At the 2025 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC on Thursday, President Donald Trump announced an executive order to create a new task force to end government persecution of religious believers, such as the Christians who were targeted by the Biden Administration.
While America has historically been a haven for people of faith, the past four years were very difficult for them, particularly Christians, Trump said:
“Unfortunately, in recent years we've seen this sacred liberty threatened like never before in American history. There's nothing happened like the last four years, what's happened. With so many things gone bad, but religion, what they've done and the persecution that they've executed, have been just horrible.”
Trump cited the case of a 75-year-old grandmother in attendance who was arrested and jailed for praying outside an abortion clinic:
“For example, most of us would not have believed it possible that a grandmother with a severe medical condition. quite elderly woman would be put in jail for praying here in America. She was put in jail because she was praying.
“We're joined today by a woman who was 75 years old. Paulette Harlow was sentenced to two years in prison for peacefully praying outside of a clinic, charged under an obscure law that hadn't been used in years, selectively weaponized against Christians by the previous administration.”
Under the Biden Administration, federal departments “were terrible to people of religion, all religions,” Trump said. The president said that, after taking office, he felt it was an honor to pardon Harlow and 23 other persecuted Christians.
Trump then announced that he is taking steps to prevent future religious persecution by the government under his administration:
“I will be creating a brand new presidential commission on religious liberty. It's going to be a very big deal, which will work tirelessly to uphold this most fundamental right.”
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“To confront such weaponization and religious persecution, today I’m signing an executive order to make our attorney general – who is a great person, she is going to be a great attorney general, Pam Bondi – the head of a task force, brand new, to eradicate anti-Christian bias.”
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“The mission of this task force will be to immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible. The IRS, the FBI: terrible. And other agencies.”
Trump promised that his administration will go to extraordinary lengths to protect religious rights in America:
“In addition, the task force will work to fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society – and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.
“You've never had that before, but this is a very powerful document I'm signing. You got it. You got it now. First time you've had it.”
While Trump cited Paulette Harlow’s case as an example of government targeting Christians under Biden, it wasn’t an isolated incident.
In another high-profile case, Mark Houck, a pro-life father of seven, was arrested in 2022 for pushing an abortion clinic escort who was harassing his son.
In an interview with the Catholic News Agency, Houck’s wife described the terrifying experience of the FBI’s excessive show of force when it used a gun-wielding SWAT team to arrest him at his home in front of his children:
“At the time of the arrest, Houck’s wife, Ryan-Marie Houck, told CNA that ‘a SWAT team of about 25 came to my house with about 15 vehicles and started pounding on our door.’
“She added: ‘They said they were going to break in if he didn’t open it. And then they had about five guns pointed at my husband, myself, and basically at my kids.’”
Houck was ultimately acquitted.
Three days after Trump won the presidency last November, Houck and his wife filed lawsuits against both the FBI and Justice Department for malicious and retaliatory prosecution, abuse of process, false arrest and assault.
And, in a move targeting Catholics nationwide, a 2023 FBI memorandum characterized “traditional Catholics” as potential domestic terrorists and described a scheme to infiltrate Catholic churches as a method of “threat mitigation.”
A subsequent investigation by the House Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government found that the memorandum represents “a startling reminder that Americans’ civil liberties and core Constitutional rights must be vigorously guarded against government overreach, including in this case from an overzealous law enforcement agency.”
“If we don't have religious liberty, then we don't have a free country. We probably don't even have a country,” President Trump told the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday.
🚨 President Trump announces that he will be signing an Executive Order to make Attorney General Pam Bondi the head of a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias. pic.twitter.com/IaxhAGuDBZ
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 6, 2025