PRAY FOR US: Thousands of people gathered yesterday on the National Mall in Washington for a nine-hour Christian prayer festival advertised as “a rededication of our country as One Nation Under God.” It was part of the campaign by the evangelical right to merge church and state in America … paid for in part with federal money.

  Headliners included members of the Trump administration Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. A lineup of religious leaders appeared, almost all fundamentalist Christians, like Franklin Graham.

  Hegseth appeared on video recounting the likely fictional story about George Washington dropping to a knee at Valley Forge and “Let us pray for our nation, on bended knee, and let us ask our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as Washington did on that momentous day, so help us God.”

  President Trump appeared on video, hands folded on an open Bible, reading a passage from a teleprompter. It may be the most book reading he’s done in his life.

  The United States was never “dedicated” as one country under God. The Declaration of Independence invoked freedoms bestowed by God, but the Constitution does not mention God.

CHINA SYNDROME: President Trump’s big reveal coming out of China last week was that he considers a weapons sale to Taiwan to be a “negotiating chip” in dealing on other matters with Xi Jinping. The US has been steadfast about defending Taiwan against China since 1979. 

  Asked if he would approve a $14 billion arms package that has been held up for months, Trump said; “I’m holding that in abeyance and it depends on China. It’s a very good negotiating chip for us, frankly. It’s a lot of weapons.”

  His suggestion was that he would cancel or reduce the sale in exchange for trade deals. 

  Taiwan is the global leader in making computer chips and China wants it. China has considered Taiwan to be a breakaway province since the end of the country’s civil war in 1949. 

  President Lai Ching-te of Taiwan said, “Taiwan will not provoke or escalate conflicts, but we will not, under pressure, relinquish our national sovereignty and dignity, nor our democratic and free way of life.”

THE WAR ROOM: Sixty-four percent of voters believe President Trump was wrong to go to war with Iran, according to new polling from the NY Times/Siena College. 

  Still without a peace agreement and the Strait of Hormuz under contest, Trump over the weekend renewed his military threats. “For Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them,” he wrote on social media. “TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!”

REVENGE SERVED: Louisiana’s two-term Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy who voted to convict Donald Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial, lost his party’s primary for a third term to Trump-endorsed loyalist Rep. Julia Letlow.

  Cassidy’s loss demonstrates that despite his dwindling popularity, Trump has a firm grip on parts of the Republican party.

  Cassidy is a doctor who gave Trump the critical vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health, but Trump never forgive him for his impeachment vote. 

  Trump danced on Cassidy’s political grave with a post saying; “Bill Cassidy, after falsely using his ‘relationship’ with me during his political career, and winning Elections because of it, voted to impeach me on preposterous charges that were fake then, and now, are criminally insane!” 

  In a dig at Trump, Cassidy said that when you lose, “You don’t whine. You don’t claim that an election was stolen from you.”

GENDER POLITICS: Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton, who views gender dysphoria as a social fad and even an “ideology,” secured an unusual settlement that requires Texas Children’s Hospital to create the nation’s first ever “detransition clinic” in addition to paying the state $10 million. 

  Gender-affirming care ranges from “social transitioning” — using different pronouns or dressing differently — to puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and even surgery.

  Paxton said in a statement that the Detransition Clinic “will help provide free care to those who have been victimized by twisted, morally bankrupt transgender ideology.”

THE OBIT PAGE: French-born actress and singer Claudine Longet, notorious for the fatal shooting of her boyfriend, Olympic skier Spider Sabich, has died at age 84.

  A former Las Vegas showgirl, the brunette beauty had recorded an album of easy-listening music and was married young to the “Moon River” crooner Andy Williams. As an actress she appeared in television series, including the World War II comedy “Hogan’s Heroes.”

  The shooting became the butt of comedy skits and tasteless jokes. Longet testified in a splashy trial in Aspen, Colorado that Sabich was showing her a pistol when it accidentally fired. A ballistics expert said the gun was fired from four to six feet while Sabich was in the bathroom.

 Longet was convicted of negligent homicide and served 30 days.

THE SPIN RACK:  Long Island railroad workers went on strike Saturday, shutting down the country’s busiest commuter line for about 250,000 people a day. — Four crew members of two fighter jets are listed in stable condition after their jets collided in an Idaho air show and they bailed out. —  Five Italian scuba divers died in the Maldives while trying to explore a cave at 164 feet. The dead include University of Genoa professor of ecology Monica Montefalcone, her daughter, two researchers, and a dive guide. — With an outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, the World Health organization has declared a global health emergency. About 280 cases and 80 deaths have been reported for an outbreak of  a strain that has no vaccine or treatment.  

BELOW THE FOLD: “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert starts his final week tonight of bringing “truthiness” and biting political humor to the country. 

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