The Dispatch
The White House Easter Lunch held on April 1, 2026 featured a formal spiritual programme comprising seven prayers delivered by six named clergy and one unidentified pastor. The event was attended by cabinet members, faith leaders, and the President of the United States. Remarks by the President preceded the prayers. The programme was organised by the White House Faith Office, which the President noted had not previously existed.
Spiritual advisor Paula White opened the prayer portion of the event by conveying what she described as a message from the Holy Spirit. White told the President that the Holy Spirit had directed her to express gratitude on behalf of God. She characterised the President as the greatest champion of faith that we have ever seen in a president. She then drew parallels between the President’s trials and those of Jesus Christ. “Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price,” White said. “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.” White added that God had communicated a further message for the President: that because of Jesus Christ’s victory in resurrection, the President will be victorious in all that he puts his hands to. She did not specify the medium through which this communication was received. She then led the assembled guests in laying hands on the President.
Evangelist Franklin Graham, son of the late Reverend Billy Graham and president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, delivered the second prayer. Graham opened with a reference to the Book of Esther, a text from the Hebrew Bible in which the Persian king’s advisor Haman plots to kill the Jewish people and is ultimately defeated through the intercession of Queen Esther. “Father, you tell us in the Book of Esther that the Persians — the Iranians — were wanting to kill every Jew, woman, child, and do it all in one day,” Graham said. “But you raised up Esther to save the Jewish people. 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.” Graham prayed for victory for the President, protection for the military, and freedom for the people of Iran, whom he described as seeking to be set free from what he called Islamic lunatics. He closed in the name of Jesus Christ.
Further prayers were delivered by Pastor Marilyn Rivera, who prayed for unity and protection; Bishop Robert Barron, who prayed for the President to be given grace, courage, wisdom, and prudence; an unidentified pastor who reported having just returned from Venezuela, where he said 10,000 pastors had gathered and the fire of God fell on that place, which he attributed in part to the President’s military action in that country; Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, who thanked God for causing the President to turn his head at the correct moment in Butler, Pennsylvania in July 2024, and for causing an agent to observe a rifle barrel at the President’s golf club, and who prayed specifically for the Iran conflict; and Pastor Robert Jeffress, who stated that he had told the President in January 2016 that God had appointed him to the presidency, and who characterised the current political situation as a battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.
The United States military operation against Iran, Operation Epic Fury, entered its second month during the week of the Easter Lunch. The operation has been framed by the White House as necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. The Director of National Intelligence assessed last year that Iran is not currently seeking to build one. The Book of Esther does not address nuclear weapons. Bible sales are currently at their highest level in many decades, according to figures cited by the President during his preceding remarks. Church attendance among young people has nearly doubled compared to five years ago.
God has not issued a statement.
