Trump Team Not Preparing To Turn America Into Christian Theocracy, How Dare You!
There's no evidence, aside from all the evidence.
A former Trump official is all set to bring America his Christian version of sharia, though in the interests of getting Trump elected, he is pretending otherwise despite a long trail of documentary evidence.
The discerning political junkie will recognize the name of Russell Vought, Donald Trump’s one-time Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and a man who, in one of those ha-ha kick-you-in-the-nuts funny coincidences that make life so worth living, shares a name with the evil corporation in “The Boys.” Vought was an early crusader against the existential horror that is Critical Race Theory, which earned him the friendship of Chris Rufo and inspired some right-wing Twitter meme edgelord to produce one of the funniest goddamn images from Trump’s presidency:
Vought has spent his post-Trump years leading The Center for Renewing America, a right-wing think tank dedicated to, first, injecting a giant dose of Christian Nationalism into the nation via a second Trump presidential term, and b) denying that that is what it is doing. As Politico notes in a new story about documents it obtained describing Vought and CRA’s efforts:
He [Vought] went on to accuse detractors of Christian nationalism of invoking the term to try to scare people. "’Christian nationalism’ is actually a rather benign and useful description for those who believe in both preserving our country’s Judeo-Christian heritage and making public policy decisions that are best for this country,” he wrote. “The term need not be subjected to such intense scorn due to misunderstanding or slander.”
As the story explicitly states, Christian nationalists like Vought believe that Christianity is under attack in America, and want to fight back with policies that prioritize Christian values in government and civic life.
And sure, in a convenient happenstance for the Russ Voughts of America, those policies all line up with the precepts of that Christian Nationalist brand of muscular Jesus Christianity that its adherents follow, but that is often at odds with gentler interpretations that might, say, allow for women having access to abortion care or transgender people living their lives as they wish. But there’s no need for slander, have you people never heard of coincidence?
A CRA spokeswoman called Politico’s reporting “false,” but elsewhere the story quotes Vought and some of his associates being pretty open about what they want. It’s not as if these people have avoided leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for us to follow.
For example, Vought has publicly said he wants tough immigration restrictions that would limit it to people who have “accept[ed] Israel’s God, laws and understanding of history,” and they don’t mean Israel in its modern incarnation as a Jewish state. Which seems as if it would be bad news for, say, Muslims or Hindus or atheists or Rastafarians or anyone in Korea still clinging to Cheondoism or … eh, you get the idea.
Vought is also affiliated with one William Wolfe, who also worked in the Trump administration at both the State and Defense departments:
In a December post, he called for ending sex education in schools, surrogacy and no-fault divorce throughout the country, as well as forcing men “to provide for their children as soon as it’s determined the child is theirs” — a clear incursion by the government into Americans’ private lives.
This is hilarious because elsewhere, Politico quotes Vought has having once written that his form of Christian Nationalism allows for “institutional separation of church and state,” which, if you can square that with Christian Nationalist policies that would make significant changes to the institutions of marriage and public schools in America, you are smarter than we are.
Truly, this is the “lay back and enjoy it” of government philosophies. And since a majority of Republicans would like to see it implemented, we’re inclined to not believe this soft soaping.
For its part, the Trump campaign is very indignant at the idea that anyone but Trump is responsible for making staffing and policy decisions for a new Trump term:
In response to various news articles about how conservatives are preparing for a second Trump term, campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a memo late last year: “Despite our being crystal clear, some ‘allies’ haven’t gotten the hint, and the media, in their anti-Trump zeal, has been all-too-willing to continue using anonymous sourcing and speculation about a second Trump administration in an effort to prevent a second Trump administration.”
Of course no one in the media is denying that the Trump campaign is in charge of staffing and policy decisions. Reporters are just looking at policies and staffers like this from the first Trump administration:
In 2019, Trump’s then-secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, set up a federal commission to define human rights based on the precepts Vought describes, specifically “natural law and natural rights.” Natural law is the belief that there are universal rules derived from God that can’t be superseded by government or judges.
Why yes, we do remember that.
And yes, if this is ringing your bells, Vought advises that Heritage Foundation Project 2025 thing we’ve written about previously, which comprises 75 some-odd think tanks full of people who can’t wait to create an authoritarian Christian nationalist second Trump term, completely untethered from American values. Heritage Foundation also denies that its project is about any of that though, heaven forfend, why would you suggest?
So reporters are looking at all these people and the policies they have been promoting and wondering, at least in Russ Vought’s case, “Hm, I wonder if this guy who worked in the first Trump administration and still reportedly talks to Trump at least once a month and who espouses all these Christian nationalist-based policies is going to get hired in the next Trump administration, and if literally everything he’s said and done for the last few years would in any way influence his work there.”
We can’t help it if the conclusion is something besides, “Nah, probably not.”
[Politico]
Wonkette respects your right to live a life of religious or secular fulfillment.
I've said many times: "Republicans believe in your absolute freedom to live your life exactly the way they want you to live it."
Let's see:
Wants a government that privileges theism over non-theism? Check.
Wants a government that privileges CHRISTIAN theism over other forms of theism? Check.
Wants mandatory sectarian prayers in public schools and government functions? Check.
Wants to abolish said public schools in favor or religious schools and homeschooling, or wants the government to fund religious schools (i.e. "school choice")? Check?
Wants to ban abortion and contraceptives for faith-based "reasons?" Check.
Wants to control human sexuality and gender identity as a point of dogma? Check.
Wants to censor and criminally punish "blasphemy," atheism, or irreverence toward Christianity and its tenants? Check.
Wants science to conform with Biblical scripture, rejecting and censoring evolution, astrophysics, environmentalism or any other scientific finding that isn't "God did it" or could be used to challenge the existence of a deity and the supernatural? Check.
Yes, how DARE we assume that they are trying to create a theocracy. 🙄