As Christian nationalists gather in D.C., polling shows broad opposition to far-right vision

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The stated purpose of Sunday’s “Rededicate 250” event at the National Mall was to “rededicate our country as One Nation Under God.” That phrasing, however, was just vague enough to tell the public effectively nothing about the significance of the gathering.

The truth was more straightforward — and more alarming. As Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons explained in a compelling piece for MS NOW, the event was actually “the largest and most prominent display of Christian nationalism” in recent memory, “with the full backing of the federal government in the White House and leadership in Congress.” Graves-Fitzsimmons added, “This is what theocracy looks like.”

Over the course of roughly nine hours, attendees and viewers watched a prayer event, paid for with millions of American taxpayer dollars, in which many of the nation’s most powerful federal officials made the case that the United States was founded as a “Christian nation” (it was not) and that Americans should do more to blur the church-state line (it should not).

The gathering was not altogether surprising. The Trump administration has spent the last year and a half abandoning all subtlety when it comes to embracing and endorsing Christian nationalism — though there was a related problem with the speakers’ pitch that went largely overlooked: The American mainstream isn’t buying what they’re selling.

A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released two weeks ago, for example, found that most Americans were deeply uncomfortable with recent religion-related statements from Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.