Religious Freedom Advocates Are at Odds With the White House

A new report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom highlights the divide between advocates and the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump speaks.

AP

When Sen. James Lankford stood up on Tuesday to praise the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom for its annual report, the Republican was emphatic: “The hope is that this report is not a report that everyone says, ‘Look, there was a release,’ but that it’s actually applied and is implemented,” he said.

“Thank you, and I really, truly mean it,” he told the commissioners.

Lankford didn’t draw attention to just how far apart Donald Trump’s policies are from the panel’s 2025 recommendations — very far — or how tech billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting crusade has undermined international religious freedom work. But those dynamics were on many attendees’ minds during the normally bipartisan event.