After prayer breakfast, Trump creates task force to root out 'anti-Christian bias'

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he wants to root out “anti-Christian bias” in the U.S., announcing that he was forming a task force led by Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the “targeting” of Christians.

Speaking at a pair of events in Washington surrounding the the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump said the task force would be directed to “immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI — terrible — and other agencies.”

Trump said Bondi would also work to “fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.”

Hours after the two events, Trump signed an executive order directing the new task force to identify unlawful policies, practices, or conduct by all executive departments and agencies, and recommend any additional presidential or legislative action.

Early in the day, the president joined the National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol, a more than 70-year-old Washington tradition that brings together a bipartisan group of lawmakers for fellowship. He told lawmakers there that his relationship with religion had “changed” after a pair of failed assassination attempts last year and urged Americans to “bring God back" into their lives.

An hour after calling for “unity” on Capitol Hill, though, Trump struck a more partisan tone at the second event across town, announcing that, in addition to the task force, he was forming a commission on religious liberty. He criticized the Biden administration for “persecution” of believers for prosecuting anti-abortion advocates.

And Trump took a victory lap over his administration's early efforts to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion programs and to limit transgender participation in women’s sports.

“I don’t know if you’ve been watching, but we got rid of woke over the last two weeks,” he said. “Woke is gone-zo.”

Trump’s new task force drew criticism from Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

“Rather than protecting religious beliefs, this task force will misuse religious freedom to justify bigotry, discrimination, and the subversion of our civil rights laws," said Rachel Laser, the group’s president and CEO.

At the Capitol, Trump said he believes people "can’t be happy without religion, without that belief. Let’s bring religion back. Let’s bring God back into our lives.”

The Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, a Baptist minister and head of the progressive Interfaith Alliance, accused Trump of hypocrisy in claiming to champion religion by creating the task force.

“From allowing immigration raids in churches, to targeting faith-based charities, to suppressing religious diversity, the Trump Administration’s aggressive government overreach is infringing on religious freedom in a way we haven’t seen for generations,” Raushenbush said in a statement.

Kelly Shackelford, head of First Liberty Institute, a conservative Christian legal organization, disagreed, praising the creation of the task force and religious liberty commission.

“All Americans should be free to exercise their faith without government intrusion in school, in the military, in the workplace, and in the public square. We are ready to stand with President Trump to ensure that the religious liberty of every American is safe and secure,” Shackelford said in a statement.

Trump also announced the creation of a White House faith office led by Paula White-Cain, a longtime pastor in the independent charismatic world. An early supporter of Trump’s 2016 presidency bid, she led Trump’s Faith and Opportunity Initiative in 2019, advising faith-based organizations on ways to partner with the federal government.

At Thursday’s prayer breakfast, she praised Trump as “the greatest champion” any president has been “of religion, of faith and of God.”

She’s the religious advisor “that he appears to trust the most,” said Matthew Taylor, a Protestant scholar and author of “The Violent Take It By Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy,” a 2024 book about the roles of White-Cain and other charismatic leaders who have been among Trump’s most fervent supporters.

He said the faith-based office — depending on its mandate — may not raise major concerns. Past presidents have had similar ones.

“I’m actually much more concerned about this anti-Christian bias task force,” he said. In a majority Christian country, “it’s a bit absurd to claim that there is widespread anti-Christian bias. ... When a majority begins to claim persecution, that is often a license for attacks on minorities.”

In 2023, the National Prayer Breakfast split into two dueling events, the one on Capitol Hill largely attended by lawmakers and government officials and a larger private event for thousands at a hotel ballroom. The split occurred when lawmakers sought to distance themselves from the private religious group that for decades had overseen the bigger event, due to questions about its organization and how it was funded.

Trump, at both venues, reflected on having a bullet coming within a hair’s breadth of killing him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, telling attendees, “It changed something in me, I feel."

“I feel even stronger," he continued. “I believed in God, but I feel, I feel much more strongly about it. Something happened.” Later at the prayer breakfast sponsored by a private group, he remarked, “It was God that saved me.”

He drew laughs at the Capitol event when he expressed gratitude that the episode “didn’t affect my hair.”

The Republican president, who's a nondenominational Christian, called religious liberty “part of the bedrock of American life” and called for protecting it with “absolute devotion.”

Trump and his administration have already clashed with some religious leaders. He assailed the Rev. Mariann Budde for her sermon the day after his inauguration, when she called for mercy for members of the LGBTQ+ community and migrants who are in the country illegally.

Vice President JD Vance, who's Catholic, has sparred with top U.S. leaders of his own church over immigration issues. And many clergy members across the country are worried about the removal of churches from the sensitive-areas list, allowing federal officials to conduct immigration actions at places of worship.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president to attend the prayer breakfast, in February 1953, and every president since has spoken at the gathering.

Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas are the honorary co-chairs of this year's prayer breakfast.

In 2023 and 2024, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, spoke at the Capitol Hill event, and his remarks were livestreamed to the other gathering.

Smith reported from Pittsburgh. AP writers Holly Meyer in Nashville, Tennessee, and Zeke Miller and Tiffany Stanley in Washington contributed to this report.

Follow the AP's coverage of Donald Trump at https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

President Donald Trump attends the National Prayer Breakfast at Washington Hilton, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump attends the National Prayer Breakfast at Washington Hilton, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast at Washington Hilton, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump attends the National Prayer Breakfast at Washington Hilton, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast at Washington Hilton, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump attends the National Prayer Breakfast at Washington Hilton, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump talks to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., left and and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., right, after he spoke to the National Prayer Breakfast, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Donald Trump attends the National Prayer Breakfast on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump attends the National Prayer Breakfast on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump attends the National Prayer Breakfast on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump attends the National Prayer Breakfast on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump arrives to speak during the National Prayer Breakfast, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Donald Trump arrives to speak during the National Prayer Breakfast, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Donald Trump attends the National Prayer Breakfast on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order barring transgender female athletes from competing in women's or girls' sporting events, in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu take questions during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump speaks before Pam Bondi is sworn in as Attorney General by Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A series of separate meetings between American, Russian and Ukrainian interlocutors entered their third day on Tuesday as U.S. negotiators shuttled back to discussions with their Ukrainian counterparts in the Saudi capital, a continuation of talks with Kyiv officials that began Sunday over a potential ceasefire in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, a Kremlin official said Tuesday that the talks between U.S. and Russian officials in Riyadh the previous day would likely lead to further contacts between Washington and Moscow, but that no concrete plans have yet been made.

The three days of meetings — which did not include direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations — are part of an attempt to hammer out details on a partial pause in the 3-year-old war in Ukraine. It has been a struggle to reach even a limited, 30-day ceasefire — which Moscow and Kyiv agreed to in principle last week -- with both sides continuing to attack each other with drones and missiles.

Russia and Ukraine have also taken differing interpretations of what a possible partial ceasefire would look like, and disagreed over what kinds of targets would be included in a pause on strikes — even after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with the leaders of both countries to advance a deal.

Yet despite the numerous sticking points — the White House has said a partial ceasefire would include ending attacks on “energy and infrastructure,” while the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to “energy infrastructure” — attempts to secure safe commercial shipping in the Black Sea appeared to garner support in principle from both parties, though no specific agreements have been announced.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday told the country’s state-run Channel One TV station that the Russian and U.S. delegations in Riyadh had discussed “primarily issues of safe shipping in the Black Sea” — a major shipping corridor on which both Russia and Ukraine have ports and coastline.

Lavrov also said that Moscow is up for resuming — “in some form, acceptable to everyone” — a 2022 deal that allowed Ukraine to ship grain through the Black Sea to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where hunger was a growing threat and high food prices had pushed more people into poverty.

The landmark Black Sea Grain initiative was brokered by the U.N. and Turkey in the summer of 2022; Moscow halted it in July 2023 until its demands to get Russian food and fertilizer to the world were met.

Serhii Leshchenko, advisor to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that U.S-Ukrainian talks in Riyadh on Sunday had included “the security of shipping and infrastructure, including safety for the (Ukrainian) ports of Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kherson.”

Leshchenko added that the Ukrainian delegation would brief Zelenskyy following renewed talks on Tuesday with the U.S. delegation, adding: “Ukraine is ready to support initiatives that will make diplomacy a means of pressure to compel Russia to end the war.”

On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the the outcome of the U.S-Russia talks in Riyadh “has been reported in the capitals” and was currently being “analyzed” by Moscow and Washington, but that the Kremlin has no plans to release further details of what was discussed to the public.

“We’re talking about technical negotiations, negotiations with immersion in details," Peskov said, adding that while there are currently no plans for Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to speak, such a conversation could be quickly organized if the need arises.

“There is an understanding that the contacts will continue, but there is nothing concrete at the moment,” Peskov said. He added that that there are no plans to hold a three-way meeting between Russia, the U.S. and Ukraine.

Senior Russian lawmaker Grigory Karasin, who took part in the Russia-U.S. talks in Riyadh on Monday, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that the conversation was “very interesting, difficult, but quite constructive.”

“We were at it all day from morning until late at night,” Karasin was quoted by the agency as saying on Tuesday.

Speaking about the war in Ukraine, Karasin said Moscow’s and Washington’s positions don’t always align, but that the two parties will continue to look for ways to cooperate, as there is now an understanding that cooperation is necessary to resolve the conflict. The lawmaker added that talks between expert groups from Russia and the U.S. could continue.

The number of people injured Monday in a Russian missile strike on the center of the Ukrainian city of Sumy rose to 101 people including 23 children, according to the Sumy regional administration.

The strike on Sumy, across the border from Russia’s Kursk region which was partially occupied by Ukraine since August, hit residential buildings and a school, which had to be evacuated due to the attack.

Meanwhile, Russian forces launched one ballistic missile and 139 long-range strike and decoy drones into Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force. Those attacks affected seven regions of Ukraine.

Two people were injured after drone debris fell on a warehouse in the Poltava region, administration head Volodymyr Kohut wrote on Telegram Tuesday, while two people were injured outside the city of Zaporizhzhia, according to the head of the region.

One man suffered injuries after a Russian drone attack in Kherson, city administration head Roman Mrochko wrote on Telegram Tuesday.

Associated Press writer Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a paramedic evacuates an elderly resident whose house was hit by Russian attack in Sumy, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire following a Russian attack in Sumy, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a psychologist works with residents of houses which were hit by a Russian attack in Sumy, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire following a Russian attack in Sumy, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)