Editorial illustration
When was the last time a sitting president stood before the nation and said — out loud, on camera, with zero apology — that America needs to rededicate itself to God?
That’s exactly what Donald Trump did at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 5th. And he wasn’t speaking in vague, politician-friendly “higher power” language. He was specific. He was bold. And he meant every word of it.
BREAKING 🚨 President Trump stuns America by announcing America will re-dedicate itself to God on May 17th 2026
"We're going to rededicate America as one nation under God”
CHRIST IS KING 🙏 pic.twitter.com/3YlkkTtbhq
— MAGA Voice (@MAGAVoice) February 5, 2026
Rededicate 250: a jubilee for the nation
The event is called “Rededicate 250: National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise, and Thanksgiving,” and it’s happening May 17, 2026, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Doors open at 4:30 a.m. The program runs from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. — twelve straight hours of worship, prayer, and thanksgiving.
Christian singers, religious leaders, and members of the president’s own cabinet will be there. This isn’t a private breakfast with lobbyists and career politicians nodding politely over eggs Benedict. This is a public, all-day worship gathering on the most symbolically important stretch of ground in America.
The word “jubilee” itself is biblical — straight from Leviticus 25, where God instructed Israel to consecrate every fiftieth year: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.” That verse is literally inscribed on the Liberty Bell. The Founders knew. And now, 250 years later, a president is calling the country back to it.
‘You can’t have a great country without religion’
Trump didn’t dance around the point. He told the Prayer Breakfast crowd plainly: “I’ve always said you just can’t have a great country if you don’t have religion. You have to believe in something. You have to believe that what we’re doing, there’s a reason for it.”
.@POTUS: "You have to believe in something…. it's such a positive thing, and people are starting to see it. They're going to church, and they're meeting people, and families are developing — things are happening in our country right now." 🙏❤️ pic.twitter.com/3eWENxbc35
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 5, 2026
He described a spiritual renewal already underway — people going back to church, families growing stronger, communities forming around faith again. And he said the pace of it has exceeded even his own expectations, with changes he thought would take years happening in months.
White House Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley told the Daily Caller that the May 17th event will “remind people of the work of God in American life.” He added: “So many messages don’t reach people because they are culturally not valued, but we value celebrating and recognizing people of faith, and how people of faith have understood God to be active in the 250-year history of our country.”
The Founders would recognize this
The media will inevitably scream about “separation of church and state” — a phrase that, for the record, appears nowhere in the Constitution. It comes from a private letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802, reassuring them that the government wouldn’t persecute churches. The intent was to protect religion from the state, not to ban God from the public square.
George Washington himself, in his very first inaugural address, said: “No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.”
John Adams put it even more bluntly: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Trump isn’t breaking from the American tradition. He’s returning to it. The aberration wasn’t this — it was the last several decades of pretending our founding had nothing to do with God.
A broader pattern of faith in the administration
This doesn’t exist in a vacuum. On January 29th, Trump issued a presidential proclamation titled “Year of Celebration and Rededication,” marking all of 2026 as a year of prayer for the nation. He quoted Scripture directly: “The Bible teaches: ‘In all circumstances give thanks.'”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth regularly prays with soldiers. Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — both devout Catholics — have been open about their faith shaping their work. Government meetings at agencies like the CFPB have opened with Christian prayer. And last July, Trump asked Americans to commit to praying at least one hour per week.
The Religious Liberty Commission, established by executive order in May 2025 and led by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Dr. Ben Carson, continues to push back against the anti-faith bias that defined the Biden years.
This isn’t performative. It’s structural. Faith is being woven back into the fabric of how this government operates.
Mark your calendars: May 17, 2026
The official event page at freedom250.org/rededication250 describes the gathering as a chance for Americans to “bear witness to the extraordinary story of how God has powerfully and wondrously shaped the United States of America — remembering the people, sacrifices, and defining moments in which God has powerfully manifested Himself in our history.”
If you can get to D.C. on May 17th, be there. If you can’t, pray from wherever you are. But don’t let the media convince you this is controversial. A nation built on “one nation under God” rededicating itself to that promise isn’t radical — it’s a homecoming.
Will you be at the National Mall on May 17th? Or do you plan to join from home in prayer? Tell us how you’re marking this moment, patriots.
Providence watches over the bold.
About The Author
