The battle against corruption in Washington, D.C., and out-of-control spending continues to dominate the news. We simply cannot continue spending trillions of dollars we don’t have.
This week, we were reminded that America and other Western democracies face another danger: the attack on two of our fundamental liberties. Our freedom of religion and freedom of speech are guaranteed in the First Amendment of our Bill of Rights. Despite that, powerful forces here—and even more so in Europe—are threatening these liberties.
The Trump-Vance administration is committed to defending these rights. A few days ago, Vice President Vance delivered an incredibly important speech to our European allies at the annual security summit in Munich, Germany. What he had to say did not please Europe’s secular globalist elites. Vice President Vance told them:
The threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.1
Vance then gave specific examples of the erosion of fundamental liberties in countries whose leaders were in the room! One of the most disturbing cases took place in Britain, where a 51-year-old veteran was arrested for silently praying within 200 meters of an abortion facility. He wasn’t obstructing or interacting with anyone; he only stood there with his head bowed. When a police officer asked him if he was praying, he said, “Yes.” He was charged with a crime and fined thousands of dollars.
Vice President Vance was also critical of European countries that have banned conservative populist candidates and parties for speaking out against the mass migration across the open borders of Europe.
Not surprisingly, the reaction of Europe’s secular global elites to Vance’s speech was overwhelmingly hostile. Likewise in the U.S., major newspapers and the foreign policy establishment objected to Vance’s indictment of Europe’s growing tendency toward authoritarianism.
President Trump is committed to protecting the freedoms of religion and speech in the United States. Those two fundamental rights are intimately connected. Freedom of religion is impossible without freedom of speech.
In Trump’s first term, he appointed three new Supreme Court Justices who care about free speech and religious liberty. The Senate confirmed the judicial appointments after brutal battles with liberals in Congress. In the opening weeks of Trump’s current presidential term, he commuted the sentences of pro-life Christians who were jailed because they peacefully prayed and sang hymns while protesting at abortion clinics. We applaud his reversal of that miscarriage of justice executed during the Biden administration.
President Trump then established a new task force chaired by Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek out and eradicate any anti-Christian bias in the federal government. His new faith office2 reports directly to him in the White House. He has also created a task force to plan the 2026 celebration of the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence.
Our Declaration was a historic moment in establishing “ordered liberty” under God. In the second paragraph of the Declaration, our Founders proclaimed the central “truth” of the American Republic: our rights do not come from the government but from our Creator. History is clear that the “Creator” they referred to is the God of the Bible.
As Ronald Reagan famously said, “If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”3
JDFI commends President Trump and Vice President Vance as they defend our fundamental liberties.
1. Diane Glebova, “JD Vance says biggest danger in Europe is censorship during Munich address – not Russia or China: ‘Threat from within,’ New York Post, February 14, 2025, https://nypost.com/2025/02/14/us-news/jd-vance-says-biggest-danger-in-europe-is-censorship-not-russia-or-china-threat-from-within/
2. The White House, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Establishes White House Faith Office,” February 7, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-establishes-white-house-faith-office/
3. Ronald Reagan, “Remarks at an Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast in Dallas, Texas.” Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, August 23, 1984, https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/remarks-ecumenical-prayer-breakfast-dallas-texas
