There is an irony to the Trump supporters cheering the recently signed executive order which ‘promotes religious liberty‘. These people, led by Vice President Pence, believe this country isn’t religious enough, but of course, they mean not Christian enough (their particular faith). The irony is that this group of supporters, flag waving, consider themselves the ‘real Americans’ yet, as Hitchens reminded us frequently, the Founders (would they pass Trump voters’ ‘Real American’ test?) were men of the enlightenment, and they thought enough about the issues of religion and state that they went through a lot of trouble to separate the two. That’s what makes us different than the places from which the Founders fled. Hitchens explains it to the thick Ken Blackwell in this video.  Hitchens addresses the topic in Thomas Jefferson: Author of America, and of course with a broader perspective, in God is Not Great.

Trump is likely not interested in religion, but he’s a big fan of throwing bones to his base.