassies and consulates to use the new guidelines, which include a focus on individual liberties.

“The State Department’s emphasis on so-called natural rights and de-emphasis on rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and other legally binding instruments suggest an intentional effort to limit rights,” Uzra Zeya, a top official for human rights at the State Department during the Biden administration, told the Post.

The new focus appears to echo an attempt by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the first Trump administration to focus on “unalienable rights,” along with property rights and religious rights while “downplaying the rights of women and gay people,” the Post noted.

The most recent reports, issued in August under Secretary Marco Rubio, had “significant details cut, particularly in regards to gender-based violence and the persecution of LGBTQ+ people.”

Human rights activists said those reports “had been edited to limit the criticism placed on key foreign policy allies with poor human rights records.” President Trump has defended nations and leaders with poor human rights records, most recently declaring Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had an excellent record on human rights.

“I’m very proud of the job he’s done. What he’s done is incredible in terms of human rights and everything else,” Trump said on Tuesday.

MBS, according to a CIA report, authorized the gruesome murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

A senior State Department official told CNN that they “are moving away from group identities, group labels, and focusing on the fact that when a person is persecuted for whatever reason, that is a violation of the moral law.”

“We’re making sure that we’re promoting individual freedom not based on some group identity,” they said.