Ex-GOP operative sounds the alarm over Trump admin's 'appalling' religious liberty push

Schmidt noted that the administration is staffed with people like Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, both of whom have advocated for erasing the separation of church and state and called for the administration to recreate American society as a Christian one. Schmidt argued that the attacks are appalling. It's wrong. It's bad. Let nobody tell you that in this 250th year of our independence, which ruptured the world into two halves — before and after — ... that the purpose of the American Union is the advancement of a twisted version of the gospels, Schmidt said. In America, we believe in a gospel of freedom and liberty: the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, the right to worship as we please, and we're protected by rights which include due process, a jury trial, and habeas corpus, he continued. We live in a system where the citizen is sovereign, not a tyrant who claims the providence of God, or in Trump's case, that they are God. It's dangerous. It's appalling. It's immoral. And appreciate this — wherever these societies exist on Earth, death follows, he added.