“Christianity overwhelmingly was the No. 1 influence in the founding of this constitutional republic,” claims Focus on the Family in its new 20-minute video, “Faith in America: 250 Years.”
“America was born only because of Christian principles and Christian Scriptures,” says the video, “and it was created only by the sacrifice, involvement and engagement of Christian people.”
Focus also took part in President Donald Trump’s Great American State Fair on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., which continues through July 10. The Fair, part of Trump’s controversial Freedom 250 projects, honors “faith, values and inspiration.”
Focus said it is hosting a booth at the Fair in the Faith and Family Pavillion, as are Museum of the Bible and Hillsdale College. Focus also offers free streaming of 16 patriotic episodes of its popular Adventures in Odyssey audio drama.
People walk along the National Mall inside the Great American State Fair grounds, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Freedom 250 is Trump’s alternative to America 250, which was established by Congress a decade ago. He is using funds Congress allocated to America 250 for Freedom 250 while also seeking donations from major corporations, spurring a congressional inquiry, a lawsuit and ethics complaints.
Some claim Trump is profiting personally from Freedom 250, which included a UFC fight on the White House South Lawn in celebration of his June 14 birthday. The event killed the lawn, but ScottsMiracle-Gro says it has pledged $1 million to restore the lawn by the spring of 2027.
Freedom 250 claims it is nonpartisan and says the Fair is “proud to have all 50 states and six territories represented,” but at least half a dozen states declined to participate.
The partisan, Trump-centric nature of Freedom 250 led musicians to withdraw from a planned opening concert. Instead, fairgoers heard a rally speech from Trump, who referred to himself as “the No. 1 attraction anywhere in the world, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime.”
Fairgoers also can see a mock-up of Trump’s planned arch.
Meanwhile, the congressionally-approved America 250 soldiers on with what’s left of its budget and a smaller roster of events, including America’s Block Party, a July 4 Concert at the LA Memorial Coliseum, and its “Giving 4th” initiative on helping make 2026 a record-setting year for volunteer service.
News reports say Trump’s Fair opened late and experienced early power problems resulting in melted ice cream and an immobile Ferris wheel. The private organization occupying the Fair’s North Carolina unused booth has removed the Confederate flags seen there Friday.
Attendance has been so small as to be the butt of jokes.
Image from Focus on the Family website
Also Focus’ new “Faith in America” video, which is produced by Daily Citizen, its activist news outlet, claims America was founded as a Christian nation, “the Declaration was rooted in biblical truth,” and “Christians must engage in politics.”
“No Holy Bible, no Constitution, no Declaration of Independence,” says the video. “They go together. The Declaration of Independence is not just a political document. It’s also a religious document.”
The video claims only Christian people and biblical principles inspired the American experiment, denying that nonbelievers, deists, Enlightenment ideals or ancient philosophers contributed anything to the nation’s founding.
“There was no other source,” claims Timothy Goeglein, a former aide to President George W. Bush who worked for the Heritage Foundation and now runs Focus’ DC office.
“Not Montesquieu. Not Locke. Not Cicero. Not the ancient Greeks. Not the ancient Romans, but it was firmly the Holy Bible that was the No. 1 resource and impact on our Founders.”
Many of the Founders were familiar with the work of history’s leading political philosophers who addressed issues not found in the Bible. Montesquieu wrote about the separation of powers. Locke said all humans were born with natural rights. Cicero promoted republicanism through the rule of law and civic virtue.
Nevertheless, the Declaration’s phrase that “all men are created equal” and endowed with inalienable rights “has its roots in Genesis chapter one, where God says, ‘Let us make man in our in our image,’ and it has no other root,” says the Focus video.
“God is sort of the silent partner at the constitutional process, because you don’t actually see the name of God mentioned at all in the constitution,” the video claims. “Yet Christian thought is everywhere in the document, in the structure, in the way that it’s argued about, in the way that it’s thought about.”
Michele Bachmann
Much of the video is devoted to hailing Michele Bachmann, a former Minnesota representative and presidential candidate, as a model Christian politician who was “willing to be a fool for the Lord” and combat President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
“Her constant focus on Obamacare led to President Trump’s decision to repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017,” says the narrator. “This was a calling of God for me to do this,” Bachmann says.
Bachmann celebrates America’s Christians. But she warned in a November broadcast with James Dobson’s ministry that America’s Muslims are the nation’s primary cause of antisemitism and have ‘conquered” some American cities.
“We allow mosques and all the rest,” she said. “They actually sound the Islamic call to prayer in Minneapolis. This is what’s done in Islamic countries. This is the first city in the U.S. to actually sound the Islamic call to prayer five times a day. You don’t want to think that your city isn’t conquered? Minneapolis is most assuredly being conquered, just as Dearborn, Michigan is being conquered.”