We begin with a 2020 clip, in which Paula White-Caine, President Donald Trump’s spiritual advisor and current Director of the White House Faith Office, explains how the Holy Spirit works through her.

Today’s theme is Joyful Morning by Cast of Characters.

Pastor Paula White-Cain speaks at the Young Women’s Leadership Summit hosted by Turning Point USA in Grapevine, Texas, June 11, 2021. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

In the News:

* On Monday in a Truth Social post, Donald Trump threatened Iran with annihilation. It was a shocking development and roundly rebuked—not just by Democrats and a few Republicans, but by Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Pope Leo XIV himself. “The threat of destroying a whole civilization and the intentional targeting of civilian infrastructure cannot be morally justified,” Cooley said. The Pope had already said in his Palm Sunday homily that the Lord “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.” On Easter, he condemned the "great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day," and on the following day, called Trump’s demented Easter post “truly unacceptable.” Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby retaliated by summoning Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, and appearing to threaten the Vatican with a military reprisal.

* In the category of “even when Democrats lose, they win,” voters in GA-14 went to the polls on Tuesday to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene. Trump-backed Republican Clay Fuller won with 54% of the vote—normally not a squeaker, unless you consider the nine-point shift to Democrat Shawn Harris since he last ran in 2024, when it was a Trump +37 district. Republicans spent $1.5 million on a seat that is normally a gimme. Harris spent a similar sum, but has about $750 thousand cash on hand to try again in the fall.

* In other election news, Wisconsin Democrats have snagged another State Supreme Court seat in a cakewalk. Chris Taylor’s 17-point victory gives liberals a solid 5-2 majority on the court, but part of the story is that the GOP basically waved the white flag, spending less than $1 million on a race that in the past has sucked down as much as $100 million. Then, there is Waukesha County: 86% white, wealthy and a traditional Republican bastion outside Milwaukee that Trump won by 20 points in 2024. But in a stunning reversal, Democrat Alicia Halvensleben slipped past incumbent Waukesha mayor Scott Allen with 51.2% of the vote.

* Pam Bondi was subpoenaed to appear before the House Oversight Committee on April 14 to testify about the Epstein case, but since she is no longer Attorney General Barbie, the Department of Justice has notified the Committee that she won’t be coming. That isn’t how Congressional subpoenas work: the House Oversight Committee, including some Republicans, say she still has to show up. Committee chair James Comer (KY-01) says he doesn’t know how to withdraw a subpoena; Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche says it’s Comer’s problem, not his.

Your hosts:

Claire Potter is a historian of politics and media, a writer, a podcaster, and the sole author and editor of the Political Junkie Substack. Her most recent book is Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy (Basic Books, 2020), and she is currently writing a biography of feminist journalist Susan Brownmiller.

Neil J. Young is a historian of religion and politics, a journalist, and a former co-host of the Past Present podcast. His most recent book is Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right (University of Chicago Press, 2024).

In what has become an iconic image, faith leaders (including Paula White, far right) pray over President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, on March 19, 2025. Photo credit: Molly Riley/The White House/Wikimedia Commons

News focus: What Pastor Paula White’s relationship with Donald Trump teaches us about white Christian nationalism

* WE begin by noting the extent to which the illegal war on Iran has been framed by the Trump administration as a Christian Crusade. On Easter Monday, for example, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth compared the downed pilot rescued in Iran by special forces on Sunday to Jesus Christ.

* The establishment clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits a national religion. However, Project 2025 promoted the strengthening of Christianity and Biblical principles across the federal government and throughout civic life, and that is what we have seen in the Trump administration’s turn to Protestant extremism. Commonly called Christian nationalism, this religious activism is both familiar and unfamiliar.

* The first President to have a spiritual advisor was Dwight Eisenhower: that was Billy Graham, who had relationships with 13 presidents, from Harry S Truman to Barack Obama.

* However, the dominant theme is Protestantism. When John F. Kennedy ran in 1960: voters were concerned about his Catholic faith. On September 12, 1960, Kennedy gave a speech to a group of Protestant pastors in Houston saying that he believed absolutely in the separation of Church and state, and also opposed religious discrimination. He was “not the Catholic candidate for president” but “the Democratic Party’s candidate for president, who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me.”

* Bill Clinton had a number of pastors in Little Rock, but following the Monica Lewinsky scandal, put together a group of ministers to counsel him.

* President George W. Bush was the first president to establish an Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. It was maintained by Barack Obama, who was forced to sever ties with his own pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, for Wright’s strong testimony about American racism and his harsh criticisms of the United States government.

* The nation first met Paula White in 2017, when she delivered the invocation at the inauguration as the first female clergy member to speak at that ceremony. In 2025, White appeared on PBS’s Frontline to discuss a relationship with Donald Trump that goes back 20 years.

* White, who was born again in 1984 and launched her first ministry in the 1990s, preaches the “prosperity gospel.” She is controversial because of that, and because of her gender. Here is a short historical account of her rise in the ministry, her three marriages, and investigations into her ministries. She is currently married to Jonathan Caine, of the rock band Journey, who played the iconic opening bars of “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

* White has been criticized for her political involvement and what some call a “faith-based ponzi scheme:” she has been investigated for diverting tithed funds and profits from the sale of religious items into her own pockets, and those of family members.

* White is also known to practice glossolalia, or speaking in tongues, a practice of Pentecostals and charismatic Christianssaid to be a gift of the Holy Spirit. Here is a video of Caine from January 5, 2021, in which she calls upon angels from Africa: she spoke at Trump’s January 6 “Save America” rally the following day, which preceded an attack on the Capitol that highlighted white Christian nationalist support for Trump.

* In 2016, White was one of 25 evangelical Protestant pastors, televangelists, and lay Christians assembled as an advisory board to the Trump campaign and charged with outreach to the Christian evangelical community. The Board, which continued into Trump’s first term, was largely White—four members were Black—and male. The initial Board had only two women; in 2017, when A.R. Bernard of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn resigned over the Unite the Right rally, Alveda King, Martin Luther King’s niece and the only member of the family who supports Trump, joined the Board.

* In 2019, White joined the Trump administration to run the Faith and Opportunity office in the administration.

* When he returned to the White House in 2025, Trump createdthe White House Faith Office and put White in charge of it.

* During Holy Week this year, White also appeared on Lara Trump’s Fox News show to vouch for Donald Trump’s faith, and his upbringing in the church, claiming that he attended Sunday and Saturday school “at least three times a week.” This has been questioned by numerous people, who have pointed out that Saturday and Sunday are two days, not three, and that Trump was raised Presbyterian, a faith that does not have Saturday school.

What we want to go viral:

* Neil’s viral pick this week is historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s new book, Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made (Liveright: September, 2026). You can only pre-order it now, but this recent history of the Instagram-able world of mass culture Christianity is not to be missed. Through blogging, crafting, reading, and consuming, White Christian women created their own gospel of prosperity.

* Claire wants you to read public historian John Garrison Marks’s “America’s 250th Is Repeating a Familiar Mistake” (TIME, April 7, 2026), about a history of erasure and struggle over slave-owning by the founders—and George Washington, in particular. Marks has a book coming out this week on the fight over Washington’s memory, but this essay focuses on the efforts of African American historians like W.E.B. DuBois to ensure that the truth about our nation’s founding was not lost.

Short takes:

* "We are shocked—shocked, I tell you! “On Wednesday, the right descended into a feeding frenzy over unsubstantiated rumors of a Justice Department investigation into whether certain conservative commentators were being paid by foreign sources to argue for and against the war,” Will Sommer writes at The Bulwark. “It’s worth noting early that, while there is a rich and well-documented history of conservative influencers being on the dole, there’s so far no evidence of that happening in this particular instance.” In fact, the accusations have come from inside the influencer community itself. “But the enthusiasm for a Justice Department probe is notable not just because it suggests influencers believe the MAGA civil war now requires federal intervention,” Sommer continues. “It sticks out because many of these influencers calling for a DOJ probe have taken foreign money themselves.” (April 9, 2026)

* The Trump administration is trying to rid itself of federal buildings in downtown Washington D.C., presumably so they can never again be filled with federal workers. But the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building, Judith Shulevitz writes at The Atlantic, is also a landmark filled with priceless art, painted directly onto the walls. “Ben Shahn and Philip Guston, who went on to join the ranks of the most-renowned American artists of the 20th century, won plum commissions on the ground floor, as did Seymour Fogel, a respected muralist,” Shulevitz reports. “According to sworn testimony, the Trump administration is already soliciting bids to tear down the Cohen and three other federal buildings, bypassing the usual reviews. Meanwhile, the regulations meant to protect historic buildings are being weakened.” Remember, he did it to Bonwits in New York. (April 9, 2026)

* Why did Melania Trump have a surprise press conference yesterday, to disassociate herself from Jeffrey Epstein—and the husband she does not appear to have lived with for ten years? “‘I have never been friends with Jeffrey Epstein,’ she said to reporters gathered at the White House,” Diana Nerozzi and Hailey Fuchs report at POLITICO. “She also denied any friendly relations with Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. She said she had ‘casual’ email correspondence with Maxwell and suggested any association was a result of their inhabiting the same New York social scene.” FLOTUS did not respond to questions from stunned reporters, and there was no new knowledge—including the fact that, after 30 years of living in the United States, her English is still terrible. (April 9, 2026)

Don’t miss new drops from Claire and Neil. You can subscribe for free or support us for only $5 a month. You can also become an annual supporter for $50/year and choose Neil’s Coming Out Republican or Claire’s Political Junkies: as a welcome bonus.

You can also get all audio content for free by subscribing on Apple iTunes, YouTube, or Spotify.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit clairepotter.substack.com/subscribe