(LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Robert Barron has come under fire for appearing to endorse comments by President Donald Trump and others that compared the 47th president with Jesus Christ during a Holy Week prayer gathering at the White House on Wednesday.
Described as an Easter lunch and prayer vigil, Barron said the event featured approximately 100 religious leaders in the East Room of the White House in commemoration of Holy Week.
Speaking at the event, mostly covering a wide variety of foreign policy and political topics for close to an hour, Trump also read a Holy Week recollection of Jesus Christ entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and being hailed as a king. Interrupting his own reading, he commented that “they call me King now, do you believe it?” Then, reading on regarding Jesus’ being betrayed and arrested, he added, “We know the feeling. Many of the people in this room know the feeling. Many of the people in this room went through hell.”
Later, prosperity gospel televangelist Paula White, a longtime spiritual adviser to Trump and current Senior Adviser to the White House Faith Office, recalled the “great sacrifice” of Christ in His “death, burial, and resurrection,” and then turned to Trump, saying, “no one has paid the price like you have paid the price. It almost cost you your life. You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused. It’s a familiar pattern that our Lord and Savior showed us, but it didn’t end there for Him, and it didn’t end there for you.”
Paula White compares Trump to Jesus during event with faith leaders: “You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused. It’s a familiar pattern that our Lord and Savior showed us. Because of His resurrection, you rose up.” pic.twitter.com/Ddc8hflU34
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 1, 2026
She declared further to the president that “because of His resurrection, you rose up. Because He was victorious, you were victorious.”
White, who was reportedly instrumental in getting Catholic convert Carrie Prejean Boller ousted from Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission after her defending Catholic doctrine on Zionism, then turned and led those present in a prayer for President Trump with a few pastors laying hands on him.
A picture of Barron standing in the background revealed his hands modestly extended as if to consent to her prayer.
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Bishop Robert Barron participated in an Easter Lunch for Faith Leaders at the White House today pic.twitter.com/uwpB7zkxZe
— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) April 1, 2026
Pastor Franklin Graham followed, recalling in his invocation the book of Esther and declaring that “today, the Iranians, the wicked regime of this government, wants to kill every Jew and destroy them with an atomic fire. But you have raised up President Trump. You’ve raised him up for such a time as this. And Father, we pray that you’ll give him victory” over “these Islamic lunatics.”
Bishop Barron eventually offered a thoughtful, lengthy prayer in which he declared Jesus Christ “the ‘yes’ to all the promises made to Israel,” and thanked the Father for providing Christians “the privilege of declaring the kingship of Christ to the world and calling all people to be subject to him.”
However, commenting on Bishop Barron’s participation, progressive Catholic influencer Christopher Hale opined that his “polished prayer provided the theological sheen that made the rest of the event presentable. His presence validated the entire spectacle” and was thus a scandal, “leading others to error by lending the appearance of approval to wrongdoing.”
“When a bishop stands alongside voices that equate a political leader with Jesus Christ and does not object, his silence communicates consent. The faithful watching this video — and millions now have — see their bishop endorsing what that room produced,” he wrote.
According to Prejean Boller, White was part of a “witch hunt” aimed at driving her off the White House Religious Liberty Commission due to her being “outspoken about Israel and the genocide it’s committing against the Palestinians in Gaza.”
White has been criticized for disfiguring Christianity in order to wield it as a weapon for wars of aggression in the Middle East.
On Wednesday, Prejean Boller posted a short compilation video of White in an apparent channeling prayer frenzy directing forces to “strike and strike … until you have victory” against “every enemy that is aligned against you,” with footage of bombed tents in Gaza, rubble, injured children, and survivors amid destruction.
“We were promised the golden age,” the former Miss California wrote, “now they are glorifying a genocide and justifying it as if it’s God’s will. Heretical teachers like Paula White are advising Trump for more war and destruction to fulfill their false end times fantasy.”
We were promised the golden age… now they are glorifying a genocide and justifying it as if it’s God’s will. Heretical teachers like Paula White are advising Trump for more war and destruction to fulfill their false end times fantasy. Lord have mercy on the innocent lives… pic.twitter.com/IfVZVxERuq
— Carrie Prejean Boller (@CarriePrejean1) April 1, 2026
Calling White a “blaspheming heretic,” she observed that “False theology has deadly consequences,” and prayed for the Lord’s mercy “on the innocent lives killed in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, at the hands of the Israeli government being supported by false teachers here in America.”
Another video shows White “commanding” in “the name of Jesus” for “all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now. We declare that anything that’s been conceived in satanic wombs that it’ll miscarry.”
Paula White is a witch.
Calling for pregnant women to miscarry their babies “in the name of Jesus” is just straight up evil.
How on earth did she end up as Trump’s ‘Senior Advisor to the White House Faith Office’? pic.twitter.com/wFR3Pu5jcA— Jayda Fransen (@JaydaBF) April 2, 2026
Elsewhere, she is seen interviewing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, stating she is “so honored” to be sitting with “God’s chosen for everyone.”
Posting her Wednesday White House speech, Catholic author and podcaster Dr. Taylor Marshall simply commented, “Paula White speaks blasphemy.”
Candace Owens mentioned she was “deeply concerned about Bishop Barron” due to his participation at this event with Paula White who is “an unabashed heretic.” Further, she lamented the contrast between how the high-profile bishop was silent when Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa of Jerusalem “was refused from the Holy Sepulchre” last Sunday, and the fact that he took the time to pen “a Twitter novel lambasting Carrie Prejean over her theologically-sound views regarding Zionism.”
Finally, with an accompanying clip of comments by White and Graham, well-known Lutheran pastor from Bethlehem Rev. Munther Isaac, who has also been featured by Tucker Carlson, observed:
Nothing new here. The Bible already warned us about prophets who tell kings what they want to hear. “Speak favorably…” (1 Kings 22:13). This is court religion – religious voices aligning with power to secure it for themselves.
Later that evening in a speech to the nation regarding the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, Trump pledged to bomb “each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously.” And on Monday, he threatened to bomb Iran’s desalinization plants as well, which provide drinking water for their people.
In response, Catholic journalist and podcaster Christine Niles asked, “Why is Trump threatening to commit war crimes?”
Trump has threatened to bomb desalination plants, which provide drinkable water to civilians. In last night’s speech, he threatened to bomb electrical plants – which provide power to hospitals and other civilian infrastructure.
Why is Trump threatening to commit war crimes?… pic.twitter.com/2TAI1bJ6s2
— Christine Niles (@ChristineNiles1) April 2, 2026
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