Organizers with Freedom 250, a public-private partnership backed by the White House, said the event was part of the America 250 semiquincentennial celebrations. The rally featured worship music, a stage adorned with faux stained-glass windows and columns styled after federal buildings, and appearances by evangelical figures close to Trump, including White House Faith Office director Paula White-Cain and evangelist Franklin Graham.
President Trump’s video appearance was the same recording broadcast during a marathon Bible-reading event the previous month. Seated in the Oval Office, he read from 2 Chronicles: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” The passage is frequently invoked by proponents of the idea that America was founded as a Christian nation — a narrative many historians and leaders of other faith traditions dispute.
Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson were on the schedule. Hegseth, who has incorporated Christian language and worship into his leadership of the Pentagon, appeared by video and asked the audience to pray to “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” invoking George Washington’s faith.
The program’s nearly all-Christian lineup drew sharp criticism. The Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, a Baptist minister who leads Sojourners, said the event was “deeply concerning” because it “bettrays our nation’s fundamental commitment to religious freedom.” Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, pointed to the early republic’s religious diversity — Jews, Muslims and Indigenous people — and said, “I want to shine a light on America’s history as a nation that welcomes, celebrates, and protects people of all faiths and those of no faith.”
Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, the only non-Christian religious leader listed on the program, told the crowd to applause that “antisemitism is utterly un-American,” an apparent reference to debates dividing the political right. He serves on the Trump administration’s Religious Liberty Commission alongside several of the evangelical and Catholic figures on stage.
The late conservative activist Charlie Kirk was mentioned from the stage. For attendees like Alessandra Seawright, 15, who had also attended Kirk’s memorial service, the rally was a source of community. “I think we just need more of this in our country, and we just need to share the word of the Lord,” she said.
Outside the event, progressive groups countered the message. The Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Christian organization Faithful America displayed a large balloon of a golden calf with Trump-like features. On Thursday, the Interfaith Alliance projected slogans onto the National Gallery of Art, one reading “Democracy not theocracy.”
Congressional Democrats have questioned the structure and financing of Freedom 250, which they see as an end run around a separate, congressionally chartered commission meant to plan semiquincentennial events. The AP reported that the organization is a public-private partnership backed by the White House.