‘Welcome in the White House’: Trump’s Faith Office stirs ‘excitement’ among religious believers

The new White House Faith Office has a simple message for people of faith: “You are being heard now, you have a voice now, and you are welcome in the White House.”

That’s what White House Faith Director Jennifer Korn told The Lion in a wide-ranging interview about the first-of-its-kind office, established by President Donald Trump in February and located in the West Wing.

“It’s historic because we are able to have a stand-alone office that really brings faith to the forefront and puts it in the prominence, and that was because President Trump wanted that,” Korn said. “This is an engagement, a communications (office), but also a policy office.”

The president has repeatedly emphasized his commitment to protecting religious liberty.

Within the first few days of taking office, he pardoned pro-life protesters who were jailed for praying outside of abortion clinics and began a national crackdown on campus antisemitism. He also reinstated military members who were discharged after refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine – some of whom had religious objections.

“We see religious freedom around the world being diminished, and even here in America, there are pockets of that happening, and so we are called to make sure that there’s religious freedom for everybody here in America, as a beacon for the world as well,” Korn said of the office’s mission. 

Korn meets with people of faith and religious leaders “on a daily basis” as the office conducts listening sessions, working groups and briefings. Trump’s first administration brought in “10,000 people of faith through the White House doors” to meet with the president and senior officials, she added, but once “Biden came into office, all of that was done away with.” 

Two months into Trump’s second term, interest from the public has been intense, Korn told The Lion. 

“We see excitement,” she said. “We see people of faith going, ‘Okay, I don’t need to be afraid. I don’t need to hide my faith in a corner. I have a voice. And the President has really led the charge on that.” 

On a personal level, Trump has said his faith has been changed and heightened after a gunman attempted to assassinate him during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania – when a bullet grazed his ear and came within millimeters of entering his head.  

In his remarks to a joint session of Congress earlier this year, Trump credited his survival to divine intervention. 

“He truly believes that God spared his life because all the odds, if you look at it, were against him,” Korn said. “You see a humility, you see a resolve in what he’s doing, you see a calmness, really, in what he’s doing on a daily basis, and he credits it to God.” 

As the Trump administration encourages a national religious revival, Korn applauded state efforts to bring religion back into the public sphere. Several states in recent months have advanced or considered legislation to mandate the Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms, which Korn said is “fantastic.” 

“A few decades ago, it started where people and groups who don’t like religion or are not faithful, decided, ‘Well, this is the thing that we’re going to take out of public places,’” she said. Yet the country was “founded with God in mind,” she added, noting that the Founding Fathers would openly reference prayer and God in their letters. 

“This country was founded on God, and there’s a biblical foundation – and the great part of the freedoms we have is you don’t have to participate in it. But we shouldn’t be taking (religious) things out that are good for America,” Korn said, while praising state efforts to bring Bibles back into schools and to allow students a chance to attend Bible studies for a class period. “That should be an option, because that’s history and that’s part of our foundation.” 

Photo credit: White House