Democratic presidents have targeted Christians and attacked religious freedom for decades, but President Donald Trump is making everything right, claims By Dawn’s Early Light, a taxpayer-funded movie starring Trump administration officials that praises the president’s Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias.
“It was as if there was an onslaught against Christians, just for being Christian,” says a representative of one of the film’s five featured conservative Christian legal groups.
But now, “we’re living in this new dawn of religious freedom, where you don’t have to leave your faith when you walk out the door of your house.”
The film, released May 31 by the White House Domestic Council and copyrighted by the U.S. government, is part of Trump’s efforts to woo his evangelical base, which has seen declining support for the president over his handling of immigration and the war in Iran.
You can stream the film for free until Aug. 31 and see trailers here. It is being distributed by Salem Media Partners, which will promote the film on Salem’s national radio network, digital platforms, podcasts and conservative news outlets.
Salem previously distributed 2,000 Mules, which claimed fraud enabled the election of Joe Biden in 2020. Salem quietly dropped the film, which earned the company $10 million, and a companion book, after the company was sued for defamation.
Screenshot from “2000 Mules”
“This White House and this administration are true freedom fighters,” says Paula White-Cain, who leads Trump’s White House Faith Office, one of 16 administration officials filmed in their offices. “They fight for people’s religious liberty every single day because that’s the heart of our president.”
The film also features Trump officials Marco Rubio (State Department), Pete Hegseth (Defense), Scott Bessent (Treasury), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (HHS), Linda McMahon (Education), Doug Collins (VA), Markwayne Mullin (Homeland Security), Kash Patel (FBI), Scott Turner (HUD), Kelly Loeffler (Small Business Administration), Keith Sonderling (Labor), Jenny Korn (Faith Director), Andrea Lucas (EEOC), U.S. Attorney Dan Bishop, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and former AG Pam Bondi.
Most were filmed in their government offices. Other talking heads include partisan historical experts (Eric Metaxas, Bill Federer) and “victims” of Democrats’ “anti-Christian bias,” including opponents of COVID vaccine mandates and anti-abortion activists who occupied abortion clinics and refused to leave.
“If you were a pro-life Catholic, they thought you were an extremist,” claims Rep Jim Jordan of Ohio in the film. “During the Biden administration, every single liberty, every single right we have under the First Amendment was assaulted.”
Democratic administrations have targeted anti-abortionists and “sought to destroy every single one of them,” says one of the featured Christian legal experts.
“We do not do politically motivated, hate-filled work” or “political witch hunts.”
Defense Secretary Hegseth says thanks to Trump, military commanders now can pray Christian prayers with service members, “not some mealy-mouthed agnostic prayer about nothing.” There is no credible evidence military members were forbidden from praying.
Some comments may evoke unintended laughter, such as FBI Director Kash Patel’s claim that, “We do not do politically motivated, hate-filled work” or “political witch hunts.” Patel has used the agency to attack Trump critics repeatedly.
Patel boasts of ending the FBI’s decades-long partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Jewish group Anti-Defamation League. The groups previously briefed the FBI on white extremism and anti-LGBTQ hate groups, angering conservative Christian groups that served on Trump’s task force.
Filmmaker Kyle Justice and writers Pat and Sandy Roy have a track record of producing young earth films on “science from a biblical worldview.”
Screencap from “By Dawn’s Early Light” trailer
Promotional materials tell pastors to promote this film by saying it “connects the courageous defense of America during the War of 1812 with the modern-day challenges surrounding constitutional freedoms and religious liberty.”
“As America once fought to withstand foreign attack during the War of 1812, By Dawn’s Early Light argues that a new battle for freedom is unfolding within the nation itself,” say the promotional materials.
The film says today’s America’s enemies are fellow Americans with the wrong beliefs and argues there are “parallels between the external threats America faced in 1814 and the internal cultural and governmental conflicts many believe threaten freedom today.”
The film, which is short on drama but long on talk, opens with a sober summary: “This film is an overview of the work of the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, showcasing what problems were found and what steps have been taken to overcome government hostility towards Christians.”
“Anti-Christian bias has been uncovered in just about every agency of the federal government,” says the narrator. But critics have condemned the task force as a partisan and parochial body created to rubber stamp the grievances of Trump’s most dedicated evangelical supporters.
The film uses opening scenes showing Christians being taken to the lions in the Roman Coliseum and Stalin destroying churches in the communist Soviet Union to argue that authoritarian regimes “target people of faith.” Dictators “happen right here in the United States,” says Metaxas — missing the irony that Trump has called himself a dictator.
“It’s hard to believe the instruments of government would be used to punish faith, particularly one that goes deep to our heritage of our nation,” says Marco Rubio, a likely presidential candidate in 2028. Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, does not appear in the film.
Homeland Security Secretary Mullin claims anti-Christian bias manifested itself in FEMA’s lack of funding for disasters in Trump-supporting regions of the country. He said anti-Christian bias is seen in FEMA’s “approach toward Trump supporters, which is overwhelmingly of the Christian faith.”
Screencap from “By Dawn’s Early Light” trailer
The film concludes with a plea for viewers to get involved in politics. “Are we still the land of the free and the home of the brave? The answer is up to you.”
People for the American Way called By Dawn’s Early Light a “propaganda film” in its critique, “Your Tax Dollars at Work.”
“The Trump administration has partnered with its Religious-Right allies to produce and promote a propaganda ‘documentary’ that promotes Christian nationalist ideology and portrays the Biden administration and the left in general as enemies of faith and freedom. It puts a Trump-era spin on the religious right’s longstanding strategy of claiming anti-Christian persecution as a way to mobilize its political supporters,” the critique states.
The White House Faith Office invited 1,000 religious leaders to the film’s May 18 premier at the Kennedy Center.