April 2022 Church & State Magazine

Trump Adviser Makes False Claims About Constitution

  Trump Adviser Makes False Claims About Constitution

Michael Flynn, a former Army officer and national security adviser to President Donald Trump, incorrectly told a crowd in Oklahoma last month that the U.S. Constitution contains four references to the Creator.

Flynn, appearing at a rally for Jackson Lahmeyer, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Oklahoma, told the crowd, “You read the Federalist Papers, you read [the Founder’s] writings – because this is all about the people that we’re talking about tonight running for office, and others that are out there – you read all these things, you study the history of this country, you study how it was founded. That’s why the word ‘Creator’ is in the Constitution four times. ‘We are endowed by our Creator.’”

In fact, the word “Creator” does not appear in the Con­stitution at all. Flynn apparently confused the Constitution with the Declaration of Independence, which contains deistic references to the Creator.

According to Right Wing Watch, Flynn also asserted that the country is locked in a “spiritual war” and called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) a “demon.” He also insisted that the Ten Commandments inspired the Bill of Rights.

Flynn held his position in the Trump White House for just 22 days. He resigned in February 2017 after it came to light that he had failed to disclose his ties to Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States.

BREAKING NEWS

Americans United & the National Women’s Law Center file suit to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans.

Abortion bans violate the separation of church and state. Americans United and the National Women’s Law Center—the leading experts in religious freedom and gender justice—have joined forces with thirteen clergy from six faith traditions to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans as unconstitutionally imposing one narrow religious doctrine on everyone.


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