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What a Trump Presidency Means for Religious Freedom

by Jorge Gomez • 8 minutes

On Nov. 5, Americans from coast-to-coast chose to return Former President Donald Trump to the White House. First Liberty President, CEO & Chief Counsel Kelly Shackelford discusses how the forthcoming Trump administration could approach religious liberty and what the power shift in the U.S. Senate means for federal judges, who make critical decisions about our First Freedom. Watch below:

First Term Policies Offer Hope for the Future of Religious Freedom

A second Trump administration has an opportunity to protect religious liberty for all Americans by building on its previous record. Trump’s policies during his first term led to several, important advancements for religious freedom. Those include:

• The 2017 Executive Order on Protecting Religious Liberty, a measure designed to advance religious freedom across all federal executive agencies.
• The 2019 Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism, affirming the administration’s commitment to enforce federal law that prohibits discrimination against Jewish communities and believers.
• The 2020 Executive Order on Advancing International Religious Freedom.
• Updating Department of Education policies to allow religious organizations to receive federal funds and take part in programs that provide tutoring, mentoring and other services to students and teachers.
• A critical policy update to Department of Veterans Affairs regulations to permit religious literature, symbols and displays across facilities nationwide.
• Removing burdensome Federal Emergency Management Agency regulations and reinstating emergency relief for houses of worship and religious organizations.
• Proposing new Department of Labor regulations that afforded religious organizations and businesses better and fairer treatment when they contract with the federal government.
• Implementing a new Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rule to make sure the Little Sisters of the Poor and other faith-based ministries would not be forced to choose between violating their religious beliefs by complying with contraceptive mandates or shutting their doors.
• Establishing the new HHS Conscience and Religious Freedom division to direct the agency’s efforts to protect religious freedom and people of faith in the healthcare industry.
• Setting the Department of Justice in motion to defend religious liberty in the legal sphere.

Additionally, the first Trump administration supported religious exemptions from the contraceptive mandate, advocated for the repeal of the Johnson Amendment, supported wedding vendors and faith-based foster care providers in Supreme Court cases and strengthened religious liberty protections in the military.

Download this guide to see an extensive list and more religious freedom policies by the first Trump administration.

Over the last four years, the Biden administration revoked or reversed many of those policy advances. The Biden administration showed a particular disdain for beliefs of religious Americans and pursued policies that were hostile to religious liberty. To that end, it repeatedly weaponized federal agencies like the Departments of Justice, Defense, Veterans Affairs, Education and Health and Human Services—just to name a few—to target people of faith.

The second Trump administration can once again make sure that federal policy protects people of faith, religious organizations and the free exercise of religion.

For example, it can uproot the Biden administration’s infusion of dangerous gender ideology into federal policy. The Biden administration radically redefined Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Those changes disproportionally harmed faith-based colleges and universities, and effectively pressure students and teachers of faith to hide their religious beliefs or risk discipline or termination.

In an interview just days before the election, President-elect Trump pledged to provide faith leaders with direct access to the Oval Office by reinstating the Faith Office he created during his first term.

“We have to save religion in this country. I mean, honestly, religion is under threat in this country, serious threat, and we can’t let that happen,” Trump said when speaking at the Faith Summit in Powder Springs, Georgia. “It’s sort of the fabric of our country. It’s the thing that holds our country together. We can’t, we can’t lose it. We’re not going to lose it.”

Trump vowed to fight on behalf of America’s Jewish community. “I will defend our American Jewish population,” Trump said at an event commemorating the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel.  “I will protect your communities, your schools, your places of worship and your values. We will remove the jihadist sympathizers and Jew haters. We’re going to remove the Jew haters who do nothing to help our country, they only want to destroy our country.”

During a speech at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention earlier this year, President-elect Trump outlined several ways in which he would support religious freedom:

• Religious Liberty in the Public Square: “I will once again aggressively defend religious liberty…in all of its forms…We will protect Christians in our schools, in our military, in our government…And we will protect God in our public square.”
• Religious Liberty Task Force: “I will create a new federal task force [to fight] anti- Christian bias….Its mission will be to investigate all forms of illegal discrimination, harassment, and persecution against Christians in America. Never again will the federal government be used to target religious believers.”
• Johnson Amendment: “We’re going to [end the Johnson Amendment] on a permanent basis.”
• Protecting Christians: “In my first term, I fought for Christians harder than any president has ever done before…And I will fight even harder for Christians with four more years in the White House.”
• Protecting Religious Symbols: “They want to tear down crosses…and cover them up with social justice flags…But no one will be touching the cross of Christ under the Trump administration. I swear to you, that will never happen.”
• Religious Expression and Speech: “ I will never allow the big media or left-wing pressure groups to silence you, censor you, discriminate against you, or in any way tell you what you have to say…You’re going to say (what) you want, and you’re going to believe, and you’re going to believe in God.”
• National Motto: “America has a glorious motto, ‘In God We Trust.’ We will never change that motto.”

Trump gave other assurances that are important to people of faith, including promising to stand proudly with “our friend and ally, the State of Israel,” to support “universal school choice,” “restore the timeless truth that God created two genders, male and female,” “keep men out of women’s sports,” and “sign a law prohibiting child sexual mutilation in all 50 states.”

For those troubled by the attacks on religious freedom and our First Amendment rights, a second Trump administration casts a hopeful vision for religious liberty.

Americans spoke clearly on Election Day. Now, there is much reason for hope.

Elections have consequences. And this election was no different. There was much at stake this election cycle: the future of the Supreme Court, the Constitution and the freedoms we hold most dear.

While there’s reason for hope, the battle for our First Freedom isn’t over. Opponents of religious freedom appear more emboldened than ever to strip away our freedom to live, work and express ourselves according to our faith. There is plenty of lot of work ahead and many cases we still have yet to win.

Regardless of who occupies the Oval Office or in charge of Congress, our mission at First Liberty remains unchanged. We are first in the fight to protect religious freedom. We will continue fighting for people of all faiths whose rights and liberties are attacked.

That was true on Election Day. It’s true today. And all of us here at First Liberty are fighting to make sure it’s true tomorrow.

Will you join us in the fight for faith?

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