When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, one of his loudest pledges was to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. Now, it appears his administration is more focused on tearing walls down. In particular, the wall of separation between church and state.
And they're going much further than just cracking the wall. According to the Trump administration's own Religious Liberty Commission, it was never supposed to be there in the first place. On June 26, the commission handed over a 224-page draft report calling for that wall to come down, and a "bridge" to go up in its place, built for "all Americans."
Buried under the rubble: several minority faiths that don't get a single mention, and a wave of active lawsuits from more than 50 denominations over government raids on houses of worship that the report conveniently omits.
What's Actually in the Report?
The commission was established by executive order in May 2025, with a mandate to "offer diverse perspectives on how the Federal Government can defend religious liberty for all Americans." Its 12 members include 11 Christians, many closely aligned with the administration, and one Orthodox Jew. After holding hearings on religious intolerance largely focused on the experiences of Christians, the group finally released its draft report on Friday, June 26.
The report's central argument reframes a familiar phrase. It contends that "wall of separation between church and state," a line from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson which does not appear in the final Constitution, has been "misapplied and weaponized" to push faith out of public life.
That's the demolition plan in the report's own words: swap the wall for a bridge connecting government and religion. Alongside it sits a list of policy recommendations:
- Establish a religious liberty violation phone hotline.
- Create a religion-focused Department of Justice task force.
- Expand school choice funding to more religious institutions.
- Appoint judges "with a proven commitment to religious liberty."
Is This a Bridge, or a Wall?
The commission members themselves frame the report as restoring balance, not erasing boundaries. The draft insists it doesn't call for "theocracy" or eliminating church-state separation outright, only for recognizing a "tension" built into the First Amendment's two religion clauses. Supporters point to grievances raised in the commission's hearings: coaches barred from praying on the field, students facing pressure to affirm beliefs that conflict with their own, and believers who feel their convictions are treated as suspect in public life.
Whose Liberty Didn't Make the Final Edit?
Critics argue the report answers a much narrower question than the one it was assigned. The Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush of Interfaith Alliance said it "fails to represent and uplift the importance of religious diversity and tolerance for all faiths in our country, not just a special, chosen few." Secular Coalition for America's Steven Emmert put it more bluntly, calling the report "a roadmap for expanding religious privilege" rather than protecting freedom.
The specifics back up that critique: Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Baha'i, and Native American traditions don't appear anywhere across the 224 pages. The documented recent rise in Islamophobia is also largely unaddressed. Its definition of antisemitism ties the term partly to Zionism, describing it as an ideology that denies Jewish ancestral ties to Israel, a framing some Jewish groups have themselves debated. The roughly one-third of Americans who claim no religious affiliation get no mention either.
And perhaps the most blatant omission: more than 50 denominations and houses of worship are suing the administration right now over its decision to end a policy that kept ICE out of churches. A 224-page report on religious liberty, and not one word about it.
Sound Familiar?
Debates over how Christian America's government should be aren't new. ULC recently traced how claims that the nation was founded as an explicitly Christian country resurface in moments of anxiety, from the Civil War to the present. Selective recognition follows a familiar pattern, too.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon cut its list of officially recognized faiths from over 200 down to a fraction, dropping hundreds of belief systems most Americans never knew were being counted in the first place. And the report's silence on the church-raid lawsuits mirrors an ongoing split among clergy over how to respond to immigration enforcement, a question many congregations are already living through, not just debating.
If the blueprint for tearing down the wall leaves out Buddhists, Native traditions, and the fastest-growing group of Americans who claim no religion at all... whose liberty is actually getting protected? And when houses of worship are suing over government raids on their own sanctuaries, can a report on religious freedom that never mentions it still call itself complete?
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