New Republic Associate Writer Edith Olmstead argues President Donald Trump’s administration violated the Constitution while it was haunting the internet with holiday images invoking Christian nationalism.
“The Department of Homeland Security’s tasteless holiday sh——posting may have just violated the United States Constitution,” Olmstead said, citing the federal agency’s official X account publishing multiple Thursday posts that appeared to violate the Establishment Clause, which prohibits government actions that favor one religion over another.
“Rejoice America, Christ is born!” read one post.
“Merry Christmas, America. We are blessed to share a nation and a Savior,” said another.
Olmstead said the second post was likely meant to evoke nostalgia, but mostly stirred nervousness with footage of President Donald Trump spliced into clips of popular holiday movies.
“It even included a photograph of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem holding a Christmas tree in Chicago, where she launched a deadly large-scale immigration operation, to really put the eerie in cheery,” said Olmstead, adding that the Trump administration now views the separation between church and state as a suggestion.
“It’s fitting that DHS would be the source of this blatant violation, as Noem’s ethnic cleansing approach to homeland security is transparently rooted in xenophobia and Christian nationalism. And the president has continually leaned into Christian nationalist rhetoric in order to please his conservative base,” Olmstead wrote.
Similarly, critics like Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, complain that the posts are “one more example of the Christian Nationalist rhetoric the Trump administration has disseminated since Day One in office.”
“People of all religions and none should not have to sift through proselytizing messages to access government information,” said Laser. “It’s divisive and un-American.”
Read the New Republic report at this link.
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