
Trump's task force order is latest in efforts to boost Christian nationalism
Donald Trump is reigniting his alliance with the Christian right, unveiling a flurry of actions that include an aggressive executive order establishing a dedicated task force to combat what he claims is 'anti-Christian bias' across federal agencies.
Addressing supporters at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, Trump announced a far-reaching directive that empowers Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, to lead an effort to 'fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism' in government institutions.
'You've never had that before,' Trump said. 'If we don't have religious liberty, then we don't have a free country.'
The move represents a direct appeal to energize his Christian conservative base, and follows efforts including pardoning anti-abortion activists such as Paulette Harlow, who was convicted of blocking access to an abortion clinic – which his administration framed as persecution of Christian believers. Trump also signed orders to ban the legal recognition of transgender people by the US government.
The president's push for a religious conservative alliance also bridged domestic and international spheres this week, with his new task force announcement paralleling Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Washington visit.
At Blair House on Monday, Netanyahu met with key evangelical leaders, including Christians United for Israel founder and pastor John Hagee and former governor Mike Huckabee – Trump's ambassador-designate to Israel – drawing together Christian Zionists who form a critical geopolitical support network.
These evangelical powerbrokers, who champion hardline annexation policies such as Trump's surprise announcement to empty out and take ownership of Gaza, and reject traditional diplomatic language around the occupied Palestinian territories, represent a formidable political bloc through groups such as Christians United for Israel, which claims over 10 million members.
The recent executive order announcement takes direct aim at federal agencies including the FBI and IRS, which Trump accused of systematically targeting Christian believers. It includes the creation of a new White House faith office led by Trump's longtime spiritual adviser, televangelist Paula White.
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Some critics were quick to condemn the initiative as a thinly veiled attempt to privilege evangelical Christianity over other religious minorities.
'If Trump really cared about religious freedom and ending religious persecution, he'd be addressing antisemitism in his inner circle, anti-Muslim bigotry, hate crimes against people of color and other religious minorities,' the president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Rachel Laser, said in a statement. 'This task force is not a response to Christian persecution; it's an attempt to make America into an ultra-conservative Christian Nationalist nation.'
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Belfast Telegraph
an hour ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Genocide Convention not considered by Central Bank when approving Israel Bonds
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Asked by Labour finance spokesman Ged Nash what factors the bank would be looking for in engagements with Israel at that point, Mr Makhlouf replied: 'I think the intensity of the conflict in in Gaza probably does put a question mark over whether the financial viability of the state still remains secure. 'The fact that the European Union has indicated that it's going to look at its co-operation agreement of Israel, I think that's a factor. The fact that the [Israeli] finance minister has just been sanctioned by a number of countries, that may be a factor.' He said it would be up to Israel to assess whether these factors affect its financial standing when putting together the prospectus, but added that the bank would be required to approve the next prospectus if all matters are completely disclosed. Meanwhile, Mr Makhlouf said national restrictive measures could be imposed by the Oireachtas to stop the approval of the prospectuses, if they were consistent with EU law. 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NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
'There is no Plan B': Republicans make a daring bet on the debt limit
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Trump trade deal shows how vital China's rare-earth metals are to US defense firms
The draft trade agreement with China announced by Donald Trump on Wednesday would ease concerns from top US military suppliers about rare-earth metals and magnets that, if cut off permanently, could hobble production of everything from smart bombs to fighter jets to submarines and other weapons in the US arsenal. While the deal has not yet been finalised, it may reassure major defense companies such as Lockheed Martin, the largest US user of samarium – a rare-earth metal used in military-grade magnets – whose supply is entirely controlled by China. The issue of China's export restrictions on the metals and magnets was so important that Trump specifically mentioned them as part of his announcement of a broader trade agreement with China that would reduce US tariffs to 55% and Chinese tariffs to 10%. 'Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me,' Trump wrote. 'Full magnets, and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China.' Rare earths are crucial to the production of F-35 fighter jets, Virginia- and Columbia-class nuclear-powered submarines, Tomahawk missiles, radar systems, unmanned aerial vehicles and smart bombs, according to Gracelin Baskaran of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a thinktank. China in April imposed export restrictions on seven rare earth elements during the tough negotiations over Trump's new tariffs. China also targeted the aerospace and defense industries by limiting 15 US entities with ties to the industry from receiving dual-use goods. 'The United States is already on the back foot when it comes to manufacturing these defense technologies,' Baskaran said in an interview published by CSIS. 'China is rapidly expanding its munitions production and acquiring advanced weapons systems and equipment at a pace five to six times faster than the United States. While China is preparing with a wartime mindset, the United States continues to operate under peacetime conditions.' Trump has amassed a team of foreign policy China hawks, including a number who have warned that the US should focus more on the pacing threat posed by China over the coming decades instead of current conflicts in Ukraine or the Middle East. 'Even before the latest restrictions, the US defense industrial base struggled with limited capacity and lacked the ability to scale up production to meet defense technology demands,' she continued. 'Further bans on critical minerals inputs will only widen the gap, enabling China to strengthen its military capabilities more quickly than the United States.' China and the United States had agreed last month in Geneva to pause the implementation of sky-high tariffs that would have delivered a severe economic blow to manufacturers and consumers in the US, as well as exporters in China. But China maintained export licenses on rare-earth metals used by both defense producers and carmakers that threatened to upend global supply chains and imperil production in the United States. In particular, China has a stranglehold on the production and export of samarium, a magnet used in combination with cobalt to provide highly durable magnets used to withstand the intense temperatures in military-grade tech. China produces the entire world's supply of the rare-earth metal. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion In particular, the magnets are important for the production of guided missiles, satellite-guided 'smart bombs', and aircrafts, including fighter jets, according to Apex Magnets, a supplier. Those supplies of weapons have been depleted through deliveries of missiles and other ordnance to Ukraine and to the Israeli military. Pentagon planners and other officials in the administration of Joe Biden, regularly squared off over whether foreign weapons deliveries expose a US vulnerability in case it faced off with a major military power. In order to break the deadlock, secretary of state Marco Rubio also abruptly announced plans to cancel hundreds of thousands of visas for Chinese students in the United States. While publicly that was said as a plan to root out Chinese spies in US higher education, Axios reported that the visa ban was also motivated by China's obstinance on resuming rare earths exports. The breakthrough comes as Trump is planning to display US military prowess at a parade in Washington DC this weekend that has been seen as an attempt to flex American muscle and reinforce the US president's bonafides as a supporter of the military. Trump in 2019 ordered the Pentagon to find new sources of procuring rare earth minerals, in particular samarium, because the US did not have the capacity to produce them domestically. The initiative was 'essential to the national defense', he said then.