In touting the accomplishments of the first Trump administration, Vice President JD Vance assured a room full of advocates that the second Trump administration will continue to prioritize advancing religious freedom both domestically and abroad.
“You shouldn’t have to leave your faith at the door of your people’s government, and under President Trump’s leadership you won’t have to,” Vance said Feb. 5, noting that the administration “is intent on not just restoring but expanding the achievements of the first four years and certainly of the last two weeks.”
Vance, a Catholic, highlighted that in his first term President Donald Trump advanced religious freedom through his foreign policy with China, across Europe, and throughout Africa and the Middle East, including by rescuing persecuted pastors, and bringing relief to faith groups terrorized by ISIS.
Domestically, the vice president said that Trump’s first term was “a new high water mark for religious Americans,” with decisive actions to defend religious liberty, combat anti-Semitism, preserve the conscience rights of hospital workers and faith-based ministries as they provided care, and remove barriers for religious organizations and businesses to work with the federal government.
As for the current Trump administration, Vance said it has already made important progress through executive orders “to end the weaponization of the federal government against religious Americans,” citing the pardoning of several pro-life protesters who were arrested for blockading abortion entrances, and through an executive order that prevents federal censorship.
“Now, our administration believes we must stand for religious freedom not just as a legal principle – as important as that is –but as a lived reality both within our own borders and especially outside of them,” Vance said in a roughly 12 minute long address at the International Religious Freedom Summit, held Feb. 4 and 5 in Washington, D.C.
Vance then added that part of protecting religious freedom initiatives means recognizing in foreign policy the difference between the regimes that respect religious freedom and those that do not, which he said the administration stands ready to do.
“Both at home and abroad we have much more to do to more fully secure religious liberty for all people of faith,” the vice president concluded.
Earlier, Vance spoke about faith as a bedrock of the nation’s culture, noting that it “calls us to treat one another with dignity, to lift up those in need, and to build nations grounded in moral principle.” He also said religious liberty isn’t just about the legal safeguards, but “fostering a culture in which faith can thrive so that men and women can fully appreciate the God given rights of their fellow citizens.”
“Church was a place, and still is, where people of different races, different backgrounds, different walks of life came together in commitment to their shared communities, and of course in commitment to their God,” the vice president explained. “It was a place where the CEO of a company and the worker of a company stood equal before their worship of God. It was a place where people united not just in the pews but in acts of service on mission trips, charity drives, and in rallying around one another in times of sickness, or grief, or, of course, in celebration of new life.”
“Are these not the kinds of bonds and virtues that lawmakers today should strive to cultivate?” Vance asked. “Well, I’m pleased to say that they certainly were in the first Trump administration, and they will be even more so in the second Trump administration.”
