On October 22, 2026, a group of eleven Catholic bishops attended a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House for what one bishop described as “a meeting to discuss matters of importance to the Church and our people, including immigration enforcement, religious worker visas, and human dignity.” Milwaukee Archbishop Jeffrey S. Grob said “We were told the meeting was to be a private discussion, that several Catholic members of the cabinet might make an appearance and that there could be an opportunity to pray privately with the President”
According to Grob, after a 90-minute discussion with White House domestic policy staff, they were ushered into the Oval Office. Trump greeted them and presented them with a commemorative token. They were then directed to stand behind him and pray while photographs were taken, before being ushered out.
Unbeknownst to the bishops, a video was taken of the group and published along with the photos without their permission.
It didn’t take long for Trump and his White House communications team to post the videos and photos all over social media, which sparked backlash for some of the bishops.
This is where, in my view, things become sinister. What the bishops understood to be a private meeting appears to have been used by Trump as an opportunity to portray Catholic leaders as endorsing him and his party and/or their political messaging ahead of the midterms. The problem is not that they met with the president or prayed with him. It is that an encounter described to them as private was made public without their consent. Participation in a meeting is not the same as an endorsement.
My concern goes beyond this one meeting: it is the use of religious identity and religious language as tools of political promotion or ridicule.
This isn’t the first time Donald Trump has disrespected people of the Catholic faith or used religion to mock or belittle people... remember when he kept posting photos of himself as Pope?
He also turns political disagreements into personal attacks based on people’s faith and identity. Think about his racist attacks on national political figures like Ilhan Omar or Abdul El-Sayed. Or those sickening social media posts mocking the Iranian people by sarcastically using God’s name at the end of posts where he promises bombs and casualties.
Christians who support Donald Trump should take a hard look at this behavior. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all trace their faith to the God of Abraham, even though they differ profoundly in how they understand God. “Allah” is simply the Arabic word for God—used by Arabic-speaking Christians as well as Muslims. When Trump ends a profanity-filled threat against Iran with “Praise be to Allah,” I see that as mockery, plain and simple.
This shows just how scared the president and the Republican Party must be of losing the midterms—and just how low they are willing to go to retain power. This should be a wake-up call to all voters, especially those considering sitting this election out.
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