On the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, President Donald Trump issued an official White Home message recognizing Christians in the US and around the globe who honor the day. He recalled how, based on Scripture, Saint Michael led the heavenly military that forged Devil out of Heaven, reaffirming God’s dominion over creation. For 2 millennia, Christians have turned to Saint Michael for braveness and safety in occasions of battle.
The president concluded his message by together with the Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel, written by Pope Leo XIII in 1886, which is recited by believers worldwide.
“Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection towards the wickedness and snares of the Satan. Might God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the ability of God, forged into hell Devil, and all of the evil spirits, who prowl concerning the world in search of the destroy of souls. Amen.”
Though Saint Michael the Archangel is particularly commemorated within the Catholic and Orthodox church buildings, most Protestant denominations additionally acknowledge him as a biblical archangel. Scripture (Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 1:9; Revelation 12:7–9) depicts his warrior function. In U.S. army custom, he’s extensively thought to be the patron of the armed forces generally and of airborne troops particularly. Different saints related to troopers embody Saint Maurice, Saint Martin of Excursions, and Saint George.
The White Home’s assertion carries a number of important implications. First, it seems to mark the primary time a U.S. president has formally acknowledged this particular Catholic feast day. Second, the Feast of Saint Michael got here simply days earlier than President Trump and Secretary of Battle Pete Hegseth met with U.S. army leaders to declare that the softness and political correctness of the Obama and Biden years are over, and that the Military’s mission is as soon as once more to combat and win wars.
Throughout that assembly, Secretary Hegseth shared the prayer he provides for his troopers, reaffirming his religion and the deep connection between perception and repair to nation.
Lastly, the popularity of Saint Michael’s feast day is a part of a broader sample distinguishing Trump’s presidency from Biden’s. In 2025 alone, Trump has issued or signed the Presidential Message on the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel (September 29), a Holy Week Message emphasizing Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection (April 13), a Nationwide Day of Prayer Proclamation (Might 1), a Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day Proclamation (Might 26), and launched the America Prays Initiative on the Museum of the Bible (September 8).
He additionally reinstated the White Home Religious Liberty Commission to safeguard freedom of perception.
Against this, throughout his 4 years in workplace, President Biden’s Christian recognitions have been restricted largely to annual Easter and Christmas messages and routine Nationwide Day of Prayer proclamations. The distinction displays not solely Trump’s willingness to publicly affirm the nation’s Christian heritage but in addition his effort to make religion a visual a part of American civic life.
President Biden additionally selected Easter Sunday 2024 to host a White Home occasion marking the “Trans Day of Visibility,” a call that drew widespread criticism from Christian communities. His administration’s strategy contrasted sharply with President Trump’s open recognition of Christian holidays and traditions.
Equally, earlier than the now-infamous “You’re on the fallacious rally” comment to somebody shouting “Jesus is Lord” in 2017, then–Senator Kamala Harris made headlines for saying, “How dare we communicate Merry Christmas,” throughout a press convention selling the DREAM Act. Her full assertion argued that People shouldn’t rejoice Christmas whereas DACA protections remained unresolved. But there isn’t a authorized or scriptural foundation suggesting that Christians should endorse Democratic insurance policies earlier than being permitted to rejoice Christmas.
The messaging of the 2 presidents differs sharply. President Trump’s statements are explicitly theological, usually together with detailed descriptions of Christian doctrine, guarantees to defend the religion in colleges, the army, and public establishments, and even references to his personal survival of an assassination try as divine intervention.
President Biden’s strategy, against this, emphasizes interfaith unity, spiritual pluralism, and the liberty to “follow any religion or none in any respect.” His proclamations often body faith as a private moderately than nationwide matter, highlighting inclusion and tolerance over particular theology. His Non secular Freedom Day proclamation mentioned combating discrimination towards all faiths, together with Judaism and Islam.
Nonetheless, underneath President Biden’s administration, the FBI was tasked with investigating Catholics. A memo from the FBI’s Richmond Area Workplace labeled “radical-traditionalist Catholics” as potential home terrorists. Congressional investigations later revealed that the doc had been circulated to greater than 1,000 FBI workers nationwide.
The Home Judiciary Committee later discovered that the FBI surveilled a Catholic priest after he refused to disclose confidential details about a parishioner, coordinating with places of work in Louisville and London. Additional investigation uncovered a minimum of 13 inner FBI paperwork containing anti-Catholic language, lots of which relied on the controversial Southern Poverty Legislation Heart for his or her definitions.
Along with ending the Biden-era FBI investigations focusing on Catholics, President Trump has taken concrete motion to defend Christians by govt orders reversing the insurance policies of the earlier administration. On February 6, 2025, he signed the Govt Order on Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias, establishing the Activity Pressure to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias underneath Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi. Its acknowledged mission is “to guard the spiritual freedoms of People and finish the anti-Christian weaponization of presidency.”
The duty power is charged with reviewing the actions of all federal departments and companies, together with the Division of Justice, FBI, and IRS, to establish and remove anti-Christian insurance policies or practices. It’ll ship progress studies to the president at 120 days, one 12 months, and upon completion of its two-year mandate.
The order immediately addressed Biden-era insurance policies, together with the Division of Justice’s prosecution of almost two dozen pro-life Christians for praying or demonstrating outdoors abortion clinics, amongst them a Catholic priest, a 75-year-old grandmother, and an 87-year-old girl, lots of whom acquired multi-year jail sentences.
President Trump pardoned these people on January 23, 2025. The order additionally famous that in the course of the Biden years, the DOJ largely ignored violent assaults, theft, and arson towards Catholic church buildings, charities, and pro-life facilities. Assaults on Catholic church buildings in 2023 exceeded by greater than eight occasions the quantity recorded in 2018. President Trump acknowledged that Legal professional Basic Bondi and the duty power would “totally prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society.”
