Trump creates faith office led by controversial Florida pastor. Who is Paula White?

USA Today

13-02-2025

Trump creates faith office led by controversial Florida pastor. Who is Paula White?
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AG Pam Bondi's first day ends in flurry of new policies
Pam Bondi wasted no time after she was confirmed as US Attorney General Tuesday, issuing multiple directives in line with President Donald Trump.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order to form a task force under Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice to "eradicate anti-Christian bias" inside the federal government and prosecute violence against Christians, although he did not provide any examples.
And Trump also issued an executive order forming a White House faith office and appointed controversial Florida pastor Paula White-Cain to lead it. White-Cain, a pastor at StoryLife Church and president of Paula White Ministries, both based in Apopka, has been a longtime friend and personal minister to Trump.
"This week, I am also creating the White House Faith Office led by Pastor Paula White, who is so amazing," Trump said Feb. 6 in remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast.
"From the very beginning of our republic, America has always been a nation founded by people of faith, strengthened by the power of prayer, and united by four simple but very beautiful words: In God We Trust," Trump said.
"In God We Trust," adapted from the 4th verse of "The Star-Spangled Banner," was not added as the official United States motto until 1956 during the Cold War, after Democratic Representative Charles Edward Bennett of Florida introduced a bill to put the phrase on all banknotes and coins. The phrase replaced E pluribus unum ("Out of many, one"), the nation's official motto for the previous 180 years.
Here's what to know about Paula White-Cain.
Who is Paula White?
Tupelo, Mississippi native Paula Michelle White-Cain, 58, is a pastor, motivational speaker, author, and personal minister to celebrities such as Michael Jackson, former baseball star Daryl Strawberry and President Donald Trump. Critics have accused her of being a proponent of the prosperity gospel, the teaching that sufficient devotion to God in the form of generous donations brings wealth and health. White-Cain has denied teaching the prosperity gospel "as I've been accused of teaching it."
White-Cain has described how she overcame a troubled childhood in which her parents divorced, her father died by suicide, her mother became alcoholic and she was sexually and physically abused. After her mother married a two-star general in the U.S. Navy and the family moved to the Washington, D.C. area, White-Cain said she converted to Christianity at the Damascus Church of God in Maryland and received a vision from God shortly afterward.
After a brief first marriage as a teenager, White-Cain married a pastor from the Damascus church, Randy White, and they founded the Tampa Christian Center in Tampa. The church struggled and moved several times in the early years, finally becoming the Without Walls International Church. In 2001, White-Cain began the "Paula White Today" show, which became extremely popular and was picked up by multiple networks.
By 2004, Without Walls had a second location in Lakeland and was reporting 20,000 members, which would make them the 7th-largest church in the country at the time, but the church suffered financial difficulties and filed for bankruptcy in 2014. By then, Randy and Paula White had divorced, Randy White had stepped down as senior pastor and Cain-White had moved to become pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka.
Paula White named as community leader
White-Cain has received the 2011 Impact Leadership Award during the 5th Annual International Financial and Leadership Sumitt in Houston, Texas; the 2009 Humanitarian Award by the Trumpet Award Foundation; the 2007 Behind the Bench "Mind, Body, Spirit Award" from the NBA Wives Organization, and the 2006 "Trailblazer Award" by Jesse Jackson and Rainbow Coalition.
In 2017, Orlando magazine named her one of the 50 Most Powerful in the Philanthropy & Community Voices category. Joe Kilsheimer, the mayor of Apopka at the time, praised her church's programs that mentored school students, donated food to the needy, assisted families victimized by violence and ministered to young women trapped in the adult entertainment industry. 'What I see her doing in the community,' he said, 'is of tremendous value to Apopka and northwest Orange County.'
What is the prosperity gospel?
The property gospel, also called the "health and wealth" gospel, is a fast-growing movement that teaches people can transcend poverty or illness through sufficient devotion to Christianity (often measured in the amounts of their donations) and wealth and success can be seen as an indication of the approval of God.
"The PG is popular among impoverished communities, where at best it is considered to offer the poor a means of imagining and reaching for better lives (at times accompanied by sound financial advice), and at worst is criticized as predatory and manipulative, particularly when churches or pastors require heavy tithing," the Harvard Divinity School said. "Members of the socioeconomic elite may also be drawn to PG messages, which affirm the religious and spiritual legitimacy of wealth accumulation and reinforce a worldview in which financial success is an indicator of moral soundness."
The prosperity gospel is popular in the United States, especially among Pentecostal megachurch preachers.
Was Paula White's church investigated?
From 2007 through 2011, the Senate Finance Committee investigated six megachurch televangelists, including White-Cain's ministry Without Walls International Church, that had been accused of misusing charitable, tax-exempt funds.
According to the final report, Without Walls paid salaries for extended family members, owned and operated a private jet and frequently chartered flights including trips to the Cayman Islands and a boxing match in Las Vegas, and paid for down payments on an 8,072 square-foot mansion in Tampa and a $3.5 million condo in Trump Tower in New York City.
No action was taken on the report.
Paula White and Donald Trump
"You have the 'it' factor," Trump reportedly told White-Cain.
Trump called her "out of the blue" after seeing her television show late one night, White-Cain said, and praised her sermons. She told The Christian Post that she and Trump met and talked multiple times and he appeared on her show while she held hands in prayer with him before his former "Apprentice" TV shows, during the presidential campaign and eventually in the White House.
Focus on the Family founder James Dobson credits her with converting Trump to Christianity, although she has said that Trump has always been a spiritual man. In 2017, she called Trump "a man of repentance."
White-Cain was instrumental in introducing Trump to hundreds of religious leaders, she chaired an evangelical advisory board for his 2016 campaign, delivered the invocation at Trump's first inauguration, she was present when he nominated a U.S. Supreme Court justice and signed an executive order on religious liberty, and she held prayer circles with him in the White House. She enthusiastically supported him for re-election in 2020 and 2024.
In 2020, White-Cain claimed at a prayer service that 'demonic confederacies' were determined to steal the election from Trump and claimed 'angels are being dispatched from Africa right now.'
Is Paula White married to a musician from the band Journey?
Keyboardist-songwriter Jonathan Cain of the rock band Journey started seeing White while he was married to his second wife and married her after his divorce.
What does the White House Faith Office do?
According to the executive order, the new Faith Office was established to "assist faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship in their efforts to strengthen American families, promote work and self-sufficiency, and protect religious liberty." The office, housed in the Domestic Policy Council, would empower faith-based entities, community organizations and houses of worship to serve family and communities.
The duties of the office would include: