Trump IRS churches

Andrea Austria/Media Matters

Christian nationalism-embracing media figures declare victory after Trump IRS argues that churches can endorse political candidates

The nation’s largest network of nonprofit groups warned that the “decree could open the floodgates for political operatives to funnel money to their preferred candidates while receiving generous tax breaks”

Written by Payton Armstrong

Published

Christian nationalism-embracing media figures cheered the IRS’ statement that the Johnson Amendment — a decades-old ban on tax-exempt nonprofits engaging in politics — should not apply to churches, celebrating that “churches will now be unshackled.”

In a July 7 court filing indicating intent to settle a lawsuit filed by a group of Christian broadcasters, the IRS announced a special carve-out for churches and other houses of worship to endorse political candidates while maintaining their tax-exempt status. Right-wing Christian media figures and President Donald Trump himself had long pushed for ignoring or repealing the Johnson Amendment, with some media figures even offering financial resources for pastors to challenge the IRS and comparing pastors operating under the ban to pastors in Nazi Germany.

The National Council of Nonprofits, which represents 30,000 such groups, said that the move is “not about religion or free speech, but about radically altering campaign finance laws,” and warned that the IRS’ “decree could open the floodgates for political operatives to funnel money to their preferred candidates while receiving generous tax breaks at the expense of taxpayers who may not share those views.”

Jump to section

  • The IRS indicated it would allow tax-exempt churches to endorse candidates — a policy Trump and some Christian figures had long advocated but that experts warn could increase money in politics

    • In a court filing for a lawsuit brought by two Texas churches and an association of Christian broadcasters, the IRS said the decades-old Johnson Amendment that prohibited campaigning by tax-exempt nonprofit groups should not apply to churches. Though the rule is still technically on the books, “the IRS has largely abdicated its enforcement responsibilities as churches have become more brazen about publicly backing candidates,” according to The Texas Tribune. One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the National Religious Broadcasters organization, which hosts “the country's largest conservative media summit,” invited Trump to appear at the group’s 2024 convention, where he promoted his presidential campaign and told the audience, “If I get in, you’re going to be using that power at a level that you’ve never used before.” Intercessors for America, a right-wing Christian advocacy group, and two Texas churches were also plaintiffs in the case. [The New York Times, 7/7/25; The Washington Post, 7/8/25; The Texas Tribune, 10/30/22; National Religious Broadcasters, accessed 7/10/25; The Tennessean, 2/22/24; Religion News Services, 2/23/24; Right Wing Watch, 4/18/25]
    • Experts have warned of the effect on campaign finance and dark money in politics. The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer — who has reported extensively on the influence of dark money in politics — warned that “this opens a huge loophole for even more money in politics- and gives donors tax breaks for supporting political candidates.” The National Council of Nonprofits, which represents 30,000 groups, declared that the move is “not about religion or free speech, but about radically altering campaign finance laws,” and warned that the IRS’ “decree could open the floodgates for political operatives to funnel money to their preferred candidates while receiving generous tax breaks at the expense of taxpayers who may not share those views.” [The New York Times, 7/7/25, 1/12/16; Twitter/X, 7/8/25]
    • Right-wing Christian media figures and Trump have long sought to repeal the Johnson Amendment. Politico reported that the announcement “marks a major win for evangelical groups, which had long sought to get rid of the amendment in its entirety,” and noted that Trump “has promised since his first term that he would overturn the amendment, claiming in 2017 that he had ‘gotten rid of the Johnson Amendment.’” But as The Washington Post noted in 2019, the Johnson Amendment was “still on the books.” Ahead of the 2024 election, while discussing the Johnson Amendment with a pastor who hosts a Christian nationalist media program, Trump said that “more than anybody else, we can listen to our pastors and the people that we want to hear tell us what to do. We can hear from them again, and you will be in great shape.” [Politico, 7/8/25; The Washington Post, 5/9/19; Media Matters, 9/13/24]

  • For years, right-wing Christian media figures criticized and pushed for repealing or ignoring the Johnson Amendment

    • Podcast host and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins advocated repealing the Johnson Amendment in remarks for a 2017 House oversight subcommittee hearing. The Washington Post listed Perkins as one of the “evangelical Christian culture warriors” who “fit some part of the definition” of Christian nationalists, and in his written statement on behalf of FRC — an evangelical and anti-LGBTQ lobbying group — he wrote that “in order to restore the First Amendment free speech rights of non-profit organizations, including churches, it is necessary for Congress to permit 501(c)(3) organizations to make statements regarding political campaigns (which may urge the election or defeat of a candidate) in the ordinary course of the non-profit’s regular and customary activities, as it carries out its tax exempt purpose.” He also appeared on CNN in 2017, arguing against the Johnson Amendment. ProPublica reported in 2022 that FRC had “join[ed] a growing list of activist groups seeking church status, which allows organizations to shield themselves from financial scrutiny.” [Oversight.house.gov, 5/4/17; The Washington Post, 1/10/23; Media Matters, accessed 7/10/25; CNN, Smerconish, 2/4/17; ProPublica, 7/11/22]
    • Right-wing commentator and self-described Christian nationalist Lance Wallnau claimed in a 2023 media appearance that some pastors are not in favor of repealing the Johnson Amendment because “they'd have to have an opinion,” declaring that “they hide behind it.” Wallnau promoted the appearance on FlashPoint — a streaming show helmed by Christian nationalist “prophets” — on social media and wrote, “Do pastors like being muzzled so they don't have to say the hard things?” [Twitter/X, 5/6/23, 6/3/21; Media Matters, 9/27/24, 7/18/23]
    • Right-wing Christian radio host Charlie Kirk, who has declared that “there is no separation of church and state” and has increasingly used his Turning Point USA group to push Christian nationalism, urged pastors to ignore the Johnson Amendment and “challenge the IRS” during the 2024 campaign. Rolling Stone reported that “both Wallnau and Kirk have been calling on pastors to throw caution to the wind, with Kirk explicitly offering resources to pastors who seek to ‘challenge the IRS.’” [Salem Media Group, The Charlie Kirk Show, 7/6/22; Rolling Stone, 1/17/24; Media Matters, 4/27/23; NBC, 6/12/24]
    • Right-wing commentator, self-proclaimed Christian nationalist, and now-White House Faith Office member Jackson Lahmeyer advocated for getting rid of the Johnson Amendment, noting he had discussed it with Trump. On far-right Christian outlet ElijahStreams, Lahmeyer pushed for getting rid of the Johnson Amendment and discussed attending the White House Easter dinner, saying that “the goal of our president right now is to not just use the executive pen to take the bite out of the Johnson Amendment — our president wants to fully eradicate and remove the Johnson Amendment through Congress.” Lahmeyer also said that Trump told pastors, “I’ve got your back for the next four years.” [Elijah Streams, Prophets and Patriots, 6/4/25; Media Matters, 9/18/24; NOTUS, 3/19/25]
    • Right-wing Christian radio host Eric Metaxas, who was recently appointed to Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, has compared pastors being limited by the Johnson Amendment to pastors in Nazi Germany. Metaxas has used his Salem Media program to push Christian nationalist rhetoric and he has dismissed concerns over the ideology, saying, “Christian nationalism is the devil’s term for actual Christians who live out their faith in all spheres.” In his 2022 book “Letter to the American Church,” Metaxas warned: “If anyone from a pulpit dared to endorse a candidate, that church’s tax exemption would be repealed. It is astonishing that pastors in America allowed this wild idea to go uncontested. In this they behaved rather like many of the submissive pastors in Germany two decades earlier. Of course, for American pastors to submit meekly to anything like this is far more shocking, given our own history of religious liberty and freedom of speech.” [Media Matters, 7/12/23, 6/12/25; The Washington Times, 7/5/24; Word Foundations, accessed 7/9/25]
    • Christian nationalist activist and podcast host Sean Feucht said he intentionally mixes worship and politics at his events, calling the Johnson Amendment a “sham.” During a podcast interview, Feucht, who has embraced Christian nationalism and declared that “We want God to be in control of everything,” reportedly said, “We need to start blending these areas together because we believe all this crap of the Johnson Amendment, the separation of church and state, which was meant to protect the church from the state, not the other way around.” Feucht, a frequent right-wing media guest who has close connections with Republicans in Congress and Trump Cabinet members, was recently described by The Atlantic as “bringing Christian nationalism to the masses.” [Baptist News Global, 10/16/24; Media Matters, 9/14/23; Right Wing Watch, 4/21/23; Rolling Stone, 4/21/23; The Atlantic 7/1/25; Twitter/X, 1/21/25, 3/6/25]

  • Those same figures declared victory following the IRS filing

    • Tony Perkins declared on social media that it was “a long time in coming” that “after years of education, agitation, and the efforts of many, churches will now be unshackled from the Johnson Amendment.” Perkins added: “I am grateful and thank all who have worked tirelessly to achieve this outcome, especially Mike Farris, who did a lot of the heavy lifting.” (Farris is the general counsel of the National Religious Broadcasters and has pushed other right-wing Christian policy goals. He previously led extreme anti-LGBTQ and legal powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom from 2017 to 2022.) [Twitter/X, 7/8/25; The Washington Post, 8/29/23; Media Matters, 7/26/18]
    • On Family Research Council’s podcast, Washington Watch, Perkins celebrated this “very welcome step toward preventing the weaponization of the Johnson Amendment,” said “this is something we’ve talked about for years,” and discussed past efforts to challenge the amendment. Perkins interviewed former Republican representative and pastor Jody Hice, who is now a Washington Watch host and was “a part of that original group of pastors we [Family Research Council and Alliance Defending Freedom] actually recruited to preach these sermons and challenged the IRS to come after them.” [YouTube, Washington Watch, 7/8/25]
    • Lance Wallnau celebrated that pastors could endorse candidates: “This still won’t make nervous Pastors courageous BUT it unleashes the ones who were afraid their boards and elders would criticize them for being plain spoken.” [Twitter/X, 7/8/25]
    • Charlie Kirk cheered the announcement: “Churches can now endorse candidates from the Pulpit again, a freedom that never should have been taken away in the first place.” He added: “The two most important things a church can do: 1) Preach the Gospel 2) Vote so you're always free to do the first. Praise God they’re free to do the second again.” [Twitter/X, 7/7/25]
    • In an email to supporters, Jackson Lahmeyer said the Johnson Amendment had been a “fear tactic” and that its removal “may usher in the greatest Christian engagement politically since the founding of our Nation.” [Email from Jackson Lahmeyer, 7/8/25]
    • Eric Metaxas celebrated the move and said, “If your pastor is being timid, FIND ANOTHER CHURCH. Or be complicit in evil.” He said: “Dems never shrank from being ‘political’ from the pulpit. There is now officially no excuse.” [Twitter/X, 7/8/25]
    • Sean Feucht declared on social media: “PRAISE GOD!!! FREE THE CHURCH TO BE THE CHURCH IN AMERICA!!” [Twitter/X, 7/8/25]

  • Trump has emboldened right-wing Christians in his second term

    • Trump has repeatedly emboldened and elevated right-wing Christians — especially charismatic evangelicals — in his second term. Trump created a White House Faith Office, appointing extremist televangelist Paula White-Cain as senior adviser. The New York Times reported that “routinely, and often at Mr. Trump’s enthusiastic direction, senior administration officials and allied pastors are infusing their brand of Christian worship into the workings of the White House itself, suggesting that his campaign promise to ‘bring back Christianity’ is taking tangible root.” Trump also created a Religious Liberty Commission that is dominated by Christian media figures who have pushed Christian nationalist, anti-Muslim, and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. Advocates for the separation of church and state argue that the commission is a “theocratic power grab masquerading as liberty and freedom,” and it “is not about religious liberty, but about advancing Christian nationalism.” [The New York Times, 4/18/25; Media Matters, 6/12/25, 2/27/25]