(The Lion)–Public school teachers and students have full First Amendment freedoms to pray individually or together, President Donald Trump declared Thursday at the 74th annual National Prayer Breakfast.
“We passed the largest ever expansion of school choice so that every parent has a chance to send their child to a school that shares their values,” Trump said to the large crowd at the Washington Hilton. “And today, I’m also pleased to announce that the Department of Education is officially issuing its new guidance to protect the right to prayer in our public schools. That’s a big deal.”
The guidance protects freedom of speech and religious exercise for parents and children, as well as upholding the First Amendment’s guard against the establishment of religion, according to a press release.
While recognizing freedom of religion, Trump said nations need religion to be great.
“You have to have religion. You have to have it. You have to have faith. You have to have God,” he said, adding it is “coming back strong” and promising to return the country to the values of America’s Founders.
“I am pleased to announce that on May 17th, 2026, we’re inviting Americans from all across the country to come together on our National Mall to pray, give thanks, and to … rededicate America as One Nation Under God,” he said.
America’s founding not only blessed this country, but sparked change throughout the world, Trump said.
“On that momentous day in 1776, history changed forever when our Founders proclaimed the immortal truths that echoed around the world and down through time,” he said. “They declared that all of us are made Free and Equal by the hand of our Creator … that we are endowed with our sacred rights to life, liberty – not by government, but by God Almighty Himself.”
While the country has experienced secularization and even religious suppression in recent years, Trump said he will not stand for the silencing of Americans’ faith. He referenced the recent protest inside Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, calling the incident a “criminal event” and “a horrible thing to witness.”
“The Department of Justice recently charged nine individuals for storming a church in Minnesota during a worship service and trampling on Americans’ First Amendment rights,” he said. “I watched that tape … that was violent … people screaming ‘your parents are Nazis, your parents are Nazis.’ The people are sitting … and I thought the minister was great. He was so calm – goodness, screaming at him. Terrible – right in the middle of a church service – it’s got to be illegal.”
Trump said his administration is “standing strongly behind Americans of faith” and will always defend religious liberty – “stopping the attacks on our values, our traditions.”
“I have no doubt that with the love, devotion, and patriotism of the people in this room, and our friends from all over the world … we can make our country and the world a safer, stronger, more peaceful, and more faithful place than ever before,” he said.
This year’s co-chairs of the prayer breakfast were Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas. The event is typically held the first Thursday of February.
