President Donald Trump and key administration officials will take part in a prayer event this Sunday at the National Mall in Washington, marking what organizers call a “rededication of our country as One Nation Under God” as America celebrates its 250th birthday.
However, opponents are calling the Rededicate 250 gathering an attempt to “hijack” American history with a misleading Christian nationalist message — one they argue merges American and Christian identities while undermining the constitutional separation of church and state.
The all-day event is being coordinated by a nonprofit organization called Freedom 250. According to its website, the group operates as a public-private partnership “leading the presidential programming for America’s 250th anniversary,” which reaches its peak with the Declaration of Independence anniversary on July 4.
Democratic lawmakers in Congress have raised concerns about the organization’s structure and funding, viewing it as a Trump-controlled workaround to bypass a separate commission established by Congress ten years ago to organize semiquincentennial celebrations.
Event organizers anticipate thousands will attend Rededicate 250, featuring worship music, prayers and addresses from Cabinet members and other Republican officials, alongside religious leaders and additional speakers. Trump and several other participants will address attendees via video, while others will appear in person. Confirmed speakers include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana.
“Our founders knew two simple truths,” Hegseth stated in a promotional video for the event that featured a series of Cabinet secretaries.
“Our rights don’t come from government, they come from God. And a nation is only as strong as its faith,” Hegseth continued, whose application of Christian language to justify U.S. and Israel’s conflict against Iran and in other official contexts has attracted criticism.
A second promotional video for Rededicate 250 combines various Christian and American imagery — footage of a cross placed on an American flag, a robed choir, people lifting their hands in worship — alongside a brief shot of a man praying while wearing a Jewish skullcap. Voices of well-known preachers can be heard, with one declaring, “Faith in God is the value that most shaped America.”
Religious figures participating in the Rededicate 250 program include several longtime Christian allies of Trump, such as evangelist Franklin Graham and pastors Paula White-Cain, who leads the White House Faith Office; Robert Jeffress; and Samuel Rodriguez. Also planned are Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron and Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, the sole faith leader on the program representing a non-Christian religion.
Performers for the program include Grammy-winning contemporary Christian artist Chris Tomlin.
Several key participants describe Rededicate 250 as a Christian event.
“I believe it’s a moment when the Body of Christ, the church, comes together and will boldly declare that America still needs God,” Georgia pastor Jentezen Franklin said in a social media video posted on X. “This is an opportunity for believers to stand together as one nation under God. … I’m honored that they’ve asked me to speak and share the Gospel.”
Johnson highlighted that the event occurs 250 years after Congress designated May 17, 1776, a “day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer” supporting the Revolutionary cause.
Opponents argue Rededicate 250 is designed to advance Christian nationalism — whose supporters typically maintain that the United States was established as and should remain a Christian nation.
“What should be a broadly unifying celebration has been politically hijacked and wrapped up in this MAGA narrative that tries to rewrite our history and promote the president’s agenda,” said U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
Huffman argued the movement ignores the diversity of America’s religious and nonreligious communities throughout its history and endangers constitutional protections against government-established religion.
The gathering “would have the founders rolling in their graves,” said Huffman, a California Democrat. He co-chairs the Congressional Freethought Caucus, which emphasizes separation of church and state.
“They have narrowly defined what it means both to be American and to be Christian, and they are wrapping that in the official sanction of the U.S. government,” Huffman stated.
He noted it’s a movement that doesn’t represent all Christians, pointing to Trump’s recent conflicts with Pope Leo XIV.
The Rededicate 250 gathering is happening alongside other White House initiatives targeting Trump’s devoted base of conservative Christians, particularly white evangelical Protestants.
Multiple participants — including Graham, White-Cain, Dolan, Barron and Soloveichik — also serve on the Religious Liberty Commission. That Trump-appointed group is developing a report on its conclusions following a year of hearings, many focused on conservative Christian and right-leaning political complaints. Its chair, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, consistently rejects that the Constitution establishes a separation of church and state.
Multiple Rededicate 250 participants also joined Trump in a Bible-reading marathon.
Additionally, a separate Trump administration task force recently claimed discrimination against Christians under Democratic President Joe Biden — a report that progressive groups criticized as “advocacy dressed up as investigation.”
That report claimed such bias led to substantial fines against two Christian colleges — Grand Canyon University for allegedly misleading thousands of students about program costs, a decision later overturned, and Liberty University for its management of crime statistics and sexual assault cases. Choirs from both institutions are performing at Rededicate 250.
Six in 10 U.S. adults, and eight in 10 white evangelical Christians, indicated they believed the founders initially intended America to be a Christian nation, according to a 2022 Pew Research Center report.
Historians broadly concur that the founders’ religious views differed, that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t establish an official religion and that it was substantially influenced by Enlightenment philosophers.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which promotes strict separation of church and state, plans to organize a demonstration elsewhere in Washington on the day of the rally.
“This is the government putting on a Christian nationalist event,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, the foundation’s co-president. “Even if it is accepting private money for it, it’s still putting it on. It’s outrageous.”
Brian Kaylor, a Baptist pastor and president and editor-in-chief of Word&Way, a progressive site covering faith and politics, noted that while the Continental Congress did call for a day of prayer, the founders created the Constitution to prevent the establishment of religion. Two early presidents, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, believed such official events were damaging to religion, he wrote.
The gathering “simply doesn’t represent what type of nation the founders later decided to create,” Kaylor wrote.
