Vice President J.D. Vance warned that the United States' international engagement on religious liberty has been "corrupted," vowing that the current presidential administration will not use tax dollars to promote things like atheism abroad.
The vice president spoke at the International Religious Freedom 2025 Summit in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, where he addressed thousands of attendees from over 40 different countries.
Vance promised the attendees that President Donald Trump's administration plans to protect religious liberty in the U.S. and globally.
"Too often has our nation's international engagement on religious liberty issues been corrupted and distorted to the point of absurdity," Vance said. "Think about this: How did America get to the point where we're sending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars abroad to NGOs that are dedicated to spreading atheism all over the globe?"
"That is not what leadership on protecting the rights of the faithful looks like," the vice president added.
Vance's remark appears to be a reference to the controversy surrounding the U.S. Agency for International Development and some of its programs, as the administration has closed the agency's office this week and placed "all USAID direct hire personnel" on administrative leave.
Earlier this month, the White House released a statement highlighting several reports on how the USAID has spent taxpayer money during previous presidential administrations.
According to federal records, the activist group Asociacion Lambda received a $2 million grant from USAID to fund organizations that provide so-called "gender-affirming care," like body-mutilating gender surgeries and LGBT activism.
Other reported expenditures highlighted by the White House include $70,000 for the production of a "DEI musical" in Ireland, $47,000 for a "transgender opera" in Colombia and $2 million for "sex changes and 'LGBT activism' in Guatemala." In 2022, the U.S. State Department was questioned by a Republican member of Congress for granting over $20,000 to fund a dozen drag shows in Ecuador.
On the issue of foreign policy, Vance called for the U.S. to maintain a stance that includes distinguishing between regimes that protect religious freedom and those that do not. He pointed to the treatment of Christians in Iraq as an example, where converts face the threat of beatings or death, adding that the U.S. must possess the "moral clarity" to act in response to these situations.
"Now this administration stands ready to do so," the vice president said, applauding Trump's decision to appoint Marco Rubio as secretary of state. Vance hailed the Republican former Florida senator as "one of the great living champions of religious liberty across the globe."
The vice president promised that the current administration would both restore and expand the policies from Trump's first presidency that sought to protect religious freedom. Vance described Trump's first presidential term as a "high water mark for religious Americans."
"He took decisive action to defend religious liberty, combat antisemitism and preserve the conscience rights of hospital workers and faith-based ministries as they provide care to their fellow Americans, and to remove barriers from religious organizations and businesses to contract with the federal government," Vance said.
"You shouldn't have to leave your faith at the door of your people's government. And under President Trump's leadership, you won't have to," he added.
Vance also stressed the importance of creating an environment where faith can "thrive," noting the positive impact that this can have on society.
"Because one of the wonderful apparent paradoxes of religion is that in connecting us to the sacred and to the universal, it deepens our commitment to the particular, to our neighbors, to our obligations, to one another, to the individual communities that all of us call home," he said.
"The church was a place, and still is, where people of different races, different backgrounds, different walks of life came together in commitment to their shared communities and, of course, in commitment to their God."
He described church as the place where the CEO of a company and one of its workers stand as equals before the God they worship. He asked attendees, "Are these not the kinds of bonds and virtues that lawmakers today should strive to cultivate?"
"Well, I'm pleased to say that they certainly were in the first Trump administration, and they will be even more so in the second," Vance said.
