Responding to anger and outrage from Latter-day Saint leaders, veterans and elected officials, the Department of Defense backtracked on a new list of religious designations that cut the military’s recognized faiths by 180 religions — from 211 to just 31 — and stripped the “Christian” label from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The list, released on Friday, identified the 31 religions, citing 21 as Christian.

That list drew anger over the weekend from Republican U.S. Senator Mike Lee, who said: “As of two days ago, the Pentagon recognizes every Christian faith in America as Christian.” He added: “Except one,” and said, “That’s not okay, and it needs to change—now.”

In a video, as CNN reported, Lee continued by saying: “I think it’s very unfortunate that the Pentagon has chosen to identify basically every faith group in America that professes faith in Jesus Christ as Christian with one exception: that is those belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

Lee called it “offensive, not just because that happens to be my faith and not just because it happens to be the faith of tens of thousands of US military personnel, but it’s also just repugnant to any sense of decency, any sense of our common heritage and our common belief that the government needs to not weigh in on doctrinal disputes between various religious denominations.”

Also over the weekend, Lee said he had called President Trump over the Pentagon’s list.

Just past noon on Monday, the Defense Department’s Rapid Response social media account on X posted a new, updated list, which removes the Christian category.

Defending the Pentagon, the post claimed that the “goal of this effort is to simplify a previously out-of-control ‘belief’ coding system that had ballooned to over 200 codes.”

“The Pentagon’s job is not to adjudicate theological debates,” it declared, “but instead to ensure sincerely-held faith is respected and encouraged in our ranks.”

Other congressional members of the LDS Church had “previously bashed the first list,” The Hill reported.

“The Pentagon’s decision to list The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints apart from other Christian faiths is wrong and needs to be corrected,” U.S. Rep. Mike Kennedy (R-UT) wrote on X on Sunday.

Some remain dissatisfied.

“This list is still a problem,” wrote Hemant Mehta, who pens the Friendly Atheist on Substack. “It separates non-denominational Christians from evangelicals. It lumps together atheists and ‘Nones’ who believe in a higher power. It combines a bunch of smaller religions into ‘Other.’ The 2017 list was better. This is just ignorant.”

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Conservative columnist Bill Kristol wants the Senate confirmation of Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump’s stated nominee for U.S. attorney general, to become a referendum on the administration’s handling of the Epstein files — tying Blanche directly to the “coverup” he says Trump rewarded him for managing.

Writing at The Bulwark, Kristol calls Blanche “the prime orchestrator and key executor of the Trump administration’s Jeffrey Epstein coverup.” He argues that the senators’ vote on Blanche “should become” a vote on Epstein, and sees the confirmation process as “a chance to force a real public debate, with real Senate votes, on the Epstein coverup.”

Kristol points to Bondi’s testimony that Blanche “was leading the Epstein matter and the release of everything from the beginning” and supervised the “entire process” of how the files were handled.

He also calls Blanche “the most visible public defender of the coverup, and of the decision not to investigate or prosecute anyone else for crimes.”

Blanche has worked to bury the Epstein files, Kristol argues. While still deputy attorney general, he told Fox News, “And so I think that to the extent that the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not be a part of anything going forward.”

Kristol says the “Epstein coverup should be part, a key part, of one thing going forward: It should be a key part of the upcoming debate on Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general. The Blanche confirmation fight can bring the Epstein coverup back into the spotlight this summer.”

In February, when Blanche was asked by Fox News’ Laura Ingraham whether there was “any chance that any of these individuals who partied with Epstein and engaged in relations with minors” would be prosecuted, Blanche responded, “I’ll never say no, and we will always investigate any evidence of misconduct, but as you know, it is not a crime to party with Mr. Epstein.”

“And some of these men may have done horrible things, and if we have evidence that allows us to prosecute them, you better believe we will,” Blanche continued. “But it’s also the kind of thing that the American people need to understand that it isn’t a crime to party with Mr. Epstein.”

Kristol latches on to that remark and repeats it, before writing that the DOJ “could now be following up on the testimony of scores of survivors to finally, properly investigate those crimes and their perpetrators. But Blanche’s Justice Department hasn’t even pretended to be seeking further evidence.”

He accuses Blanche’s DOJ of having “no interest at all in investigating or prosecuting the men who have done truly horrible things. After all, ‘it isn’t a crime to party with Mr. Epstein.'”

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After President Donald Trump told a “bunch of lies” on “Meet the Press” — abruptly cutting off the interview and walking out — CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale zeroed in on one of the most consequential: Trump’s claim that he never promised any wars in his second term.

“First of all, I didn’t guarantee no war,” Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker. “So when you say I promised – I didn’t promise anything. I don’t like these endless wars. This is not an endless war.”

On Monday, Dale served up half a dozen examples from the 2024 campaign when Trump said there would be no wars, and several times when he hedged but also declared there would be no wars.

“Trump repeatedly promised in 2024 that the US would not have any wars during his second presidency,” Dale reported. “Though it’s true that he often deployed some nuance on the subject – for example, vowing to end ‘endless’ wars or prevent ‘World War III’ – he unequivocally pledged on other occasions that the US wouldn’t get involved in wars, period.”

In June 2024, as Dale noted, candidate Trump wrote on Truth Social, “As every American saw firsthand, this election is a choice between strength or weakness, competence or incompetence, peace and prosperity or war and no war.”

The following month at the Republican National Convention, Trump declared, “With our victory in November, the years of war, weakness, and chaos will be over. I don’t have wars.”

“Under Trump, we will have no more wars, no more disruptions, and we will have prosperity and peace for all,” he said in August 2024.

That same month, Trump “approvingly” cited then-Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Dale wrote, who Trump claimed to have said: “Make sure that Trump gets re-elected president and you’re not going to have any more wars.”

Trump himself “reiterated” moments later, “No more wars. No more disruptions. We will have prosperity and we will have peace.”

In October, Trump revisited those remarks: “Viktor Orbán said, ‘If Trump comes back, you won’t have any wars. You won’t have any wars.’ And he’s about as tough as they get, and he said it loud and clear and he said why. But you won’t have any wars.”

Dale continued, pointing to Trump’s “clear promise” in his November 2024 victory address.

“Four years, we had no wars, except we defeated ISIS,” Trump said. “They said, ‘He will start a war.’ I’m not going to start a war, I’m going to stop wars.”

Dale concluded that people “can have a reasonable debate about whether these kinds of comments were likely to be interpreted by some voters as a promise not to get the country involved in wars in a second term,” but, as for Trump’s “I didn’t promise anything” claim, “the record shows that Trump explicitly made a no-future-wars promise multiple times.”

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