- Glenn Beck said President Donald Trump called him past midnight early Monday morning.
- Beck asked him about a Defense Department designation excluding Latter-day Saints as Christian.
- Then Beck got a note from Trump, "Done. They’re Christians. Congratulations, I love the Mormons."
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck took credit on Monday for persuading President Donald Trump to change a Pentagon designation that excluded The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from a list of “Christian” groups.
Beck, who joined the church in 1999 at age 35, spoke with the president early on Sunday morning about a controversy that erupted over the weekend when the Department of War reduced the number of religious affiliation categories from 200 down to 31.
Organizations like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Quakers were included beside a “Christian” label, while the Church of Jesus Christ had no category.
Firm responses followed from Latter-day Saints in Congress, including Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho and Utah Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis. On Monday, Lee said he spoke with the president about the policy, and Curtis said he engaged with the Pentagon to reverse it.
But Trump first became aware of the concerns during a midnight phone call with Beck, the radio show host told listeners on Monday morning.
“Last night, the president called me, it’s about 12:30,” Beck said. “And I brought this up. And I said, Mr. President, why are we doing this?”
Beck related that the president did not know about the administrative change. Beck said the president told him he would look into the designation first thing on Monday. Then, at 5:20 A.M., Beck said he received another note from the president.
“He said to me, ‘Done. They’re Christians. Congratulations, I love the Mormons. President Donald J. Trump,’” Beck said of the message.
A few hours later, the Pentagon released an updated version of its new policy classifying religious affiliation categories for military service members, removing the “Christian” label entirely and instead just listing all faith groups as their own categories.
Should the government decide who is Christian?
Utah’s federal delegation praised the response from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Lawmakers voiced their thoughts on the social media platform X, saying the government should not be in the business of making theological classifications.
During his daily show, which ranks in the top five nationally with a weekly audience of nearly 9 million, Beck argued that allowing government agencies to assign religious categories could set a bad precedent for future administrations that are less friendly to Christians.
“The moment a government decides who they can define, who belongs and who doesn’t belong, who is inside the circle, and who stands outside the circle, it creates a tool. And that tool is going to be inherited by people with very different convictions,” Beck said.
The Republican pundit has often responded to questions about his faith by defending its origins and sharing his experience of conversion.
Recently, following an attack on church members at a meetinghouse in Michigan, which left four dead and several more wounded — and again over the weekend — social media was flooded with debates among conservatives about whether the Church of Jesus Christ is “Christian.”
Disagreement often stems from the church’s view of the Godhead, which some believe diverges from the creedal formulations of the trinity crafted in the fourth century AD. But Beck said Christians should focus on what unites them, not divides them theologically.
“I know who my Savior is. I know he saved me. I know who I serve, I know who I worship, and that’s Jesus Christ, and that’s it,” Beck said. “What bothers me is the division. And it’s unnecessary. Because we shouldn’t be doing any of this stuff.”