Intercessors for America, a group of ardently pro-Trump “prayer warriors” that is closely associated with White House aide Paula White, gathered a group of supporters in Washington, D.C. this week to “prayer walk the centers of power in our nation, pray with elected officials, and gather with other IFA intercessors.” It was the first of IFA’s new monthly “Insights and Intercession” events, designed to give supporters a chance to “strategically pray” in Washington, D.C.
The concept of “strategic” spiritual warfare is a key element of dominionist New Apostolic Reformation ideology. During the first Trump administration, White forged and maintained close relationships with Christian nationalist and dominionist leaders through her One Voice Prayer Movement and her alliance with groups like IFA. IFA President Dave Kubal has participated in national “prayer and repentance” gatherings attended by dozens of members of Congress.
Intercessors for America, like the National Faith Advisory Board White set up after Trump lost in 2020 and many Christian-right organizations and media outlets, functions as a virtual non-stop public relations operation for the Trump administration. Collectively, these activists relentlessly repeat assertions that Trump is anointed by God and that his opponents—whether Democrats or federal judges—are thwarting God’s will, thereby helping to maintain a cultish level of support among Trump’s base, which in turn empowers him to demand unquestioning loyalty from fellow Republicans.
IFA has celebrated Trump’s campaign of intimidation and retribution against law firms, laughably characterizing it as an effort to “bring an end to the politicization of justice once and for all.” It has produced a "special report" titled "Power Struggle: Trump vs. Activist Judges," which calls out judges who are "taking on the president." The subject line of a recent email read, “God is Protecting DOGE!”
On Thursday, IFA posted a photo of its prayer warriors praying through the halls of the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, IFA shared a picture of its members meeting with Rep. Nathaniel Moran, who IFA quoted saying, “We’re engaged in a spiritual battle here.” White also invited IFA’s intercessors to the White House for a private briefing.
IFA had been at the White House a week earlier as well, for an event sponsored by the White House Faith Office during IFA’s “supporters summit,” which bore the name of Dave Kubal’s forthcoming book, “Impacting Generations.” According to IFA’s Facebook page, Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Markwayne Mullin met with IFA supporters.
Among IFA’s activities are weekly prayer calls hosted by Kris Kubal, Dave’s wife and IFA’s Chief Program Office. For two weeks in a row in March, Kubal devoted her show to promoting the Trump administration’s claims that federal judges who are acting to slow or stop the administration’s lawbreaking are a “judicial oligarchy” exercising a form of “despotism.”
As Right Wing Watch reported in March, the guest speaker on March 20 was Phillip Jauregui, a longtime right-wing activist who heads the Judicial Action Group and promotes a wildly unconstitutional religious test for Supreme Court justices and other federal judges through the Center for Judicial Renewal, a project of the American Family Association’s political action affiliate. On the IFA call, Jauregui prayed that God would visit the Supreme Court justices in their dreams to bring them “into alignment with your will to preserve the proper powers of the presidency right now.”
Among the concrete steps Jauregui suggested was a little budgetary intimidation designed to force the Supreme Court to rein in lower courts judges. Jauregui asked, “What if Speaker Johnson put something out publicly and says, ‘Chief Justice Roberts, we’d like to talk with you about having Elon Musk and DOGE come look at judicial expenditures.’ Hello? You think that would spook Roberts a bit, and cause him to be concerned?”
The following week, Kris Kubal hosted right-wing activist Bill Federer, who floated conspiracy theories about John Roberts being compromised and blackmailed by some embarrassing information to explain why he hasn’t ruled in lockstep with Trump. Federer also suggested actions Congress could take to “uncreate” lower courts or strip them of jurisdiction. An IFA leader from Florida prayed that God would turn the hearts of judges or "remove" them, an echo of previous spiritual warriors' calls for God to "remove" Supreme Court justices to give Trump more vacancies to fill.
Back in 2018, when Trump was close to choosing Brett Kavanaugh as his second Supreme Court nominee, Jauregui used an IFA prayer call to denounce Kavanaugh as a “usurper” and insist that Amy Coney Barrett was the one anointed by God. But a week later, after Trump had officially nominated Kavanaugh, IFA fell in line and mobilized support for his confirmation.
IFA is also active at the state level. The same IFA newsletter celebrating the group’s return to the White House also linked to an article about efforts by IFA leaders in South Carolina to decree a “divorce from Baal” and its “prayer and pronouncing separation from the roots of the Masonic for the State.”
