Trump just blew ‘to bits’ longstanding American pillar with one event: analysis

The First Amendment explicitly prohibits Congress from establishing an official state religion – a cornerstone of what Thomas Jefferson called the "wall of separation between church and state" – and yet on Sunday, Trump appeared to take direct aim at that wall, seeking to "blow it to bits," Zeteo's Martin Pengelly argued in an analysis published Monday.

“On Jan. 1, 1802, in his letter to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, President Thomas Jefferson described ‘a wall of separation between Church & State,’ erected by the founders,” the analysis reads.

“Lord knows that wall has been battered and undermined, but on Sunday the Trump administration sought to blow it to bits, holding a federally funded event, ‘Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving,’ on the National Mall.”

Organized by Freedom250, a Trump-aligned group that has received millions of dollars in public funds, Rededicate 250 was an eight-hour national prayer event held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and included speeches from members of the Trump administration, though Trump himself was notably absent.

While the event drew thousands, “rows of empty seats” were also observed at the “National Jubilee of Prayer” event, per reporting from The Daily Beast. More concerning, however, was what the event represented, Pengelly argued.

“[I] somehow resisted the temptation on Sunday to catch the D6X down 16th Street and take in the Trump administration’s massive Christian Nationalist prayer rally on the National Mall, and yet ended up watching it anyway, all the while picking up a growing whirring sound as the Founders rolled in their graves,” Pengelly wrote.