WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Thursday establishing a Religious Liberty Commission, delivering a win for social conservatives that helped put him in office.
The order will be signed during a National Day of Prayer event in the White House Rose Garden on Thursday, The Daily Wire can first report. The commission, composed of clergy, legal experts, and top allies, will be tasked with producing a comprehensive report on the foundations of religious liberty in the United States and threats to it.
It will be led by Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Dr. Ben Carson will serve as vice chair. Other committee members will include Ethics and Public Policy Center President Ryan Anderson, Bishop Robert Barron, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Pastor Franklin Graham, Pastor Paula White, Gibson Dunn partner Allyson Ho, and Rabbi Meier Soloveichik.
The commission will focus on six specific areas: parental rights in education, conscience protections, attacks on houses of worship, free speech, school choice, and “institutional autonomy,” according to a White House summary of the order shared with the Daily Wire. That commission will advise the White House Faith Office and the Domestic Policy Council on executive or legislative actions as well as religious liberty policies.
The move builds on the president’s promise to protect Americans from threats to religious liberty. Trump has repeatedly pointed to how the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden showed an “egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians, while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses.” In the first weeks of his administration, Trump signed an executive order establishing a “Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias.”
“The Biden Department of Justice sought to squelch faith in the public square by bringing Federal criminal charges and obtaining in numerous cases multi-year prison sentences against nearly two dozen peaceful pro-life Christians for praying and demonstrating outside abortion facilities,” Trump’s February order states.
It continues: “Those convicted included a Catholic priest and 75-year-old grandmother, as well as an 87-year-old woman and a father of 11 children who were arrested 18 months after praying and singing hymns outside an abortion facility in Tennessee as a part of a politically motivated prosecution campaign by the Biden Administration. I rectified this injustice on January 23, 2025, by issuing pardons in these cases.”
That order notes that “Catholic churches, charities, and pro-life centers sought justice for violence, theft, and arson perpetrated against them, which the Biden Department of Justice largely ignored,” pointing to the FBI’s 2023 memo targeting traditional Catholics, the Biden Education Department’s attempts at repealing religious-liberty protections for faith-based organizations on college campuses, the Biden administration’s declaration that Easter Sunday was “Transgender Day of Visibility” and more.
“My Administration will not tolerate anti-Christian weaponization of government or unlawful conduct targeting Christians,” the president’s order stated. “The law protects the freedom of Americans and groups of Americans to practice their faith in peace, and my Administration will enforce the law and protect these freedoms. My Administration will ensure that any unlawful and improper conduct, policies, or practices that target Christians are identified, terminated, and rectified.”
