MRFF Exposes and Condemns Duffy’s Use of USMMA Midshipmen as MAGA Political Props in Christian Nationalist, Trump-Worshipping Video

Friday Afternoon, January 9, 2026

MRFF EXPOSES AND VEHEMENTLY CONDEMNS

DUFFY’S USE OF USMMA MIDSHIPMEN AS MAGA

POLITICAL PROPS IN CHRISTIAN NATIONALIST,

SYCOPHANTIC TRUMP-WORSHIPING VIDEO

“The use of midshipmen in a training environment as political props in videos is egregious. It violates normative concepts of civil military relations and is a disservice to USMMA’s vital mission of training the next generation of military officers.”

— USMMA grad, senior military officer

“As these latest videos incontrovertibly reveal, it is obvious that this federal service academy's primary mission is to advance the wholly unconstitutional, weaponized Christian nationalist agenda as specifically delineated and propagated in the voluminous, evil document known as ‘Project 2025.’”

— MRFF Founder and President Mikey Weinstein

Three stills from Merchant Marine Academy video placed in a row to show the subtitles where a midshipman is saying Thank you President Trump for appointing a strong Christian man like Duffy

MRFF OP-ED

ON DAILY KOS

USMMA now fully conquered MAGA territory — from Charlie Kirk vigil to midshipmen shilling for Trump

By: MRFF Senior Research Director Chris Rodda

Friday, January 9, 2026

The sound of midshipmen dutifully singing “Amazing Grace” filled the air at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy on the evening of September 10, 2025, where a large, very Christian vigil was held for the now-with-Jesus MAGA hero Charlie Kirk.

A video of the disgusting display of worship for this divisive, rabidly Christian nationalist political activist was posted on the official USMMA Facebook page, with text that read:

“A massive crowd from our Kings Point community gathered tonight to support one another. Together with our Command Chaplain, LCDR Jonathan Jones, CHC, USN, they shared, prayed and commiserated over today's tragic loss, along with other senseless acts of violence across our country.”

A few months later, Sean Duffy, continuing the complete Christianization of the Academy that began with his resurrection of the giant Jesus painting, posted a Christmas video starring members of the Academy’s class of 2026, paraded in front of the camera one by one in their dress uniforms to sing the praises of Donald Trump.

In this video, posted on Duffy’s official Secretary of Transportation Facebook page, filmed in the Academy’s chapel, the midshipmen, who in just a few short months will be commissioned U.S. military officers, displayed their sycophantic adoration of Trump with remarks like:

“Thank you President Trump for appointing a strong Christian man like Duffy.”

“At Kings Point and in America we’re saying Merry Christmas again. Thank you, Secretary Duffy. Thank you President Trump. Christ is King.”

“I’m very grateful to have a president that I can believe in, and trust in to get things done, and hold things accountable.”

Not quite sure how you hold “things” accountable. I think that midshipman needs some work on her MAGA speak before she’s ready for prime time.

Towards the end of the video, some of the midshipmen show off their class rings, a scene obviously included for the purpose of proclaiming that the class of 2026’s motto, engraved on their rings, is … wait for it … a Bible verse! Yes, their motto is “Hic sum, mitte me,” translated in big, bold capital letters in the video so that everybody knows it’s the Bible line “Here I am, send me” from Isaiah 6:8.

But by far the most disturbing few seconds of the video come at the very end, when the midshipmen gather around the chapel’s altar and, in front of the great big cross that the worship, START DOING TRUMP’S DANCE MOVE!

As the USMMA grad and senior military officer who emailed the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) about these videos wrote:

MRFF’s Mikey Weinstein, who issued a “Keep Away” warning to parents and guardians of prospective USMMA candidates in September, had a few words to say about this official USMMA and DOT video villainy:

“The United States Merchant Marine Academy continues to odiously distinguish itself as a stained, pus-hole of illicit, fundamentalist Christian extremism and in-your-face, U.S. constitutional defiance as per my own alma mater, The U.S. Air Force Academy.

“Those vicious villains euphorically implementing this latter day Mein Kampf compendium include, of course, the ignorant, petulant, cowardly, sociopathic-narcissist tRump and his legion of MAGA-maniacal murderers and sycophantic subordinates such as the repugnant, Christian supremacist Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

“Such blatantly immoral, unethical and especially unconstitutional hatred, bigotry, and prejudice, which is so ignominiously animating the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s dominionist Christian supremacy, primacy, exceptionalism, and triumphalism must be stopped at all costs!”

The father of one USMMA grad, a retired U.S. military officer himself, writes of the Academy’s “hijacking by the Transportation Secretary and his Christian nationalist collaborators” in this email received by MRFF yesterday:

From: (Father of U.S. Merchant Marine Academy graduate and retired full Colonel’s email address withheld)

Subject: US Merchant Marine Academy: an Institution on the rocks

Date: January 8, 2026 at 1:58:13 PM MST

To: Michael L Weinstein <mikeyw4444@icloud.com>

Mikey

I need to take a moment to thank you, Mikey, and MRFF for carrying the fight for those at the US Merchant Marine Academy and its alums who have been witnessing its hijacking by the Transportation Secretary and his Christian nationalist collaborators. Separation of Church and State, a valued feature of our Constitution, has slipped away from the shores of Kings Point campus. I’m a graduate of another Academy, retired senior field grade officer, father of an USMMA alum who is also an active duty field officer. I know what good looks like, and what is happening at USMMA is NOT good by any measure! The Transportation Secretary and leadership at USMMA have lost their way in favor of imposing Christian nationalist values and effecting institutional changes promoting those UNCONSTITUTIONAL values where they don’t belong, don’t add anything of value to this august Institution, and frankly have broken with the legal, ethical, and moral principles on which our Constitution is based.

No Academy has lost more undergraduate midshipmen/cadets to enemy action than USMMA—142 MIDs died during WWII while they were undergoing undergraduate training at sea. During this conflict, the Academy came to be and enrollment swelled to meet America’s need for Merchant Marine officers; you can bet your bottom dollar, these lads were not fighting and dying in support of one religion over others, no way. THEY WERE FIGHTING FOR AMERICA. And taking oaths to support the Constitution. While times have changed some things, they have and continue to take that same oath, as I have. It’s past time to call a “knock it off” with respect to Christian nationalistic interventions into an Institution which is founded on AMERICAN VALUES! These unwarranted interventions impose a purported Christian belief system which cloaks the hateful fascist UN-AMERICAN agenda they truly espouse. For those of you reading this who are a part of the Faithful, the need is to separate the Church from the Hate which grounds Christian nationalism. To paraphrase a line from the movie “Amistad”, who we are today is based on who we Americans have been…on September 11, 2001, the folks on United Airlines Flight 93 fought and defeated their hijackers. Let’s counter those who are hijacking this Academy now, and for that matter, our country as well. I will continue to support MRFF in this most important struggle, and hope you and MRFF will continue to ably represent the vital issues dealing with Constitutional religious freedom.

v/r

(Name and all related ID withheld)

Colonel, Retired USAF

But, as reprehensible as the videos coming out of the Merchant Marine Academy are, they have stiff competition from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), headed by the very Christian puppy killer Kristi Noem. The DHS, which, in addition to deploying ICE agents to shoot first and lie later, oversees the U.S. Coast Guard, where many Merchant Marine Academy graduates end up serving as commissioned officers, recently put out this new recruiting video, which words cannot even begin to describe.

Yes, fascism has come to America, folks, and as Sinclair Lewis is famously said to have predicted, it is most definitely wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.

Click to read on Daily Kos

Follow-up thank you email from the USMMA grad and senior military officer who contacted MRFF about the vile videos being produced by Sean Duffy and USMMA

From: (USMMA grad, senior military officer’s name withheld)

Subject: The USMMA

Date: January 8, 2026 at 4:41:37 PM MST

To: mikey@militaryreligiousfreedom.org

Dear Mikey,

Thank you again for addressing my concerns about the posts on official USMMA social media that blatantly disregards the Establishment Clause and basic ethics around political neutrality for military officers. As someone with over two decades in uniform, it is vile to see the cadre at my beloved alma mater grooming future young officers to be political hacks. I am grateful for our nearly two decades of partnership in working to reinforce professional norms across the military. You are relentless, zealous, and discreet in defense of the marginalized within the military.

To those junior members who feel like you don’t have a voice, you do and Mikey is one hell of an effective megaphone to amplify your voice. He will pick a fight with the entire Department of Defense twice before he even finishes his morning coffee. If religion is the weapon of choice for your workplace bully, MRFF is your best defense. He will hold your complaint in the strictest confidence, investigate thoroughly, and act ruthlessly and promptly on your behalf.

Thanks again,

(USMMA grad, senior military officer’s name withheld)