(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would create a White House faith office and direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead a task force on eradicating what he called anti-Christian bias within the federal government.
“The mission of this task force will be to immediately hold all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI and other agencies,” Trump said in remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast.
He said he would sign an executive order later on Thursday appointing Bondi to be “the head of a task force – brand new – to eradicate anti-Christian bias.” He did not give examples of anti-Christian bias.
The actions could pose constitutional questions about the separation of church and state, with the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment limiting government endorsement of religion.
Trump also said he would create a new commission on religious liberty.
“If we don’t have religious liberty, then we don’t have a free country,” he said.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Doina Chiacu, Writing by Brendan O’Brien; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Alistair Bell)
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