The White House / Wikimedia Commons (Left), State of Florida / Wikimedia Commons (Right)
CV NEWS FEED // President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead a task force that will “eradicate anti-Christian bias.”
The task force will focus on identifying, prosecuting, and eliminating discrimination and violence against Christians within the federal government.
Trump announced his plan to sign the order at the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning.
“To confront such weaponization and religious persecution,” said Trump, “today I’m signing an executive order to make our attorney general, who’s a great person – she’s going to be a great attorney general – Pam Bondi, the head of a task force, brand new, to eradicate anti-Christian bias. About time, right?”
“The mission of this task force will be to immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible–the IRS, the FBI. Terrible,” he continued.
Under the Biden administration, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were accused of repeatedly targeting Christians.
The agencies issued memos that identified Mass-going Catholics as “potential domestic terrorists” and attempted to spy on Catholic groups and “sensitize” Catholics to so-called “warning signs of radicalization.”
Reports later surfaced that DOJ and FBI employees destroyed records to cover up widespread misconduct under the Biden administration.
Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, pledged during his January confirmation hearing to hold accountable the people who are responsible for recruiting agents to spy on Catholic churches and covering up their actions.
At her confirmation hearing, Bondi said of the DOJ under Biden: “Going after parents at a school board meeting has got to stop. For practicing your religion – sending informants into Catholic churches must stop.”
Bondi criticized the FBI for targeting “parents who had spoken at school board meetings” and condemned the DOJ’s prosecutions of pro-life citizens for engaging in “peaceful protesting outside abortion clinics.”
CatholicVote previously reported: “Over the course of 2022, however, the Biden Justice Department brought charges against over two dozen pro-life Americans under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for their activities – mostly peaceful protests and prayer gatherings – outside of abortion facilities. And during that same span of time, the administration brought no charges against pro-abortion radicals.”
In contrast, the Trump administration will focus on safeguarding Christians, especially those with pro-life values. In January, Trump pardoned 23 pro-life activists convicted under the Biden DOJ.
Attacks against Catholics under the Biden administration extended beyond the federal government. By April 2023, CatholicVote had “tracked well over 200 attacks on Catholic churches, as well as pro-life women’s resource centers – many of which are operated by Catholics.”
Trump said this week that his new task force will now “fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society” and will “move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.”
Bondi, sworn in on Feb. 4, has already taken action to uncover instances of abuse by federal law enforcement agencies.
“On her first full day at the helm of the DOJ,” CatholicVote reported, “Bondi also set up the ‘Weaponization Working Group,’ which seeks to ‘identify instances of ‘politicized justice’” by federal law enforcement agencies.
Trump underscored the critical importance of religious freedom during his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast, stating: “If we don’t have religious liberty, then we don’t have a free country. We probably don’t even have a country.”
Read the full executive order here.
