The first words in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights are “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” Many social conservatives — who otherwise consider themselves “originalists” when it comes to reading the text of the Constitution — have long argued that the Founders didn’t really mean those words and that they actually intended for America to be a Christian nation.
That’s nonsense, of course. No less an authority than Thomas Jefferson spoke of a “wall of separation between the church and state,” and he made the argument in practical, not philosophical terms. Jefferson and James Madison both argued that forcing anyone to pay taxes to a government that was allied with a church or faith they didn’t belong to would deprive them of their religious liberty.
So the separation of church and state actually protects religious liberty and protects us from being compelled by the government to finance someone else’s religion. Sounds pretty American to me!
That’s not how the Trump administration appears to see it, though. Apparently still fighting the fictitious “War on Christmas” and continuing its tradition of trampling on the Constitution, the administration broke with the long-standing American government tradition of sticking with secular Santa-and-reindeer or jingle bells imagery in its official Christmas messaging. Instead, several administration figures and agencies posted overtly religious Christian messages from their official government accounts on Christmas Day.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted an image of an American flag waving in the snow with the adorning message, “Merry Christmas to all. Today we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May His light bring peace, hope, and joy to you and your families.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted an image of a nativity scene with the text, “The joyous message of Christmas is the hope of Eternal Life through Christ.”
Therein lies a major MAGA conundrum. Do they want a Christian theocracy? Or is the “Savior” already walking among us at Mar-a-Lago?
Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, was quoted by The Washington Post as saying the posts are “one more example of the Christian Nationalist rhetoric the Trump administration has disseminated since Day One in office,” adding, “People of all religions and none should not have to sift through proselytizing messages to access government information. … It’s divisive and un-American.”
Laser is correct to point out the Trump administration’s genuinely disturbing and un-American alliances with Christian nationalist groups and personalities, a significant number of whom are actively hostile to civil liberties protected by the Constitution.
But, this being the Trump administration, the cult of personality often gets under the feet of the would-be American theocracy.
The Department of Homeland Security, for example, posted two videos to X with “Christ is Born!” as the text. But DHS posted another one that was far more menacing than Christ-like.
With the message “Merry Christmas, America. We are blessed to share a nation and a Savior,” this post featured a 85-second video with hundreds of smash cuts of “American family” Christmas imagery, snippets of Charlie Brown and Bruce Willis in “Die Hard” and, of course, Trump iconography. Presented in a style similar to the notorious torture scene from “A Clockwork Orange,” the video appears to mostly celebrate American consumerism and Trump. It’s not even clear if the “Savior” referred to in the post is supposed to be Christ or Trump, but it’s about as un-reverential to Jesus Christ and Christian teachings of forgiveness, charity and generosity to the poor as a Christmas message could get. Therein lies a major MAGA conundrum. Do they want a Christian theocracy? Or is the “Savior” already walking among us at Mar-a-Lago? Regardless, there’s a way to wish your fellow Americans a joyous and blessed holiday without it coming off as a defiant threat. The Trump administration Christianists on social media sure aren’t doing that — which is probably the point.
Anthony L. Fisher is a senior editor and opinion columnist for MS NOW, often covering free speech, civil liberties and extremism. He was previously the senior opinion editor for The Daily Beast and a politics columnist for Business Insider. 
