Harmeet Dhillon calls detractors 'trash' for denigrating RNC prayer to Sikh deity

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, November 10, 2026

Attorney Harmeet Dhillon, who recently resigned from the U.S. Department of Justice, hit back earlier this week at detractors who criticized her for praying to a Sikh deity during the 2024 Republican National Convention.

"My husband watched me pray in our Sikh faith at the RNC — and one of our last text messages before he died a couple of weeks later was telling me he was so proud of me," Dhillon wrote in an X post, which was ultimately in response to a resurfaced viral clip of podcaster Nick Fuentes expressing disgust at her prayer to Waheguru during the RNC in 2024.

After going on to describe her late husband's final days, Dhillon continued: "All you trash who have denigrated my prayer to the ONE GOD many faiths believe in, deeply hurt me for the last two years, but I could not comment back because I was part of a campaign and then confirmation/administration. It's over. I won't be silent any longer."

My husband watched me pray in our Sikh faith at the RNC — and one of our last text messages before he died a couple of weeks later was telling me he was so proud of me. He was supposed to be there, but he was also dying from two serious illnesses, and he could not make it at the last minute. Our medical staff at home took care of him while he watched me pray in our faith tradition -/ just as we did at home daily over each meal. All you trash who have denigrated my prayer to the ONE GOD many faiths believe in, deeply hurt me for the last two years, but I could not comment back because I was part of a campaign and then confirmation -/ administration. It’s over. I won’t be silent any longer. Go read the First Amendment and my extensive record on behalf of ALL people of faith in America. For 34 years. And then let’s measure our respective records on religious liberty. I welcome all comers who think they can prove they did more than I did for ALL people of faith in this country. There are none. I intend to keep fighting for ALL people of faith in America for the rest of my life. But I won’t hide my own faith for one second. It’s protected by our Constitution.

— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@HarmeetKDhillon) November 8, 2026

"Go read the First Amendment and my extensive record on behalf of ALL people of faith in America. For 34 years. And then let's measure our respective records on religious liberty. I welcome all comers who think they can prove they did more than I did for ALL people of faith in this country. There are none. I intend to keep fighting for ALL people of faith in America for the rest of my life. But I won't hide my own faith for one second. It’s protected by our Constitution," Dhillon added.

Dhillon, who is returning to private law practice after resigning last week as the U.S. assistant attorney general for the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, stoked backlash in 2024 when she invoked Waheguru during the RNC and called him "our one true God." Sikhs believe Waheguru to be the distinctive name of the Supreme Being in the Sikh dispensation, like Yahweh in Judaism and Allah in Islam, and that he is the same God worshiped in other faiths.

A monotheistic religion founded by Guru Nanak in the Punjab region of South Asia in the late 15th century, Sikhism is the world's fifth-largest religion and has roughly 25 to 30 million followers. It derives its authority from its own 10 human gurus, the first of whom famously appealed to a universalist theology by asserting "there is neither Hindu nor Muslim."

"There is one God. We all believe in the same God," Dhillon said in an X post in 2024.

Despite Sikh claims that Waheguru is another name for the God of Christianity, Dhillon's prayer prompted outrage at the time from some who saw it as a dangerous or demonic invocation of a false god by a major political party.

Calvin Robinson, a priest in the self-styled English Catholic Church, praised Dhillon's legal track record on behalf of conservative causes in an X post at the time, but criticized her "one true God" statement.

"Harmeet Dhillon has done great work. She should be invited on stage to speak about that and to support President Trump," Robinson wrote. "But to invite her to pray to a pagan god, leading those prayers with 'Dear Waheguru, our one true God' is entirely inappropriate. What is worse is all the RINOs bowing their heads in prayer. Christ is King."

During a 2024 interview with The Christian Post, Dhillon likened those offended by her Sikh prayer to antisemites.

"The RNC was fully supportive of [her praying] in 2016 and 2024. I was not asked to do it in our truncated convention in 2020," she said. "I am a member of the RNC. And so the one thing that offends me is people suggesting this is some kind of a diversity issue."

"And it's mainly been some, frankly, hateful antisemitic people who are using the opportunity to attack me. They would have the same reaction to a rabbi doing a prayer, I believe."

Alex Stone, a Christian podcaster who was in attendance at the 2024 RNC, recounted in a viral Sunday X post that he was appalled by how many at the convention showed reverence during Dhillon's prayer.

"When I was at the RNC and this happened, I immediately shook my head, scanned the room and watched as people prayed along, and I left the stadium. I was disgusted and disturbed to the highest extent," he wrote.

Dhillon shot back at Stone, writing: "No one prayed along, you fool. They showed respect for one of the faiths Americans practice. And in case you haven't noticed, winning elections is a matter of addition, not subtraction. If you were competent at math or politics, you would understand. Apparently you are neither."

The ongoing debate about the role of diverse religions in the Republican coalition comes amid devastating midterm losses for the party, which saw a sharp drop among Evangelical voters last week. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins recently told CP in a post-election interview that Christians cannot take for granted that the GOP will continue to represent their biblical values.