A golden calf speaks at the National Prayer Breakfast

Go figure: Evangelicals love a lying, accused child-rapist, convicted felon, narcissist who doesn't go to church, doesn't know the Bible and spreads racism and hate

Sabrina Haake

On February 5, Trump addressed the 2026 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., a tradition President Dwight Eisenhower began in 1953 to solemnify the confluence of faith, gratitude, and public service. At Eisenhower’s ceremony, after he swore the oath of office, he delivered an unscripted and spontaneous prayer of humility, calling on God to “make full and complete our dedication to the service of the people.”

Seventy-odd years later at this year’s national prayer breakfast, Trump met Eisenhower’s prayer of humility and raised him one.

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Instead of somber reflection or words to soothe an anxious nation, Trump used the national prayer to deliver a blasphemous meditation on Trump: 77 minutes of self-indulgence, grievance and hatred.

Using national prayer to promote violence

Trump opened his remarks by maligning the press, complaining that he never gets “a fair break from the fake news, which is (points dismissively) back there.”

Then, only three sentences in, he started referring to himself referentially as “Sir” while calling everyone else by their first name.

Forgetting the prayer theme of the breakfast, Trump joked about murdering people in Venezuela like it was locker room talk. “I was just talking to a great leader from El Salvador and he said, man, that was some attack, I’ve never seen anything like that one. Right? Right?” Continuing his banter with the murderous Bukele across the room, Trump laughed, “That (violent attack) was good even by your high standard, right? That was a hell of an attack.”

Only ghouls or morons would think that was funny. In a rule of law world, Trump would be hauled into the ICC on multiple charges of murder.

He also used the prayer breakfast to admire El Salvador’s torture prison, CECOT, saying President Bukele (“so incredible, such a great ally”) operates “prisons so large you can’t see from one side to the other.” Trump said he’d sent CECOT “murderers, the drug dealers, the people that came into our country illegally and have already committed massive crimes… We had 11,888 murderers and many of them are in (Bukele’s) prisons right now.”

Eleven thousand murderers? Massive crimes? CBS News and the Cato Institute reported that under 12% of the 250 men sent to CECOT had prior criminal convictions, and those were mostly minor. Meanwhile, Trump butchering due process to have innocent people tortured will go down as one of the worst abuses of government power in American history.

Trump tells congregants that immigrants are waiting to murder them

After lying about who he is having deported, and why, Trump continued his un-Christlike tirade against immigrants as “monsters” and “vicious people.”

Rejecting calls from Pope Leo XIV to deal with immigrants humanely and with dignity, Trump said at his prayer breakfast that, “You can’t have people going to church and coming out and have criminals taking advantage, and doing things that nobody even wants to describe. We have to get the bad ones out.” Immigrants, it bears repeating, commit far less crime than native born U.S. citizens.

On brand, Trump then segued to his ICE crackdown in Washington, D.C., claiming he removed over 2,000 “monsters” from the streets. Federal arrest data show that over 80 percent of the immigrants arrested in D.C. under Trump’s “crime emergency” campaign had no prior criminal records. None at all, not even unpaid traffic tickets.

Thou shalt not lie

During Trump’s first term, one analyst counted more than 30,000 specific falsehoods of record. At least his national prayer offered continuity. When he wasn’t lusting after violence and cruelty, every sentence out of Trump’s mouth was an easily disproved lie. In his national push against law-abiding immigrants, Trump is also bearing false witness.

The Bible doesn’t mince words about lying liars who lie: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor; “He who breathes out lies will perish; “No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house.” But Trump’s flock, lavishing him with praise at the prayer breakfast, willingly overlooks the sins of their golden calf.

That Christo-nationalists still idolize Trump as “Chosen” while he governs by falsehood proves that Christianity in the time of Trump is not about Christ. It’s not about loving thy neighbor, or helping the poor. It’s about power: God’s name appears in the bible 4000 times, while Trump’s name appears in the Epstein files over 38,000 times, and Trumpers don’t care. There could be multiple videos of Trump having sex with children in those files, it wouldn’t matter to MAGA ‘Christians.’

After erecting golden statutes of himself, Trump is now planning a 250 foot tall arch that will dwarf important D.C. monuments, including the Lincoln Monument. By design, scale, and metaphor, American history will shrink next to Trump’s arch. Under his vision, sacred American monuments will be reduced to doll-like replicas looking up at the arch, calling, “Sir.”

Christianity under Trump is rotten. It is hollowed out, unadulterated power-cult worship, and it won’t end well. Cult members might want to re-read Exodus 32, where God executed the Israelites for worshipping a golden calf, then sent them a plague for good measure.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1^st and 14^th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.