President Trump Turns to Catholics to Staff His Administration

Like most everyone else, I was caught up in the history, pageantry and drama of President Trump’s Inauguration on Monday. It was a testimony to America’s singular vision of government that a peaceful transfer of power has now taken place 74 times since George Washington was inaugurated as our first President in 1789. It was also a testimony to the new President’s resilience that he was reelected despite the many obstacles in his way.

Trump’s inaugural speech laid out his vision for America over the next four years, and it was everything that his supporters hoped for. From bringing illegal immigration under control to rolling back government regulation of free speech to cutting federal support of transgender ideology to the many other promises he made during the campaign, the new President assured the nation that the platform he ran on would be the platform that he will govern from.

For all the variety of topics that he addressed, though, Trump left one out. He made no mention of religion. I don’t believe that his lack of attention was due to a lack of concern but to a host of more pressing issues. Religious matters didn’t seem nearly as important as the war in Ukraine, the ballooning national debt or national unity.

At least not during the President’s speech. But behind the scenes religion is playing a larger role in Trump’s presidency than many people realize.

Trump’s personal religion seems to be authentic, although no one can say with certainty just what kind it is. While raised a Presbyterian, he now considers himself non-denominational and has gravitated toward a varied group of evangelical church leaders such as Robert Jeffress, Franklin Graham, Greg Laurie and Pentecostal pastor Paula White (his closest spiritual advisor). Their influence on Trump has been widely reported and shows on his part a personal connection with their brand of faith and an openness to the agenda of religious freedom and traditional morality that they embrace.

When you look at President Trump’s appointments to his Cabinet and other key leadership positions in his administration, though, a far different picture emerges. A picture less to do with photo ops among celebrity pastors and more to do with serious people of faith dedicated to the fundamental transformation of the national character. When it comes to the hard job of governing, Trump is choosing many men and women who are Catholic.

The list is surprising—and more extensive than many people realize. Cabinet appointees who are Catholic are:

• Vice-president JD Vance

• Marco Rubio, the newly confirmed Secretary of State

• Elise Stefanik, nominee for Ambassador to the United Nations

• Sean Duffy, nominee for Secretary of Transportation

• Lori Chavez-DeRemer, nominee for Labor Secretary

• Linda McMahon, nominee for Secretary of Education

• John Ratcliffe, nominee for CIA Director

The President also placed Catholics in other key areas of leadership. Among them are Border Czar Tom Homon, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater and Director of Counter-terrorism Sebastian Gorka.

That’s not all. In his first administration Trump chose three United States Supreme Court justices (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett) who are Catholic or have Catholic backgrounds. Joining the three other Catholic justices already sitting on the high court (Chief Justice Roberts, Alito and Thomas), six of the nine justices now on the United States Supreme Court are Catholic.

What’s going on? Writing as a Baptist pastor, I can’t help but to notice the trend and wonder what’s behind it. But before I try answer that question I need to make two points.

The first is that I’m not attempting in this post to imply a conspiracy, as though there’s a scheme at the highest levels of government to build up a Catholic political system. I don’t at all believe that. The second point is that I’m not trying to set up Catholic theology as a straw man for Protestants to tear down. If you want to see that process at work all you have to do is go to X (formerly Twitter) where you can find plenty of angry people working hard at it.

So back to the original question. What trends are at work in American religion and politics to bring about this surprising turn of events where President Trump is stacking his administration with Catholics? Here, again, I think there are two observations to be made, one focusing on a shift in American religious life and the other focusing on the nature of the Catholic faith.

My first observation is that America is going through a shift right now that no one saw coming. The best way I know to explain it is by going back to Aaron Renn’s “Three Worlds” theory that he developed a few years ago.

According to Renn, American life prior to 1994 was in a “Positive World” regarding the Christian faith. The United States was perceived to be a Christian nation and Christian morality was generally accepted. To be a member of a church was an advantage in the larger culture. Positive world came to its head in 1994, in Renn’s estimation, with the rise of the Moral Majority and the Republican Congress’ Contract with America.

But the 1994 presidential election saw Bill Clinton winning reelection as President and, according to Renn, his victory ushered in “Neutral World.” The next ten years saw the country shift its response to the Christian faith from generally positive to more of a neutral stance. While Christian morality was still respected, it was rapidly changing. To be a Christian in the larger culture wasn’t as universally admired as before but still was tolerated.

All that changed in 2015 with the United States Supreme Court’s “Obergefell” decision that legalized homosexual marriage. Renn sees this moment as the dividing line between the “Neutral World” of the previous ten years and the new “Negative World” that began with “Obergefell.” In this new world, Christian morality wasn’t just ignored but attacked. To be a Christian wasn’t just tolerated but was reviled.

Renn’s scheme makes sense to me, and I’ve spoken and written about it many times. But over the last year I’ve noticed a shift beginning to happen in American religious life. Renn has noticed it, too. There’s a new interest in the Christian faith, a fresh appreciation for the Bible, a fatigue with the culture and an openness to the message of the gospel. You can see the shift in many churches experiencing growth in the aftermath of COVID, the large numbers of young adult men coming back to church. And you can see it in the young families packing Catholic churches that have retained the traditional Latin Mass.

With the shift in American church life in, especially, traditional Catholic churches, it’s not at all surprising that a large number of Catholics—I’ll talk below about how their theology grasps the connection between state and church better than any other—have been drawn to the nation’s capital. Their faith is serious and focused on impacting the nation for God’s glory and human flourishing.

My second observation is about Catholic theology. Catholicism has spent almost two millennia building an understanding of church and state that’s more sophisticated and impactful than other Christian traditions. Its vision of ethics and morality is coherent. Its focus on sexuality, marriage and family is an antidote for modern despair. Its social teaching on the value of the individual, the place of work and the role of government is a corrective to the evils of communism and the excesses of capitalism alike. It’s no surprise the many of the brightest young minds in politics today are from Catholic backgrounds. Indeed, Vice President JD Vance’s conversion story from the Pentecostalism of his youth to his adult embrace of Catholicism tracks this very journey.

Is President Trump turning to Catholics to staff his administration? Yes, he is.

Does he have good reason to do so? Again, the answer is yes.

And a final question. Will the nation benefit from the Catholics serving this President? I think the national magazine, Politico, answers that question better than I can with a recent article that explains the impact of so many Catholics in Trump’s new administration:

Their faith could play a direct role in shaping public policy, from pro-union policies and new tariffs to expanding the child tax credit and more tightly regulating the food and drug industries — and also help carve a new path forward for the Republican Party.

In interviews, several conservative practicing Catholic leaders said they see a close alignment between many of Trump’s second-term policy priorities and a conservative read of Catholic social teaching, which goes far beyond abortion. It’s also focused on promoting marriage and having children, giving parents wide discretion on everything from school content to health care and empowering non-governmental institutions like churches and nonprofit organizations for social support.

“No one’s walking into the administration ready to mount a crusade or anything,” said Rachel Bovard, vice president of programs at the Conservative Partnership Institute, a Trump-aligned think tank. But “there’s a very specific sort of Catholic paradigm that you may begin to see.”

For my part, I think all this is a good thing, a very good thing.