MAGA Education Official Instructs Schools to Show Video of Him Praying for Donald Trump

This blog is originally appeared at LGBTQ Nation


The Oklahoma Superintendent of Schools recently spent $25,000 in state funds on Trump Bibles.

Ryan Walters, the controversial Oklahoma Superintendent of Schools, has directed school districts statewide to show a video of him praying for President-elect Donald Trump. This unusual and politically charged directive, issued amidst a recall effort against Walters, has sparked strong opposition from local school administrators. The video and accompanying order were sent out to schools on Thursday.

At least seven major Oklahoma school districts announced Friday that they will not show a video in which Superintendent Ryan Walters discusses the objectives of his newly established Office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism, concluding with a prayer for former and future President Donald Trump.

The video, which carries a highly partisan tone, criticizes the “radical left” for attacking religious freedom in schools and accuses teacher unions of undermining patriotism.

“We will not tolerate that in any school in Oklahoma,” Walters declares in the video. “We want our students to be patriotic. We want our students to love this country, and we want all students’ religious liberty to be protected.”

The video wraps up with a prayer in which Walters asks for divine guidance for the nation’s leaders and specifically prays for Trump and his team.

“Dear God, thank you for all the blessings you’ve given our country. I pray for our leaders to make the right decisions. I pray in particular for Donald Trump and his team as they continue to bring about change to the country,” Walters says.

Edmond Public Schools Superintendent Angela Grunewald informed parents on Friday that her district will not disrupt its locally approved curriculum to show Walters’ video.

Grunewald emphasized that her district will continue to teach the Oklahoma state standards and the curriculum set by the local school board. “Any changes to that would be based on local decisions,” she said, citing a recent ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that upheld the authority of local school districts to make such decisions.

Similarly, Midwest City-Del City Public Schools Superintendent Rick Cobb told the Oklahoma Voice that his district will not show the video. “We do not believe he has the statutory authority to require us to share this content,” Cobb said.

The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office supported this stance, declaring the mandate unenforceable. “Not only is this edict unenforceable, it is contrary to parents’ rights, local control, and individual free-exercise rights,” said Attorney General spokesperson Phil Bacharach.

Newly sworn-in Democratic state Sen. Mark Mann, a former member of the Oklahoma City Board of Education, also urged other districts to resist the mandate. “When Oklahoma needs to make gains in reading and math scores, the last thing we need to be doing is pushing the superintendent’s blatant, self-serving political agenda,” Mann remarked.

Walters’ controversial order, which is seen as unenforceable, accompanies his ongoing effort to distribute 55,000 Bibles to Oklahoma schools. On the same day his prayer video was released, Walters posted another video celebrating the arrival of the first 500 Bibles in AP Government classrooms.

Walters’ budget request was specifically aimed at purchasing a version of the Bible known as the “Trump Bible,” which combines the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Old and New Testaments into a single Christian nationalist text. The initial purchase of these Bibles amounted to $25,000.

Walters has been mentioned as a potential candidate for Secretary of Education in Trump’s second-term Cabinet. Both Walters and Trump have advocated for the abolition of the U.S. Department of Education.

Former GOP party chair affiliated with MAGA movement insults gay lawmaker with homophobic slur on social media

This blog originally appeared at LGBTQ NATION.

In 2022, before her indictment, she referred to Pete Buttigieg as a “weak little girl.”

A former high-ranking state Republican official, indicted in an alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, used an anti-gay slur to insult a Democratic lawmaker. Meshawn Maddock, who led the Michigan Republican Party until her recent indictment for trying to shift Michigan’s electoral votes to Donald Trump instead of President Joe Biden, is now making offensive remarks on social media.

Maddock’s slur was in response to a post on X from Michigan state Rep. Jason Morgan (D), an openly gay lawmaker and vice chair of the state’s Democratic Party. Morgan had shared a picture of the Michigan congressional delegation at the DNC last Friday, where they were smiling and holding American flags.

Morgan responded by publicly calling her out in a thread.

“As a proud gay man who loves his husband, these hateful taunts don’t undermine my Pride, but to countless LGBTQ young people across the USA, hateful rhetoric can lead to depression and suicide,” he wrote. He followed up by sharing a photo from his wedding.

Maddock has a history of using homophobic slurs to attack LGBTQ+ politicians. In 2022, while still serving as chair of the Michigan Republican Party, she called Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg a “weak little girl” after learning that he and his husband, Chasten, were purchasing property in Michigan.

“If she wants to talk about little girls, Chasten and I are raising a little girl and a little boy. And we are raising them to have better values than the chairwoman,” Buttigieg responded when asked about her remarks. “The rest is politics.”

Maddock was indicted last year, alongside 15 other Trump supporters, for their role in a plot to help Trump secure the presidency. The plan involved falsifying a certificate claiming Trump had won Michigan and sending it to Congress in hopes of securing the state’s electoral votes for him.

The fake certificate falsely claimed that the 16 electoral voters had met in the Michigan Capitol on December 14, 2020, when in fact, the building was closed, and Biden’s electors had actually convened there.

Allegedly, phone records show Maddock communicating with coconspirators about the plot and how to keep it secret. She faced eight felony counts in the indictment. Maddock pled not guilty and opted not to seek another term as state party chair in February 2023.

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