The Trump administration is once again blurring the line between church and state—this time by turning the State Department into a Christian grievance hotline.
According to Politico, department staff have been instructed to report their colleagues for any perceived “anti-Christian bias” as part of a sweeping new initiative tied to an executive order aimed at “protecting” Christian federal workers. The department even created a formal tip form, encouraging employees to snitch on one another anonymously.
The instructions are clear: Give names, dates, and locations of the alleged bias, with a task force set to meet on April 22 to review the “evidence.” The goal? To collect examples of religious discrimination under the Biden administration, because nothing says “freedom of religion” quite like your coworkers quietly documenting your every move for a federal task force.
According to The Guardian, examples of “bias” include “mistreatment for opposing displays of flags, banners or other paraphernalia,” a not-so-subtle reference to Pride flags at U.S. embassies. Employees are also encouraged to report repercussions for refusing to participate in events that “promote themes inconsistent with or hostile to one’s religious beliefs.”
The directive was sent to U.S. embassies worldwide under Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s name—a curious move, given that Rubio has reportedly clashed with other Trump officials, particularly co-president Elon Musk. He also got heat for not firing enough State Department employees while Musk hacked away at the rest of the federal workforce. This latest stunt could be Rubio’s attempt at clawing back favor in Trumpland.
The tip form isn’t subtle, and neither is the agenda. Once tasked with promoting democracy abroad, the State Department now moonlights as a surveillance arm of President Donald Trump’s evangelical protection racket.
Trump, for his part, has made it abundantly clear that he only cares about protecting one religion. In March, he accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of “not being Jewish anymore,” saying he had “become a Palestinian.” It was part of a long pattern of alienating Jews, Muslims, and other religious minorities while positioning Christians as a persecuted class in need of federal safeguards.
Christian nationalism is clearly ascendant in Trump’s America, but very few Americans subscribe to that ideology. A February Pew Research Center survey found that only 18% of adults say being Christian is “very important” to being American. While 58% of U.S. adults identify as Christian, most don’t fall into the Christian nationalist camp, so this effort to “protect” them looks more like political theater than serious policy.
Still, Trump’s February executive order launched a “task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias,” despite Christian conservatives already holding enormous sway in government. The State Department initiative seems like just another move to pander to the base.
The Interfaith Alliance told Politico that it’s worried the initiative may claim to combat anti-Christian stigma—especially toward Catholics—but in reality, “it will weaponize a narrow understanding of religious freedom to legitimize discrimination against marginalized groups like the LGBTQ community.”
One State Department official, meanwhile, told Politico the whole thing felt “very ‘Handmaid’s Tale’-esque.”
And they’re not wrong. This isn’t about religious liberty; it’s about weaponizing religion to police speech, silence dissent, and entrench Trump’s culture war politics deeper into the federal bureaucracy.
