Trump yields after backlash on taxpayer-funded ‘God Made Trump’ ad
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
The Freedom From Religion Foundation welcomes President Trump’s reversal of plans to use taxpayer dollars to pay for campaign-style advertisements promoting himself. However, this doesn’t excuse his administration for putting public funds toward the effort in the first place.
After mounting criticism, Trump has announced that his super PAC, MAGA Inc., rather than American taxpayers, will pay for the commercials. The U-turn comes after more than $10 million worth of taxpayer-funded ads have already aired since September, according to AdImpact. The advertisements were funded through a $20 million Department of Homeland Security contract using public money.
“If Trump and his political supporters want to spend their own money glorifying him, that is their business,” say FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. “American taxpayers should never have been forced to bankroll this self-serving propaganda. We’re pleased that public pressure forced the president to back down.”
The administration’s plans were especially alarming because among the campaign-style advertisements produced for the effort was a three-minute “God Made Trump” video portraying the president as a divinely chosen leader. The ad, originally created by the pro-Trump Dilley Meme Team, is a risible riff on Paul Harvey’s famous “So God Made a Farmer” speech. It repeatedly, and ludicrously, suggests that Trump was personally created and selected by God for his political role. “I need somebody … to remain strong in faith and know the belief in God and country,” the narrator intones among many other claims, repeatedly concluding: “So God made Trump.”
FFRF strongly objected to the prospect of the federal government using taxpayer money to disseminate such overtly religious political propaganda. The federal government has no business using public resources to elevate the president politically while wrapping him in a mantle of divine authority.
The White House initially defended the advertisements as public service announcements. Trump himself defended using taxpayer money for them just days before reversing course, telling reporters: “I’m not promoting a candidate. I’m not promoting myself because I’m not running for office. I’m promoting the country.”
But, thankfully, Trump has changed course. “I have decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among others, and pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA Inc.,” Trump announced.
FFRF says the reversal is welcome, but it does not erase the serious questions raised by the administration’s original decision or the millions of public dollars reportedly already spent.
“The fact that Trump backed down demonstrates why speaking out against abuses of government power matters,” Gaylor and Barker add. “Taxpayer money belongs to the American people. It is not a political slush fund for presidents to advertise themselves, and it certainly must not be used to promote the notion that our political leaders have been chosen by God.”
FFRF has made repeated warnings concerning the efforts of Trump and his allies to portray his political career as part of a divine plan, including Trump’s claim that God spared him from assassination so that he could return to the presidency. Such rhetoric is a hallmark of Christian nationalism, which seeks to fuse religious identity with political power and portray political leaders and objectives as divinely ordained.
Trump’s turnabout is a welcome development. But American taxpayers never should have had to foot the bill for disinformation.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With approximately 40,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
The post Trump yields after backlash on taxpayer-funded ‘God Made Trump’ ad appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.
National Religious Broadcasters v. Bessent (2026)
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
On September 25, 2026, FFRF filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in the case National Religious Broadcasters v. Bessent. The Plaintiffs, a group of religious nonprofits, challenge the applicability of the Johnson Amendment to their organizations, claiming the Amendment violates their First Amendment rights. The Johnson Amendment prohibits 501(c)(3) organizations, including churches and religious nonprofits, from endorsing or opposing political candidates as a condition of their tax-exempt status. However, the Johnson Amendment has never been enforced against these churches, nor has the Government threatened to do so.
FFRF’s brief outlines three main arguments. First, the Plaintiffs do not have standing to bring this lawsuit. In order to have standing, the Plaintiffs must have been injured by the law they are challenging, or, in First Amendment challenges, the Government must have threatened to enforce the law against them. Since neither has occurred in this case, the Plaintiffs do not have standing to challenge the Johnson Amendment. Second, there is no genuine adversity between the parties for the Court to resolve. The Defendant, Scott Bessent, joined the Plaintiffs in asking the district court to hold the Johnson Amendment inapplicable to the plaintiffs. Since the Constitution requires adversity, the court lacks jurisdiction to adjudicate this case. Third, this case is not ripe for adjudication as the Plaintiffs ask the court to rule based on speculation of what may or may not happen in the future.
This brief was drafted by Legal Intern Emma Hanson and filed with the assistance of Legal Director Patrick Elliott.
The post National Religious Broadcasters v. Bessent (2026) appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Callahan Miller
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
State Advocacy Counsel
CALLAHAN MILLER received a B.A. with Honors in Sociology and Legal Studies in 2014 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During university, she was a leader of UW’s Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics student organization and interned in FFRF’s Legal Department. Additionally, she was the proud awardee of FFRF’s Catherine Fahringer Memorial Student Activist Award.
After graduation, she was hired as FFRF’s first legal assistant. In 2016, she departed FFRF to attend Harvard Law School, graduating with a J.D. in 2019. While at Harvard, she was active in the law school’s Gender Violence program, including acting as both a teaching and research assistant. She was also a member of the Journal of Law and Gender, Civil Rights–Civil Liberties Law Review, and International Human Rights Clinic, among others.
From 2019 to 2025, she practiced commercial litigation at two globally-recognized firms in Los Angeles and Chicago. In 2026, she rejoined her FFRF home as State Advocacy Counsel for the FFRF Action Fund.
The post Callahan Miller appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.
FFRF tackles Christian messaging on public school football gear
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is calling on two public school districts to stop using official football apparel that promotes Christianity.
FFRF recently contacted school districts in Colorado and Ohio over religious messages emblazoned on official high school football gear. At Niwot High School in Colorado, student-athletes have reportedly been instructed to wear team shirts displaying a bible verse. At Logan High School in Ohio, school-provided coaching apparel prominently declares “Jesus Won.”
Colorado football players forced to wear bible quotes
FFRF wrote to the St. Vrain Valley School District after a concerned parent reported that the Niwot High School football program distributed official team T-shirts featuring the phrase “HERE AM I, SEND ME” across the back, a quotation from Isaiah 6:8.
According to the parent, the head football coach handed out multiple shirts to players and told them they were expected to put them on for games and on bus rides when they were not wearing their jerseys. Coaches reportedly wear the same shirts on the sidelines, making the religious message prominently visible at school-sponsored athletic events.
Students were reportedly given the shirts without any explanation of the biblical message. Some players did not realize the phrase came from the bible until they searched for it themselves.
The evidence indicates that the biblical reference is intentional. The coach uses a longer version of Isaiah 6:8 in his official school district email signature: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ and I said, ‘Here am I. Send me.’ Isaiah 6:8.” The football program has also used the verse as a hashtag on its social media account.
The parent who contacted FFRF said the practice “made our family feel uncomfortable and, honestly, somewhat indoctrinated.”
Their student “felt pressured to publicly wear and display a bible verse in connection with a team activity at [their] public school despite the fact that we may not all share the same religious beliefs,” the parent explained. “It felt less like a message about positive team values and more like a public expression of a specific religious belief that we were expected to participate in.”
Ohio coaches wear ‘Jesus Won’ gear
FFRF has raised a similar concern with the Logan-Hocking Local School District in Ohio.
A concerned community member reported that Logan High School’s official school-provided football coaching gear displays the explicitly Christian message “Jesus Won” across the back.
FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Charlotte R. Gude has written to Superintendent Christy Bosch that placing “a blatantly religious message on official athletic gear provided to coaches” conveys government favoritism toward Christianity.
The fact that the message appears on coaches’ official apparel is significant. Coaches are school representatives and authority figures to their players. When school-provided clothing carries an explicitly Christian declaration, the religious message is intertwined with the public school and its athletic program.
Public school athletics must remain inclusive
The First Amendment prohibits public schools from favoring religion over nonreligion or one religion over others. These concerns are especially acute in school athletics, where coaches exercise substantial influence over students and where participation, playing time and team standing can depend on maintaining a positive relationship with coaching staff.
The religious messages at Niwot and Logan high schools also risk marginalizing the significant number of students who are not Christian. Under half of 18 to 29-year-olds are Christian today at 47 percent, with 44 percent of Generation Z identifying as religiously unaffiliated and 9 percent with non-Christian faiths.
Whether the message is a bible verse students are expected to wear or “Jesus Won” emblazoned on official coaching gear, public school athletic programs should not be used to promote religion.
FFRF has requested written responses from both districts detailing the steps they will take to remedy the violations.
“It is abhorrent for public school football programs to turn players or coaches into walking billboards for Christianity or someone else’s religion,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Students should be able to play football without their public school putting religious messages literally on their backs.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With over 40,000 members and several chapters across the country, including 1,370 members and two chapters in Colorado, and 1,158 members and three chapters in Ohio, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
The post FFRF tackles Christian messaging on public school football gear appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.
