Trump spent the trust of Catholic bishops on a campaign video
By Caroline Ashford · Reporting from Richmond, Virginia ·
The strength of a community depends on the things that stay sacred. There are spaces in our lives—the family table, the church pew, the quiet of a confessional—that must remain untouched by the grubby machinery of politics. When a political leader treats a prayer as a campaign prop, he does more than just mislead the public. He spends down the trust that holds our institutions together. In the case of the October 22 meeting at the White House, Donald Trump and his staff were wrong. They treated the American episcopate not as spiritual leaders, but as visual assets for a midterm election.
A prayer turned into a prop
The setup was a classic study in the bait-and-switch. According to reporting from The Guardian, 12 Catholic bishops arrived at the White House for what they believed was a private policy discussion. They spent 90 minutes with domestic policy staff. They talked about immigration enforcement, religious-worker visas, and human dignity. The meeting was arranged by officials from the White House Faith Office.
Then came the pivot. The bishops were ushered into the Oval Office to pray with the president. They were given commemorative tokens and told to stand behind the Resolute Desk. It felt like a moment of grace. In reality, it was a production. As the BBC reports, Margo Martin, a communications adviser, released a video of the prayer on social media. The bishops had not given permission for the footage to be posted.
The result was a sudden, sharp realization of exploitation. Bishop William Joensen of Des Moines expressed a regret that should haunt any leader of faith. He stated, "I wish I had been more shrewd and less simple, like those who exploited our meeting for partisan political purposes." Archbishop Jeffrey Grob of Milwaukee felt a heavy sadness over the pain the images caused. He noted that he had reservations and wished he had heeded them.
The theater of the Oval Office
This is not a new habit for the president. He has a long record of prioritizing the image over the substance. We saw this during the Trump-Kim Jong Un summit, where a visually driven encounter was used to project a specific political image regardless of the reality.
When the White House Faith Office coordinates a meeting, it should be to serve the community. Instead, this office served the campaign. The timing was not accidental. The video was released less than two weeks before the November 3 midterm elections. By placing the bishops in the frame, the administration attempted to borrow the moral authority of the Church to shield its own policies.
This approach ignores the actual tension between the president and the hierarchy. During Trump's first term presidency, there was a constant struggle between his goals and the Church's desire to stay non-partisan. That tension has only grown. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops previously condemned the administration's plans to livestream a military execution.
The price of a political tool
The White House has attempted to frame this as a victory for the faith. Spokeswoman Taylor Rogers stated that there has never been a greater president for Catholic Americans than Donald Trump. This is the strongest case the administration can make. They point to his record on religious liberty and his appointments.
But the data tells a different story. A Pew Research Center survey this month found 30% of all US Catholics approve of Trump's job performance, compared to 47% when he returned to the White House.
The 1960 United States presidential election shares the same mechanism here. In both instances, religious identity was used as a strategic tool to secure a voting bloc. Faith was a hurdle to be managed; here, it is a brand to be exploited. When faith is treated as a political tool rather than a spiritual guide, the faith itself is diminished. Trump won the support of Catholic voters, but he is spending that capital with a reckless hand.
The White House Faith Office was established by executive order in February 2025 to empower houses of worship. Instead, it has been used to ambush them. By turning a private prayer into a public advertisement, the administration has taught the clergy to be suspicious of the Oval Office.
The tragedy here is not that the bishops were fooled. The tragedy is that the sanctuary of the Church was used as a backdrop for a campaign ad. When we trade the dignity of the altar for the visibility of the screen, we lose the only things that actually last. The administration may have gained a few likes on social media, but they have cost the American Catholic community a measure of its peace.