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President Donald Trump delivered remarks Thursday morning at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., where he spent a great deal of time speaking about the importance of faith in America.
“Under the Trump administration, we’re standing strongly behind Americans of faith, stopping the attacks on our values, our traditions, defending religious liberty…I believe like no president has ever done before,” the president said.
He also announced during breakfast that, on May 17, 2026, the White House had invited Americans to gather at the National Mall for corporate prayer.
“We’re inviting Americans from all across the country to come together on our National Mall to pray, to give thanks…we’re going to rededicate America as one nation under God,” he remarked.
The president drew applause often from the crowd on Thursday as he discussed the integral foundation that faith gave America from the moment of its founding.
“On that momentous day in 1776, history changed forever when our founders proclaimed the immortal truths that echoed around the world and down all the way through time,” he told the crowd. “They declared that all of us are made free and equal by the hand of our Creator…that we are endowed with our sacred rights to life, liberty – not by government, but by God Almighty Himself.”
He also spoke to the moral clarity that religion and faith lend to a country, particularly the United States.
“You just can’t have a great country unless you have religion…you have to believe that what you’re doing, there’s a reason for it,” President Trump observed. “There has to be a reason for it; we’re all working, and we’re behaving. I mean, I behave because I’m afraid not to. Because I don’t want to get in trouble.”
This drew some chuckles from the audience.
During his remarks, President Trump further announced that the Department of Education, at his direction, is “officially issuing its new guidance to protect the right to prayer in our public schools.”
Importantly, the president looked ahead to a brighter and faith-filled future for Americans in his closing remarks.
“I have no doubt that with the love, devotion, and patriotism of the people in this room, and our friends from all over the world… we can make our country and the world a safer, stronger, more peaceful, and more faithful place than ever before, and it’s all happening right before your very eyes,” he said.