Perhaps nothing has terrified opponents of DeVos quite like a 2001 interview in which she says, “Our desire … is to help advance God's kingdom.” In the current mess of President Trump's terrible executive order about immigration and refugees, focused on Muslim countries but making exceptions for Christians, it may be especially easy to imagine anyone associated with him as attempting to create a theocracy. And DeVos's line seems to lend support.
The phrase set alarm bells ringing. Newsweek used the line in its article subhead. Mother Jones built this phrase into the title of its essay: “Betsy DeVos Wants to Use America's Schools to Build ‘God's Kingdom.” Michelle Goldberg, for The New York Times, claimed that Trump was “assembling a near-theocratic administration,” and used DeVos's line about “advancing God's kingdom” as an example. The quote raised the specter that the nominee for Secretary of Education wanted to transform public education into a system of religious schools.
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