Inside Trump’s plan to end the separation of church and state

At 3:37 in the afternoon, Donald Trump sat with his shoulders slumped forward, his eyes closed as he fought to stay awake while a circle of handpicked far-right religious power brokers stood packed tightly behind him. They were there as members of his Religious Liberty Commission, the people now laying the ideological foundation for the moral vision of his presidency. And their strategy was summed up in a single sentence spoken by the chairman: "Again, the separation of church and state is not in the Constitution."Based on the events of 6-27-2026The Breakdown:Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, chair of Trump's Religious Liberty Commission, declared the separation of church and state "should have no power over people of all faiths ever again in America"Patrick to Trump: "No president in our history has stood more for God than this president"The commission placed a 224-page draft report, "America's First Freedom," on Trump's deskAmong its recommendations: repealing the Johnson Amendment, which bars tax-exempt churches from endorsing candidatesWhy removing that guardrail matters: when the rules become inconvenient, they change the rules rather than their behaviorA DOJ Religious Liberty Task Force, religious liberty hotlines, and judges with records of favoring religious expressionThe commission was filled almost entirely by conservative Christians, with its first hearing opening with a prayer "in Jesus' name"Seven lawsuits have been filed against the commission for violating federal law requiring ideological diversityTrump at the Faith and Freedom Coalition: "We saved religion, it was going down"The real purpose revealed: "Everyone needs to get out and vote in the midterms. If we don't, everything that we've gotten" could be undoneThe Texas State Board of Education voted to make Texas the first state to require public school students read the Bible, K-12Specific translations mandated, including the King James Version, with no other religious tradition on the listTrump posting a fake image of himself as Atlas holding the Earth, two months after posting one of himself as JesusHow truly faithful people feed the hungry and shelter the homeless, while this administration guts Medicaid and slashes food assistanceWhy this is not a revival but a takeover, and the tool is control, not scriptureHow Franco, the Taliban, and Iran's Islamic Republic all wrapped power in religion, where the faith was never the pointWhy every move is happening now: their polling is slipping, special elections break against them, and they are desperateWhy the report is still a draft open for public comment until July 12th, and the Texas mandate does not take effect until 2030This country was not founded as a Christian nation. It was founded by people fleeing religious persecution who understood what happens when the state claims to speak for God. They wrote the First Amendment to protect the people from a government that would use religion as a weapon. That protection has stood for 250 years. It can survive Donald Trump, too. But only if we refuse to surrender it. And we never will.This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.