Columnist warns Trump admin 'stocked' with crusaders to support red state's troubling move

A columnist is warning that the Trump administration is "stocked" with operatives ready for an assault on American freedom.

Paul Waldman wrote in a Tuesday piece for Public Notice that the "religious right" is "pushing harder every year" for Christian nationalism, and the Trump White House is "stocked" with operatives ready to join the fight.

"The Trump administration is stocked with unapologetic Christian nationalists like OMB Director Russell Vought, the architect of the administration's dismantling of the federal government," Waldman wrote, referring to the head of the Office of Management and Budget.

Waldman pointed to a 2021 column by Vought "defending" Christian nationalism. Vought wrote, "Part of being a nation is a shared religious heritage. And in America, that historical heritage is, of course, Christianity."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also has "multiple Crusader tattoos," and has put in place "monthly Christian prayer services featuring far-right clerics, including at least one who advocates the establishment of a Christian theocracy," Waldman added.

"Official government social media accounts regularly send out sectarian Christian messages," according to Waldman.

Waldman also mentioned a Turning Point USA speech by Vice President JD Vance, where he said, "The only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been, and by the grace of God, we always will be, a Christian nation."

This is happening at a time when Texas has implemented a new law requiring the Bible to be taught in schools, which critics have argued flagrantly disregards the doctrine of separation of church and state.

After the Texas Board of Education added Bible passages to school reading lists, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said during an Oval Office visit, "We were a nation founded upon not the words of our founders, but the words of God because He wrote the Constitution," and insisted "the separation of church and state is not in the Constitution," even though it is, Waldman noted.

"They seek the power not just to worship as they wish but to impose their beliefs on the rest of us," Waldman wrote. "If only they understood what the tradition of American religious liberty is actually about."