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President-elect Donald Trump's first term greatly advanced the cause of religious freedom globally, and his second term promises to be even more impactful. On September 23, 2019, Trump took his seat in front of a blue backdrop with the words "protect religious freedom" at the United Nations building in New York, flanked by the vice president, the secretary of state, and the president of the UN. He announced to the banks of TV cameras, "Today, with one clear voice, the United States of America calls upon the nations of the world to end religious persecution." For the first time, a U.S. president had gone to the UN to declare religious freedom a foreign policy priority of his administration.
The event at the UN came as the crescendo in a long series of extraordinary government actions to promote religious freedom, one that most religious freedom advocates never had imagined possible. In 2017 Trump thrilled faith leaders and advocates by selecting Samuel Brownback to serve as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. The choice brought a new level of gravity to the role, as Brownback had previously been a congressman, senator, and governor. Trump also directed his administration to exert extraordinary efforts to bring humanitarian relief to Christians and Yazidis in Iraq and Syria who had suffered genocide at the hands of ISIS. This effort faced initial resistance from USAID, but with time and political pressure, an entirely new government grantmaking process, called the New Partnerships Initiative, was developed to deliver aid directly to local religious organizations. These mechanisms remain in use to this day.
In 2018 President Trump exerted pressure on Turkey to end the show trial of falsely accused Pastor Andrew Brunson. When Brunson was released from captivity and safely returned to the U.S., he prayed over the president in the Oval Office in a moving moment seen around the world.
The Department of State elevated the significance of international religious freedom by holding the first minister-level gathering to advance religious freedom. This gathering changed the paradigm and brought persecution based on faith to the center of U.S. foreign policy. The department reprised the event a year later in the Harris S. Truman building at Foggy Bottom. More than 100 nations sent delegations to report on how their governments was promoting religious freedom. The impact was historic.
The president further cemented these efforts by calling on Secretary Mike Pompeo to launch the International Religious Freedom Alliance, now known as the Article 18 Alliance, a coalition that has grown to include 38 countries and continues to host regular ministerial meetings to promote religious freedom.
In the closing days of President Trump's first term, he recognized a reality that few world leaders were ready to admit publicly: that the Chinese Communist Party was committing a systematic genocide against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang Province, China. The U.S. was the first nation to officially make a genocide designation, but a flood of 17 nations quickly followed its lead.
Trump's record on international religious freedom became a rare source of bipartisan praise. The international religious freedom policy space has remained an area where Republicans and Democrats collaborate effectively to pass legislation and elevate the concerns of persecuted religious groups abroad. This consensus has allowed movement on cases of religious persecution in Washington, while many other policies remain stuck in partisan gridlock.
President Trump is poised to make his second term even more consequential for religious freedom than his first, and it is needed more than ever as religious persecution surges globally. He started by selecting Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to serve as secretary of state. Senator Rubio has been given an A+ rating by the International Religious Freedom Congressional Score Card. In his announcement of Senator Rubio, the president-elect highlighted Rubio's leadership in the passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a uniquely powerful tool to punish the Chinese Communist Party for the genocide against the Uyghurs. The law has been in effect since December 2021, but the Biden administration has been tepid in its enforcement of the law. Swift and aggressive enforcement would send a clear message that the U.S. will not be passive in the face of genocidal religious persecution against any people group.
On the campaign trail, President Trump made multiple assertions that he would prioritize the protection of Christians, the most persecuted religious group in the world according to Pew Research Center, especially those living in the Middle East. He stated his support for the Armenians who faced ethnic cleansing from their ancestral homeland by the Azerbaijani military in 2023. He should end the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan and ensure Armenia's territorial sovereignty. He also affirmed that his administration would consider the concerns of the Coptic Christians in Egypt.
Since the October 7 terror attack in Israel, there has been an astonishing surge in antisemitic incidents around the world, according to a 2023 study. Speaking about this issue at a campaign event in August, Trump was vivid in his call to action, saying "We believe that this vicious outbreak of militant antisemitism is very militant, must be given no quarter, no safe harbor, no place in a civilized society. We must reject it in our schools, reject it in our foreign policy." His second term provides the opportunity to make good on this commitment and build on his work in his first term to combat antisemitism.
In Nigeria, violence in rural villages has intensified in recent years. President Trump's State Department put Nigeria on the Country of Particular Concern (CPC) list in 2020, a designation that can be accompanied by sanctions if improvement is not seen. But it were subsequently removed by the Biden administration. Trump has the opportunity to challenge the Nigerian government to protect its rural Christian tribes or face potential CPC designation and sanctions.
Using U.S. global influence to protect persecuted religious communities can rebuild trust with much of the global south that is still intensely religious and views American influence as a generally negative attempt to push hostile values on them in exchange for development funds. By promoting religious freedom, we respect the cultural values of all people while promoting a core American value that aligns well with our national interest. The next four years will be a test of how much can be achieved by a focused presidency in a world where religious persecution is increasing.
Peter Burns is executive director of the International Religious Freedom Summit, which will convene February 4-5 in Washington, DC.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
