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CNN
07-08-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Inside one pastor's crusade for Christian domination in the age of Trump
Washington, DC and Moscow, Idaho — A standing-room only crowd gathered on a Sunday morning last month above a former bar three blocks from the US Capitol to formally open a new church. The inaugural service of Christ Church Washington DC, an extension of an Idaho-based Evangelical movement, took place in a building owned by the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), a think tank co-led by President Donald Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows. Exposed brick and pipes adorned the ceiling. An American flag hung above the pastor on the makeshift stage. Minutes before the service began, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth walked in with his wife and children. Though he wasn't in Washington, the opening marked a major achievement for Douglas Wilson, a self-described Christian nationalist pastor who, since the 1970s, has built his Evangelical church in Moscow, Idaho, into what's now an international network of more than 150 churches, as well as Christian schools, a college and a publishing company. In dozens of books and years of blog posts, Wilson advocates for the idea that America should adopt a Christian theocracy and adhere to a biblical interpretation of society. The new church in Washington is part of that mission, he says. 'Every society is theocratic,' Wilson said in an interview with CNN at his Christ Church in Idaho. 'The only question is who's 'Theo'? In Saudi Arabia, Theo is Allah. In a secular democracy, it would be Demos, the people. In a Christian republic, it'd be Christ.' Wilson believes in a patriarchal society where women are expected to submit to their husbands. Women are banned from leadership positions in his church. He supports repealing the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote, (though he says it's not a top priority) wants to outlaw abortion and says homosexuality should be a crime. While he's been on the fringes of the religious right for decades, Wilson has found an increasingly mainstream Republican audience under Trump. During Covid, his church in Moscow defied lockdown rules and held an outdoor protest in September 2020, leading to arrests, national attention and support from Trump on Twitter. His church community in Idaho has roughly doubled in size since 2019, he says. Last year, Wilson was interviewed on Tucker Carlson's podcast and spoke at Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA 'The Believers' Summit.' 'My views on a number of things have become steadily more mainstream and have done that without me moving at all,' Wilson said. Now, with a newly created White House Faith Office and Hegseth instituting monthly prayer services at the Pentagon, Wilson is part of an ascendent group of Christian religious leaders finding influence among MAGA conservatives. 'There's really a whole movement of these folks,' said Matthew Taylor, a senior Christian scholar at the Institute for Islamic-Christian-Jewish Studies, an educational nonprofit that advocates for religious diversity. Taylor says they're often known as the 'Theo Bros.' 'These almost always male, online-influencer types. Pastors, usually with a big beard, preaching hardline Calvinist theology,' said Taylor. 'And Doug Wilson is the avatar or ringleader of that crowd.' Wilson's critics point to a litany of his views they argue are well outside the mainstream, and they say they're concerned about the influence he's accrued. 'They actually literally want to take over towns and cities, and so they're building a grassroots infrastructure to do that. And they have access to this administration,' said Rev. Jennifer Butler, who founded Faith in Public Life, a network of progressive faith leaders. 'If you are Jewish, if you're a Muslim, if you're a woman, if you're gay — they want to criminalize LGBTQ people — you don't belong in this society.' Wilson doesn't apologize for his views or his theology, though he notes he writes with a 'tartness' that animates those who disagree with him. He says he has embraced the term 'Christian nationalist' because it's better than the other names he gets called. 'I'm not a White nationalist. I'm not a fascist. I'm not a racist. I'm not a misogynist, and those are the names that usually get thrown at me,' he said. 'And then when someone says, well, that's Christian nationalism, I can — well, I can work with that.' 'Owned what he believes' Wilson's most prominent and public follower in the Trump administration is Hegseth, who is a member of a church in Tennessee that's part of Wilson's network, known as the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC). When Hegseth held his first Christian prayer service at the Pentagon, he brought in the pastor from Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship, his church in Tennessee. Hegseth says he had moved there in 2022 to send his kids to a school that's part of a Christian network that Wilson helped found. While Wilson did not meet Hegseth until he was confirmed as defense secretary, the pastor says it's 'very encouraging' to see the unapologetic way that Hegseth has 'owned what he believes,' which has included purging DEI and so-called 'woke' polices from the military. Asked about Hegseth's controversial history, including numerous marital infidelities as well as allegations of excessive drinking and sexual assault, which Hegseth has denied, Wilson acknowledged, 'His past is pretty raggedy.' Now, Wilson says: 'Pete Hegseth is living like a Christian man ought to live.' Wilson described their first meeting in Tennessee in May at Hegseth's local CREC church as 'very pleasant.' In a statement to CNN, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said: 'The Secretary is a proud member of a church affiliated with the Congregation of Reformed Evangelical Churches, which was founded by Pastor Doug Wilson. The Secretary very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson's writings and teachings.' Wilson's church has already benefited from Trump being in office. In May, the Department of Justice intervened on behalf of the church, suing the town of Troy, Idaho, which had denied the church's application to operate in a former bank building, citing parking and traffic issues due to the location in the town's business district. The DOJ lawsuit accuses the town of religious discrimination. 'A Mission to Babylon' In a May blog post titled, 'A Mission to Babylon' announcing the new church in Washington, Wilson wrote there would be 'many strategic opportunities with numerous evangelicals who will be present both in and around the Trump administration.' 'We're not planting the church so that we can get to meet senators and important people. What we're doing is planting a church so that the important people in DC will be reminded that God is the important one. What matters is His favor,' Wilson told CNN. 'We've got a number of people that are connected to us that are there, and we wanted to have a church service available for them.' Wilson's Washington congregation meets above a shuttered bar popular with congressional staffers, Capitol Lounge, which still has old political memorabilia covering its darkened walls. The current venue underscores the connections to Trump's base in Washington. The building is one of several near the Capitol purchased by CPI while Trump was out of power. Led by Meadows, now a DC MAGA power broker, and former Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, CPI is at the heart of a network of conservative advocacy organizations, including the Center for Renewing America, created by Trump's budget director Russ Vought, and America First Legal, an operation co-founded by current White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. Asked how the church ended up using CPI's building, Wilson says a friend in Washington made the connection. (CPI did not respond to a request for comment.) Wilson says he was grateful for the first Trump administration and the appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices that led to the repeal of Roe v. Wade. Now in the second Trump administration he wants to see the high court repeal the 2015 decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide. Asked how the president fits into his mission, Wilson says: 'Trump is the wrecking ball. He is the wild card. He is, he's the thing that nobody really anticipated.' A divided college town In person, Wilson, 72, comes across as a sincere, mild-mannered grandfather with a thick white beard. He has three grown children — who are all members of the CREC church. (By the church's rules, he says that if his children left the church he could not be in charge, under the philosophy that if you can't lead your children, you can't lead the church.) Wilson is a postmillennialist, meaning he believes it's the job of Christians to build the kingdom of God on Earth in order to bring about the second coming of Christ. He says he sees his theology squaring off against a broader secular society that's been dominant in the US. Christ Church was founded in Moscow, Idaho, in the 1970s by Wilson's father, an evangelist who had settled his family there. The younger Wilson had just completed a stint in the Navy and was attending college in Moscow, and he writes that he became the head preacher of the fledgling church after about a year-and-a-half when the regular preacher moved to a new city. Home to the University of Idaho, Moscow is a college town, with clear competing forces in its idyllic strip of businesses along Main Street. Coffee and book shops displaying pride flags and 'Black Lives Matter' signs reside beside businesses owned by 'kirkers,' the name members of Wilson's congregation call themselves based on the Scottish word for church (Christ Church's website is ' It doesn't take long for Wilson's notoriety to show itself. While walking down Main Street with a CNN reporter, a shop owner popped out of a vintage clothing and record store called Revolver and shouted 'boo' in Wilson's direction. 'Well, there ya go,' Wilson said, looking unphased. 'It's not unusual,' he said of that sort of reception from fellow Moscow residents. 'Everybody laments the fact that we don't have community anymore, and then as soon as you start to have community, people start calling them names like a cult,' Wilson said. The church's sprawling presence in the town is hard to miss. In addition to Christ Church, Wilson more than four decades ago started the Logos School, an elementary and secondary school, when his oldest daughter was school-aged. Wilson says it was the first of what's now more than 400 'classical Christian schools' across the US. Wilson also started New Saint Andrews College in the 1990s, a small four-year college that's located on Moscow's Main Street. Just up the way from Christ Church is the Canon Press building. Works from the publishing arm of Wilson's empire are displayed, such as the poster of a book published there, 'It's Good to Be a Man: A Handbook for Godly Masculinity,' near the kitchenette. The CREC network now has more than 130 churches in nearly 40 states across the US and another 25 around the globe, including Canada, Poland, Ukraine, Russia and Australia. More than anything, Wilson says, the Covid pandemic and the government's response is what's fueled growth in his church. People were 'chased here,' he says, by blue-state governors, Covid restrictions and pastors elsewhere who closed their churches down. Wilson's many controversial views and writings Wilson says that his critics who accuse him of wanting to turn American society into a theocracy like 'The Handmaid's Tale' misunderstand his mission. 'I think all of those people would, in most areas of their life, be astonished at how much more liberty they had,' Wilson said. 'Because we are living under an oppressive, tyrannical state that wants to they want to regulate how much water comes out of my shower head. They want to regulate what kind of light bulb I can have. They want to regulate all kinds of stuff, and that affects the Muslims and the Hindus.' But critics of Wilson say his claims about the benefits of a theocratic society don't hold up for those who aren't Christian, male or straight. 'There would be fewer infringements on individual liberty from the government, that is probably true,' said Julie Ingersoll, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Florida. 'But certainty the church would have a ton more authority,' she said. 'And families would be tiny little patriarchies. These folks have said out loud that they don't think women should have the right to vote. And in the CREC, women do not vote. All congregational decisions that are made by members voting — it's the men who vote on behalf of their families.' Wilson and his pastors say they would support repealing the 19th Amendment, which gives women the right to vote, because they believe each household should have a sole vote from the head of the household (widows or single women would still get a vote, they say). 'This is a key in the way that we're thinking about the world itself. So I believe that the household is a unit, and so the household should have one vote,' said Jared Longshore, executive pastor at Christ Church in Moscow, who delivered the sermon at the opening of Christ Church Washington DC last month. 'I would ordinarily be the one that would cast the vote, but I would cast the vote having discussed it with my household,' said Toby Sumpter, another pastor at Christ Church. Wilson's writings on sex and marriage have sparked criticisms that his theology opens the door to spousal abuse and even marital rape. In a passage from his 1999 book titled, 'Fidelity: What it Means to be a One-Woman Man,' Wilson writes: 'A man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.' Wilson insisted to CNN that his theology has never supported sexual or spousal abuse, and he says he's helped women escape abusive relationships. 'If there is sexual abuse or violent abuse, other forms of misbehavior, I believe that other authorities, sometimes the cops, sometimes the elders of the church, sometimes other family members, extended family members, need to intervene to protect the woman or to protect the children,' Wilson said. Wilson advocates for ending legalized gay marriage and supports laws making homosexuality illegal, noting sodomy was banned by all 50 states when he started preaching in the 1970s. 'That America of that day was not a totalitarian hellhole,' Wilson said. His most controversial commentary is arguably about slavery. He co-wrote a booklet in the 1990s on slavery in the South, which included the claim: 'Slavery produced in the South a genuine affection between the races that we believe we can say has never existed in any nation before the War or since.' Asked if he still believes there was affection between the races, Wilson said: 'Well, yes, it depends on which master, which slave you're talking about.' 'Slavery was overseen and conducted by fallen human beings, and there were horrendous abuses and there were also people who owned slaves who were decent human beings and didn't mistreat them,' he said. 'I think that system of chattel slavery was an unbiblical system, and I'm grateful it's gone.' 'It's barely, barely started' Wilson says that his vision of turning American into a Christian nation means that Christ would be 'in the public square' but others would still be free to practice their own religions. He says his ultimate goal remains achieving a Christian theocracy across the globe, to facilitate the second coming of Christ. It's a goal he still believes is 250 years or so away. 'Yes, by peaceful means, by sharing the gospel,' he says of how it would happen. 'We're a little putt-putt effort here. So the world has got 8 billion people in it. There's a lot of work yet to do. I believe that we are working our little corner of the vineyard.' In Washington, Wilson says it's 'very encouraging' to see Hegseth defending his beliefs as he's taken a top position in Trump's administration. Hegseth's service at the Pentagon with a CREC pastor was 'not organizationally tied to us, but it's the kind of thing we love to see,' Wilson said. 'But everybody who loves the Lord in Washington, DC, will tell you how much they're up against,' Wilson said. 'And it's not anywhere close to being done. It's barely, barely started.'
CNN
07-08-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Evangelical movement: Inside one Idaho pastor's crusade for Christian domination in the age of Trump
A standing-room only crowd gathered on a Sunday morning last month above a former bar three blocks from the US Capitol to formally open a new church. The inaugural service of Christ Church Washington DC, an extension of an Idaho-based Evangelical movement, took place in a building owned by the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), a think tank co-led by President Donald Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows. Exposed brick and pipes adorned the ceiling. An American flag hung above the pastor on the makeshift stage. Minutes before the service began, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth walked in with his wife and children. Though he wasn't in Washington, the opening marked a major achievement for Douglas Wilson, a self-described Christian nationalist pastor who, since the 1970s, has built his Evangelical church in Moscow, Idaho, into what's now an international network of more than 150 churches, as well as Christian schools, a college and a publishing company. In dozens of books and years of blog posts, Wilson advocates for the idea that America should adopt a Christian theocracy and adhere to a biblical interpretation of society. The new church in Washington is part of that mission, he says. 'Every society is theocratic,' Wilson said in an interview with CNN at his Christ Church in Idaho. 'The only question is who's 'Theo'? In Saudi Arabia, Theo is Allah. In a secular democracy, it would be Demos, the people. In a Christian republic, it'd be Christ.' Wilson believes in a patriarchal society where women are expected to submit to their husbands. Women are banned from leadership positions in his church. He supports repealing the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote, (though he says it's not a top priority) wants to outlaw abortion and says homosexuality should be a crime. While he's been on the fringes of the religious right for decades, Wilson has found an increasingly mainstream Republican audience under Trump. During Covid, his church in Moscow defied lockdown rules and held an outdoor protest in September 2020, leading to arrests, national attention and support from Trump on Twitter. His church community in Idaho has roughly doubled in size since 2019, he says. Last year, Wilson was interviewed on Tucker Carlson's podcast and spoke at Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA 'The Believers' Summit.' 'My views on a number of things have become steadily more mainstream and have done that without me moving at all,' Wilson said. Now, with a newly created White House Faith Office and Hegseth instituting monthly prayer services at the Pentagon, Wilson is part of an ascendent group of Christian religious leaders finding influence among MAGA conservatives. 'There's really a whole movement of these folks,' said Matthew Taylor, a senior Christian scholar at the Institute for Islamic-Christian-Jewish Studies, an educational nonprofit that advocates for religious diversity. Taylor says they're often known as the 'Theo Bros.' 'These almost always male, online-influencer types. Pastors, usually with a big beard, preaching hardline Calvinist theology,' said Taylor. 'And Doug Wilson is the avatar or ringleader of that crowd.' Wilson's critics point to a litany of his views they argue are well outside the mainstream, and they say they're concerned about the influence he's accrued. 'They actually literally want to take over towns and cities, and so they're building a grassroots infrastructure to do that. And they have access to this administration,' said Rev. Jennifer Butler, who founded Faith in Public Life, a network of progressive faith leaders. 'If you are Jewish, if you're a Muslim, if you're a woman, if you're gay — they want to criminalize LGBTQ people — you don't belong in this society.' Wilson doesn't apologize for his views or his theology, though he notes he writes with a 'tartness' that animates those who disagree with him. He says he has embraced the term 'Christian nationalist' because it's better than the other names he gets called. 'I'm not a White nationalist. I'm not a fascist. I'm not a racist. I'm not a misogynist, and those are the names that usually get thrown at me,' he said. 'And then when someone says, well, that's Christian nationalism, I can — well, I can work with that.' Wilson's most prominent and public follower in the Trump administration is Hegseth, who is a member of a church in Tennessee that's part of Wilson's network, known as the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC). When Hegseth held his first Christian prayer service at the Pentagon, he brought in the pastor from Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship, his church in Tennessee. Hegseth says he had moved there in 2022 to send his kids to a school that's part of a Christian network that Wilson helped found. While Wilson did not meet Hegseth until he was confirmed as defense secretary, the pastor says it's 'very encouraging' to see the unapologetic way that Hegseth has 'owned what he believes,' which has included purging DEI and so-called 'woke' polices from the military. Asked about Hegseth's controversial history, including numerous marital infidelities as well as allegations of excessive drinking and sexual assault, which Hegseth has denied, Wilson acknowledged, 'His past is pretty raggedy.' Now, Wilson says: 'Pete Hegseth is living like a Christian man ought to live.' Wilson described their first meeting in Tennessee in May at Hegseth's local CREC church as 'very pleasant.' In a statement to CNN, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said: 'The Secretary is a proud member of a church affiliated with the Congregation of Reformed Evangelical Churches, which was founded by Pastor Doug Wilson. The Secretary very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson's writings and teachings.' Wilson's church has already benefited from Trump being in office. In May, the Department of Justice intervened on behalf of the church, suing the town of Troy, Idaho, which had denied the church's application to operate in a former bank building, citing parking and traffic issues due to the location in the town's business district. The DOJ lawsuit accuses the town of religious discrimination. In a May blog post titled, 'A Mission to Babylon' announcing the new church in Washington, Wilson wrote there would be 'many strategic opportunities with numerous evangelicals who will be present both in and around the Trump administration.' 'We're not planting the church so that we can get to meet senators and important people. What we're doing is planting a church so that the important people in DC will be reminded that God is the important one. What matters is His favor,' Wilson told CNN. 'We've got a number of people that are connected to us that are there, and we wanted to have a church service available for them.' Wilson's Washington congregation meets above a shuttered bar popular with congressional staffers, Capitol Lounge, which still has old political memorabilia covering its darkened walls. The current venue underscores the connections to Trump's base in Washington. The building is one of several near the Capitol purchased by CPI while Trump was out of power. Led by Meadows, now a DC MAGA power broker, and former Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, CPI is at the heart of a network of conservative advocacy organizations, including the Center for Renewing America, created by Trump's budget director Russ Vought, and America First Legal, an operation co-founded by current White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. Asked how the church ended up using CPI's building, Wilson says a friend in Washington made the connection. (CPI did not respond to a request for comment.) Wilson says he was grateful for the first Trump administration and the appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices that led to the repeal of Roe v. Wade. Now in the second Trump administration he wants to see the high court repeal the 2015 decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide. Asked how the president fits into his mission, Wilson says: 'Trump is the wrecking ball. He is the wild card. He is, he's the thing that nobody really anticipated.' In person, Wilson, 72, comes across as a sincere, mild-mannered grandfather with a thick white beard. He has three grown children — who are all members of the CREC church. (By the church's rules, he says that if his children left the church he could not be in charge, under the philosophy that if you can't lead your children, you can't lead the church.) Wilson is a postmillennialist, meaning he believes it's the job of Christians to build the kingdom of God on Earth in order to bring about the second coming of Christ. He says he sees his theology squaring off against a broader secular society that's been dominant in the US. Christ Church was founded in Moscow, Idaho, in the 1970s by Wilson's father, an evangelist who had settled his family there. The younger Wilson had just completed a stint in the Navy and was attending college in Moscow, and he writes that he became the head preacher of the fledgling church after about a year-and-a-half when the regular preacher moved to a new city. Home to the University of Idaho, Moscow is a college town, with clear competing forces in its idyllic strip of businesses along Main Street. Coffee and book shops displaying pride flags and 'Black Lives Matter' signs reside beside businesses owned by 'kirkers,' the name members of Wilson's congregation call themselves based on the Scottish word for church (Christ Church's website is ' It doesn't take long for Wilson's notoriety to show itself. While walking down Main Street with a CNN reporter, a shop owner popped out of a vintage clothing and record store called Revolver and shouted 'boo' in Wilson's direction. 'Well, there ya go,' Wilson said, looking unphased. 'It's not unusual,' he said of that sort of reception from fellow Moscow residents. 'Everybody laments the fact that we don't have community anymore, and then as soon as you start to have community, people start calling them names like a cult,' Wilson said. The church's sprawling presence in the town is hard to miss. In addition to Christ Church, Wilson more than four decades ago started the Logos School, an elementary and secondary school, when his oldest daughter was school-aged. Wilson says it was the first of what's now more than 400 'classical Christian schools' across the US. Wilson also started New Saint Andrews College in the 1990s, a small four-year college that's located on Moscow's Main Street. Just up the way from Christ Church is the Canon Press building. Works from the publishing arm of Wilson's empire are displayed, such as the poster of a book published there, 'It's Good to Be a Man: A Handbook for Godly Masculinity,' near the kitchenette. The CREC network now has more than 130 churches in nearly 40 states across the US and another 25 around the globe, including Canada, Poland, Ukraine, Russia and Australia. More than anything, Wilson says, the Covid pandemic and the government's response is what's fueled growth in his church. People were 'chased here,' he says, by blue-state governors, Covid restrictions and pastors elsewhere who closed their churches down. Wilson says that his critics who accuse him of wanting to turn American society into a theocracy like 'The Handmaid's Tale' misunderstand his mission. 'I think all of those people would, in most areas of their life, be astonished at how much more liberty they had,' Wilson said. 'Because we are living under an oppressive, tyrannical state that wants to they want to regulate how much water comes out of my shower head. They want to regulate what kind of light bulb I can have. They want to regulate all kinds of stuff, and that affects the Muslims and the Hindus.' But critics of Wilson say his claims about the benefits of a theocratic society don't hold up for those who aren't Christian, male or straight. 'There would be fewer infringements on individual liberty from the government, that is probably true,' said Julie Ingersoll, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Florida. 'But certainty the church would have a ton more authority,' she said. 'And families would be tiny little patriarchies. These folks have said out loud that they don't think women should have the right to vote. And in the CREC, women do not vote. All congregational decisions that are made by members voting — it's the men who vote on behalf of their families.' Wilson and his pastors say they would support repealing the 19th Amendment, which gives women the right to vote, because they believe each household should have a sole vote from the head of the household (widows or single women would still get a vote, they say). 'This is a key in the way that we're thinking about the world itself. So I believe that the household is a unit, and so the household should have one vote,' said Jared Longshore, executive pastor at Christ Church in Moscow, who delivered the sermon at the opening of Christ Church Washington DC last month. 'I would ordinarily be the one that would cast the vote, but I would cast the vote having discussed it with my household,' said Toby Sumpter, another pastor at Christ Church. Wilson's writings on sex and marriage have sparked criticisms that his theology opens the door to spousal abuse and even marital rape. In a passage from his 1999 book titled, 'Fidelity: What it Means to be a One-Woman Man,' Wilson writes: 'A man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.' Wilson insisted to CNN that his theology has never supported sexual or spousal abuse, and he says he's helped women escape abusive relationships. 'If there is sexual abuse or violent abuse, other forms of misbehavior, I believe that other authorities, sometimes the cops, sometimes the elders of the church, sometimes other family members, extended family members, need to intervene to protect the woman or to protect the children,' Wilson said. Wilson advocates for ending legalized gay marriage and supports laws making homosexuality illegal, noting sodomy was banned by all 50 states when he started preaching in the 1970s. 'That America of that day was not a totalitarian hellhole,' Wilson said. His most controversial commentary is arguably about slavery. He co-wrote a booklet in the 1990s on slavery in the South, which included the claim: 'Slavery produced in the South a genuine affection between the races that we believe we can say has never existed in any nation before the War or since.' Asked if he still believes there was affection between the races, Wilson said: 'Well, yes, it depends on which master, which slave you're talking about.' 'Slavery was overseen and conducted by fallen human beings, and there were horrendous abuses and there were also people who owned slaves who were decent human beings and didn't mistreat them,' he said. 'I think that system of chattel slavery was an unbiblical system, and I'm grateful it's gone.' Wilson says that his vision of turning American into a Christian nation means that Christ would be 'in the public square' but others would still be free to practice their own religions. He says his ultimate goal remains achieving a Christian theocracy across the globe, to facilitate the second coming of Christ. It's a goal he still believes is 250 years or so away. 'Yes, by peaceful means, by sharing the gospel,' he says of how it would happen. 'We're a little putt-putt effort here. So the world has got 8 billion people in it. There's a lot of work yet to do. I believe that we are working our little corner of the vineyard.' In Washington, Wilson says it's 'very encouraging' to see Hegseth defending his beliefs as he's taken a top position in Trump's administration. Hegseth's service at the Pentagon with a CREC pastor was 'not organizationally tied to us, but it's the kind of thing we love to see,' Wilson said. 'But everybody who loves the Lord in Washington, DC, will tell you how much they're up against,' Wilson said. 'And it's not anywhere close to being done. It's barely, barely started.'
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
An old Capitol Hill troublemaker is trying to clinch a megabill deal
It's a scene jarringly familiar to many Republicans on Capitol Hill: a high-stakes piece of legislation, a tense standoff between GOP leaders and conservative hard-liners — and Mark Meadows in the middle of it all. The former North Carolina congressman and Donald Trump chief of staff has been lying low in recent years. But he's re-emerged as a behind-the-scenes sounding board for Republican hard-liners, who view him as an informal conduit with the White House as they try to shape the president's 'big, beautiful bill.' It's just the latest turn for Meadows, who played a central role in ousting John Boehner as speaker, then served as conservative gadfly in Paul Ryan's House GOP before leaving for the White House. He was at Trump's side through 2020 until the ignominious end of his first term. His most recent headlines have concerned his role in the 'stop the steal' efforts that followed the 2020 election and his interactions with Trump during the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Reports of an immunity deal and his testimony to a federal grand jury made him persona non grata in some MAGA circles. But Meadows, who declined to comment for this story, has maintained a foothold on the hard right as a senior partner at the Conservative Partnership Institute — a conservative think tank in Washington headed by former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint. It's where the current iteration of the House Freedom Caucus, which Meadows once led, huddles for its weekly meetings, and he keeps in frequent touch with the group's members. Those conversations have heated up in recent weeks as the GOP megabill has moved to the top of the Capitol Hill agenda. This past Tuesday evening, for instance, Meadows ventured into the Capitol complex to meet with a small cadre of hard-liners from both chambers: GOP Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mike Lee of Utah, as well as Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. The meeting in Lee's office, which was first reported by POLITICO, focused on how the right flank could hang onto some of its biggest priorities in the House version of the megabill, while trying to eke out some new wins in the Senate. 'He's just trying to figure out how to thread the needle here,' Johnson said in an interview. Added Scott, 'Mark is trying to help get a deal done.' All five sitting lawmakers who attended the Tuesday evening meeting have threatened to oppose Trump's domestic-policy package if it doesn't meet their demands, a strategy Meadows is no stranger to. He played a key role, for instance, in shaping the first attempt at major party-line legislation in Trump's first term — a 2017 attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. He pushed as Freedom Caucus chair to make the bill much more aggressive in undoing the 2010 law's mandates. Meadows helped broker deals that ultimately got a bill through the House, but it went too far for key senators, and the effort fizzled. Now, according to Republicans who have spoken with him, Meadows has been helpful in brainstorming ideas for hard-liners as they seek to force as many of their demands into the bill as possible. He's also viewed by others as eager to stay in the mix on Capitol Hill — akin to a sort of MAGA Zelig who likes to be where the action is. 'He wants to be involved,' said one House Republican, who was skeptical that Meadows is serving a GOP interest larger than himself. It's unclear whether Meadows' role has been blessed by the White House, where opinions about 'The Chief's Chief' — as Meadows titled his memoir — vary widely. Administration officials are aware of Meadows' quiet shuttle diplomacy in the name of the president's signature policy item. Even if the Trump administration hasn't formally sanctioned his role, GOP lawmakers see him as someone who still has the ear of the president and his advisors. Scott noted that Meadows has 'a good working relationship with the White House.' Johnson said it was his impression that Meadows is still actively engaged with the administration, even though he's technically out of government. 'It's my understanding that President Trump's former chiefs stay in touch with him,' Johnson said, adding that Meadows is trying to play a 'helpful role.' Meadows grew so loyal at one point that Trump publicly lauded Meadows during a 2020 rally for physically staying by his side when he contracted Covid. But after Trump lost the election and amid the post-Jan. 6 flurry of congressional and federal investigations, the president and some top MAGA figures increasingly saw Meadows as an unreliable ally given reports about a possible federal immunity deal. 'Some people would make [an immunity] deal, but they are weaklings and cowards,' Trump wrote in 2023. 'I don't think that Mark Meadows is one of them, but who really knows?' In the end, Meadows was never charged federally and Trump's indictment on conspiracy changes related to the 2020 election never went to trial. Then, after Trump's re-election, Meadows assumed his quiet role as power broker. Meadows has popped up in the House at several big moments in recent months. He huddled with hard-liners and House GOP leaders separately during speaker election fights, including when a small group of conservatives ousted Kevin McCarthy in October 2023. He emerged from Speaker Mike Johnson's office just a few days before Trump's inauguration before being spotted on the House side of the Capitol multiple times later in the spring. Asked if he was working on Trump's behalf, Meadows replied: 'Oh no, I'm just here for a brief meeting.' He headed into the speaker's office late last month hours before the Louisiana Republican pulled off what many believed to be impossible — passing the House version of the megabill with the support of every Freedom Caucus member, save Chair Andy Harris of Maryland, who voted present. Unlike with Boehner, Ryan and McCarthy, Meadows is more ideologically aligned with Mike Johnson. The two men were both part of a group of House Republicans who took on the role of Trump's unofficial defenders during his first Senate impeachment trial, and Johnson — while never a member — has long had close ties to the Freedom Caucus, including when Meadows chaired the group. Now members of the Freedom Caucus are still in regular contact with Meadows, and the House GOP is studded with old Meadows allies, such as fellow HFC co-founder and current Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who estimated he still talks to Meadows once a week. Many of them see his low-key involvement in megabill talks as being in line with his general approach. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), who said he sees Meadows regularly, said he wouldn't be surprised if Meadows was 'facilitating' conversations, summing up his general approach as 'like, how do you get this done?' Rachael Bade contributed to this report.
Axios
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Inside MAGA's fight for "Western civilization"
The MAGA movement is no longer just fighting for President Trump. His most fervent loyalists are now engaged in what they see as a battle for " Western civilization" — a rallying cry for the modern right. Why it matters: The conservative ecosystem that has developed around Trump — and is touted daily in MAGA media — is key to understanding what's behind many of his policies. It also helps explain the right's zeal on certain issues. Zoom in: For MAGA loyalists taking this long view, "Preserving Western Civilization" is the new "Make America Great Again." They proclaim America as a Judeo-Christian country that's the successor to the great European civilizations of Greece, Rome and the United Kingdom. They see a modern " Western civilization" as one that prizes freedom, the rule of law as they interpret it, meritocracy and the nuclear family. It's a movement wrapped in nostalgia. That's why Trump's Make America Great Again slogan resonated: To many in the modern right, society was at its zenith in the 1950s — and the liberalism of the 1960s and '70s drove the decline of their ideal society. The movement sees today's DEI initiatives, expanded LGBTQ rights, fluid gender roles and illegal immigration as signs of a society run amok. Preserving Western values was a theme of Vice President Vance's major speech in Munich in February, when he decried censorship and mass immigration. Terry Schilling, founder of American Principles Project, a group that casts itself as "America's top defender of the family, told us: " Western civilization is the concept that there is a natural order of things, and that we have rights that come from God ... and there are rules." Zoom out: Critics say the Western civilization movement looks regressive and racist. Trump policy attacks on asylum-seeking immigrants, and on programs benefiting historically marginalized communities, help reinforce that image. The period of U.S. history the movement heralds included subjugation of women, segregation, and discrimination against nonwhites, those in the LGBTQ community and many others. Between the lines: The Western civilization movement sees the 1950s as a time in which society's rules of the road were fixed in values that were held by the country's founders. Its followers reject the notion that those values — and American traditions — should evolve. "Every fight is existential," said Rachel Bovard of the Conservative Partnership Institute, citing debates over LGBTQ rights and DEI. "Society crumbles under things like this. That's the lens through which we view all these things." The guideposts of the Western civilization movement run through MAGA media in ways large and small. Podcasters Steve Bannon and Jack Posobiec recite dates on their shows with "the year of our Lord" and "Anno Domini." Social media posts lament the growing South Asian population in the United Kingdom. The growing pro-natalism movement encourages conservatives to have large families. Articles in far-right media tout marriage and children, and even advice for women on ways to be more "marriageable." In recent years, conservative activists have blasted college English departments for adding courses that focus on racially diverse writers, instead of staying focused on Shakespeare and Chaucer. Reality check: The far-righters in the Western civilization movement cast their cause as noble, but their language can be divisive and offensive. In MAGA media, Islam is referred to derisively in some contexts as "Mohammedanism." Some in the movement call for the deportation of immigrants who are in the U.S. legally if they don't assimilate to "American culture." Slurs such as "tranny" are flaunted. Critics say Trump set the stage for this by giving credence to strands of discrimination. "We should be open as Democrats about being proud of, and driven by, traditions like faith and democracy — and that Trump is savaging them," said Democratic strategist Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson in the Biden administration. "Tweeting pictures of yourself as the pope while promoting thugs with deep ties to Nazi sympathizers ... is anathema to the Judeo-Christian principles I was raised to respect," Bates added. Those in the movement deny that it's discriminatory — but acknowledge that it's exclusionary. "Civilization is exclusive," conservative podcaster Michael Knowles told Axios. "That's true of every place, and that's true of every idea. If you're Christian, then you're excluding the beliefs of Muslims. If you're Muslim, you're excluding the beliefs of Christians. Something has to define us." "This doesn't mean that a Muslim can't get along well in the West," he added. "But it does mean that if people from other backgrounds wish to come to the West, they have to get with the program." The bottom line: Supporters say the movement offers a preview of post-Trump conservatism in America.
Axios
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Axios
MAGA is quiet as Trump, Vance criticize Putin
President Trump and Vice President Vance are publicly criticizing Russian leader Vladimir Putin in starker terms than in the past. But the MAGA base isn't piling on — and remains as skeptical of Ukraine as ever. Why it matters: Big voices in the base aren't contradicting Trump — but they're not echoing him, either. Top MAGA voices still say they trust the White House as it tries to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine — they just aren't shedding their longstanding skepticism of Kyiv as talks continue. Jack Posobiec, a top MAGA podcaster, told us: "In general, the MAGA base is not on board with extending or expanding the war and trust Trump when he is in negotiation mode. But I don't think extra payments [to Ukraine] will go over well." Catch up quick: Trump and Vance — who had an Oval Office altercation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — have recently been name-checking Putin more. After Russia shot missiles at civilian areas in Ukraine last month, Trump said of Putin: "It makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war, he's just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through 'Banking' or 'Secondary Sanctions?'" Vance this week said that Russia was "asking for too much," later clarifying that Putin was asking to control Ukrainian territory Moscow doesn't even occupy as part of a peace deal. The comments marked a stark reversal for Trump and Vance, who've repeatedly directed their displeasure with the war at Zelensky — though it follows a classic Trump negotiating tactic: alternating between praise and tough talk. Still, after months of hearing about Zelensky as the chief obstacle to a ceasefire deal over his repeated requests for aid, the base has built up animosity toward the Ukrainian leader. MAGA adherents still refer to him as a dictator for declaring martial law and scrapping elections during the war. Now, direct criticisms of Zelensky are not quite as loud as he and Trump appear to be more in sync, but Ukraine is still kept at arm's length. "If there is hostility that exists toward Zelensky on the right, it's because he comes across as arrogant and entitled. He's brought that on himself. Dude did a Vogue cover shoot during a war," the Conservative Partnership Institute's Rachel Bovard added. "If the Trump admin puts forward a viable plan to peace and it turns out that the person refusing to negotiate is Putin, that's as big of an issue as if it was Zelensky. Just end the dang war." Sean Spicer — Trump's first White House press secretary, who now hosts his own podcast — told Axios: "Two things can be true at once. Russia has overplayed its hand and missed President Trump's offer for a lasting peace. Ukraine is still an issue for most in MAGA world."
