Top Trump administration officials will address a mass prayer gathering on the National Mall in Washington on Sunday, an event organizers describe as reclaiming the country’s religious foundations.

Critics say it amounts to a quasi-official rally for Christian nationalism. President Donald Trump is expected to address the crowd via video.

What is the White House mass prayer event on the National Mall?

The White House organized the mass prayer event as part of celebrations marking America’s 250th birthday.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson are listed as guest speakers.

The gathering is scheduled to last around nine hours and is billed as a rededication of the republic to God and country.

Who is speaking at the prayer gathering?

Hegseth invited Americans to attend in a video message, calling it an opportunity to “rededicate this republic to God and country.” Beyond cabinet officials, around 20 faith leaders are also listed as speakers.

Apart from a rabbi and a retired Catholic archbishop, almost all of them are evangelical Protestants.

TV preacher Paula White, head of the White House’s Faith Office and a spiritual advisor to Trump, framed the event in explicitly theological terms. “It is about the history and the foundations of our nation, which was built on Christian values, on the Bible,” she said in a webinar last month. “This is really truly rededicating the country to God.”

Why are critics calling this a Christian nationalist event?

The organizers’ website describes the prayer gathering as open to “Americans of every background.” But Julie Ingersoll, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Florida, says the speaker list points to “an idea of American identity that is rooted in whiteness and Christianity.”

The event, she said, “sends a specific message that they are the mainstream Americans, and the rest of us are sidelined.”

Sam Perry, a professor at Baylor University, acknowledged that faith-based political gatherings are not new. “It’s not unprecedented to have a group of evangelical pastors or conservative clergy come together for something like this and blend a certain kind of nationalism with a certain kind of conservative Christianity,” he said. But the Trump administration taking the lead at this scale, Perry added, is different from previous events.

Is a White House prayer event constitutional?

The US Constitution explicitly bars the establishment of any official religion, while also explicitly protecting its free expression. Previous administrations and presidents have regularly held and attended faith-based gatherings.

Sunday’s event is still unusual for its scale and the direct involvement of top cabinet officials.

Muscular Christian nationalism has enjoyed a prominent platform since Trump’s return to power, with evangelicals forming a core part of the president’s support base.

Hegseth is a member of an ultra-conservative evangelical church, and his briefings on the Iran war have drawn attention for their use of bellicose Christian rhetoric.

The National Mall, stretching from the US Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, is a common site for mass rallies and protests.

It is most famously associated with the 1963 March on Washington, when an estimated 250,000 people heard Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech.