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The chairman of President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission reports the “overwhelming majority” of the commission’s witnesses have been “attacked and punished” with a phrase that is non-existent in the U.S. Constitution – “separation of church and state.”

“The left has used that one phrase – that was one line out of one of hundreds of letters by Thomas Jefferson – to batter and hammer people of faith for the last 70 to 80 years,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) said Friday at a White House press conference as the commission delivered its 224-page report to the president.

“This report will speak very clearly that we want to be sure Americans understand that they cannot be attacked by that phrase any longer,” Patrick added.

The report summarizes the commission’s work since the president established it on May 1, 2025.

In response to the report, Trump said religion has made “a tremendous resurgence in our country.”

“I have not seen anything like it,” he continued. “I hate to joke, but if this were a stock, you’d be very rich, because it has gone up like a rocket ship over the last year, year and a half, and I’m very honored to be sitting here. Maybe I had something to do with it, but they’ve made some very strong recommendations, and now we have to convince people to adhere by those regulations.”

Only several paragraphs into the report’s executive summary, the commission excoriates the use of the phrase as it chastises those government officials who “wrongly claim that the Establishment Clause or ‘separation of church and state’” requires the eradication of faith expressed in the public square.

“Nothing could be further from the truth—the Constitution neither requires nor permits religious voices to be silenced,” the commission observes, adding that not only did the Founding Fathers recognize religious freedom as a “private benefit for believers,” but also as a “public good for the nation.”

The commission held seven hearings that featured testimony from more than 100 witnesses, including many whose religious freedom had been threatened in various ways.

Among the situations described to the commission was a faith-based institution pressured to close when it refused to allow biological males in female private spaces; a couple who was dismissed as foster parents because they would not support gender medical transition treatments for children; parents who were not allowed to opt their children out of school curriculum that featured gender ideology; and students who were denied religious exemptions from vaccines.

“These witnesses showed great courage,” the commission acknowledged. “Their commitment to stand by their beliefs and ‘live not by lies’ has played a consequential role in preserving religious liberty for all Americans.”

During an interview with EWTN News Nightly, Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota – a member of the commission – highlighted the importance of religious liberty as “the first liberty” mentioned in the First Amendment and the “keystone of all the other liberties.”

“This is the first liberty,” Barron said, observing that if religious liberty is undermined, “all the other liberties are threatened, and so we wanted to revive a sense of the Founding Fathers and the stress that they placed on it and I thought it was really wonderful in light of the 250th anniversary of our country that we were hearkening back to the Founding Fathers.”

The founder of global evangelization ministry Word on Fire, Barron said he holds great respect for Trump for establishing the Religious Liberty Commission.

“He’s the president in my lifetime who’s done the most for the defense of religious liberty,” he said, adding that the president “seems to be sincerely dedicated to fostering religion, and he sees the importance of it to our republic. I think that’s very clear.”

The bishop expressed as well how impressed he was with the courage of the witnesses – men, women, and children – who attended the commission’s hearings to discuss how their religious liberty had been threatened in their places of work and school.

“We heard the suffering they went through, and jobs that were threatened, and so on,” he said. “I’m glad they came forward, and you know, we were an opportunity for them to express their concerns to the government.”

The commission concludes in its report that, while protecting legal rights in the aftermath of their violation is important, the safeguarding of religious freedom ultimately “requires cultivating a culture that understands why those rights exist in the first place.”

Among its recommendations, the commission underscores the need for Americans to educate themselves about the Constitution and to correct misconceptions often repeated in media.

Additionally, the commission urges strengthening conscience protections; guaranteeing equal treatment under the law; and encouraging gratitude for religious liberty and its role in “building up the infinite richness of American life.”

Regarding government-run schools, the commission recommends the creation of a “hotline/portal” for teachers and staff to report First Amendment violations; school choice to encourage parents in the exercise of their parental rights in selecting their children’s education setting; and the creation of a Parental Rights Task Force – jointly overseen by the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS).

Religious liberty training is recommended for all military leaders and JAG officers in the armed services, as well as reversal of “Obama and Biden-era restrictions on religious practice and expression.”

In the field of health care, the commission urges the restoration of the HHS Conscience and Religious Freedom Division – a goal the Trump administration already brought to fruition in May.

The commission further makes special note of the rise in anti-Semitism and calls for resources to provide a stronger response to its evidence in public and private spaces.

The continued misuse of the phrase “separation of church and state” remains a theme throughout the commission’s report.

“[T]he ‘wall of separation’ phrase does not appear in the First Amendment or anywhere else in the Constitution,” the commission emphasizes. “What the First Amendment does say about the relationship between religion and the government is that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’”

What that means, the commissioners explain, is that the government cannot express preference for one faith over another, or force religious expression.

“Nothing in the First Amendment allows the government to create a ‘wall’ between an individual’s personal faith and our nation’s public life,” the report states. “The idea that it does allow—or even require—a ‘wall of separation’ only took off in the mid-twentieth century, when the Supreme Court began citing Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, written 10 years after the First Amendment was ratified.”

Trump related the delivery of the commission’s report to the upcoming special anniversary of the nation’s independence.

“America was founded by people of faith, and it was settled as a haven for religious freedom,” the president said during the press conference. “So important as we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our founding … it is only appropriate that we work to strengthen this fundamental right and to most essentially have liberty for generations to come.”

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