'Unlike anything we've seen': Maggie Haberman flags 'off the rails' White House moves

Trump administration officials are leaning harder into religious symbolism to justify the war in Iran and other unpopular policies, and New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman marveled at the "off-the-rails" audacity of their efforts.

President Donald Trump posted an image of himself as a Christlike healer over the weekend, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has framed the war in explicitly religious terms and quoted Bible verses – although one of those turned out to be dialogue from a Quentin Tarantino film – during his weekly press updates.

"This is unlike anything really that we have seen in, in ever in the last, at least in the last 80 years and possibly, you know, ever in decades upon decades," Haberman said, "and before that, it is not, look, there are people I don't want to sound as if I am saying that somebody is not sincere in their religious beliefs. There certainly is no reason to say that. However, that doesn't mean that everybody has to then view the war in this country or anywhere else in the world from a religious standpoint, as a mission, and I think that is where it starts to go off the rails."

Pope Leo XIV has called out "warmongers" who "manipulate religion" to justify their violence, to which Vice President JD Vance – a recent Catholic convert – has responded by warning the pontiff to "be careful" with his criticism, and Haberman said she doesn't see how this conflict helped the administration.

"Well, I think it's coming from two different directions," she said. "Hegseth is very much concerned about the audience of one, of Donald Trump. There's no question that Vice President Vance knows that his political future hinges in part on what Donald Trump does in terms of becoming the nominee, and also just in terms of how the public perceives this administration. It's clearly complicating for Vance, who we know does take Catholicism seriously. He has a book coming out on religion, and he's now going to have to assume get asked about this at a number of stops to roll out his book, depending on what he does."

"I don't see how this is a winning debate, particularly for the vice president with the pope," Haberman added. "I continue to say that I still it's quite aligned to say that the pope is weak on crime, but what the pope is responding to in particular are President Trump's threats against a civilization. It is not a surprise that the pope is speaking out about that, and it is not all, you know, a social media game, it's a war."

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