NPR | Tuesday, May 26, 2026 
How the Trump administration uses the Bible to justify military invasions and immigration raids

As massive immigration enforcement actions were underway in Minnesota this January, the Department of Homeland Security released a video that, at first glance, appeared to resemble a cinematic trailer. Set to the singer Lorde’s haunting cover of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” the footage unfolds in a sequence of eerie juxtapositions: a helicopter hovering in green night-vision haze, armed agents battering doors and bodies moving with choreographed urgency. Across the screen a quote from the Gospel of Matthew: “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Moments later, after more imagery of military-style immigration enforcement actions, the rest of the biblical passage materializes: “for they shall be called the sons of God.” “My first thought was, there is a gun called the Peacemaker,” said Dyron Daughrity, a minister in the evangelical Church of Christ and dean of religion and philosophy at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. “It’s sort of this idea of peace through strength.” Scripture has long been a rhetorical resource for presidents—Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and George W. Bush among them—who invoke the Bible to frame moments of national crisis or purpose. But the Trump Administration references the Bible in a very different way – using specific passages to connect its policies and actions with God’s will – from immigration enforcement to military action. The Bible’s place in political life appears to be on the rise. A study released by Pew Research this month found something new among those surveyed. For the first time since Pew’s been asking the question, a majority of those surveyed say that the Bible should have a great deal or at least some influence on U.S. laws, with 28% saying that when the Bible and the will of the people conflict, the Bible should have more influence over laws…Read more