Trump allies are deploying this “book-banning pastor” to local school districts

This story was originally published on the Popular Information substack, to which you can subscribe here.

In a January 24 press release from the Department of Education, the Trump administration declared that book-banning was a “hoax.”

But last month, President Donald Trump invited John Amanchukwu, the self-proclaimed “book-banning pastor,” to the White House for a Black History Month event. Since 2023, Amanchukwu, a youth pastor from North Carolina, has travelled to at least 23 school board meetings in 18 states on a nationwide book-banning tour financed by Trump donors and allies, including Turning Point USA (TPUSA).

On this tour, Amanchukwu demands that school districts remove books that do not align with his conservative Christian ideology—usually books written by or about LGBTQ people. Amanchukwu relies heavily on insults and threats during his school board speeches, maximizing each appearance’s potential for social media virality.

At a recent stop in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Amanchukwu launched into a typical rant about the book It Feels Good to Be Yourself. Amanchukwu said the book was “a lie” because it acknowledged that gender identity is fluid and intersex people exist. As proof that the book was lying to children, Amanchukwu cited Genesis 1:27.

Informed by the chair of the school board that he was out of order because his comments did not pertain to items on the day’s agenda, Amanchukwu just began speaking louder, attempting to drown out the board members. Asked to return to his seat, Amanchukwu was undeterred. “We want to ban books that seek to pervert the hearts and minds of children,” he shouted. The shouting continued for approximately three minutes, until the board declared a recess.

In April 2023, Amanchukwu attended a meeting of the Wake County Board of Education in his home state of North Carolina with then-candidate for state superintendent Michele Morrow and other local activists. In his comments (see video below), Amanchukwu said that inappropriate books were being “purchased and delivered” to local schools as part of a plot by the “Democrat Party” that “castrates children, mutilates children, perverts children, grooms children, murders children, and indoctrinates children.” (The Wake County Board of Education is nonpartisan.)

At a July 18, 2023 meeting in Temecula, California, Amanchukwu described a textbook lesson about civil rights icon Harvey Milk as “filth.”

In August 2023, Amanchukwu officially announced a nationwide tour of school boards in partnership with a “major organization,” TPUSA. In June 2024, he appeared on a podcast hosted by TPUSA Founder Charlie Kirk during which Amanchukwu revealed that TPUSA had chipped in “thousands and thousands” of dollars to support his work. Amanchukwu also said he received “hundreds of thousands” of dollars from Robert “Dr. Bob” Shillman.

Shillman is a businessman and right-wing donor who has previously funded anti-muslim activists including Laura Loomer, Brigitte Gabriel, and Tommy Robinson. Shillman also hosted a fundraiser with JD Vance for the Trump campaign in September 2024. Some specifics of the financial arrangement between Amanchukwu, TPUSA, and Shillman have not been disclosed. But, based on TPUSA social media posts, it appears that Shillman’s donations to TPUSA are being used to fund Amanchukwu’s school board tour.

Amanchukwu has worked with TPUSA Faith, an offshoot of TPUSA, as a contributor since July 2022. Amanchukwu was a featured speaker at America Fest, TPUSA’s annual conference, in December 2024 and is often featured on TPUSA’s social media accounts.

TPUSA and Amanchukwu’s agent did not respond to requests for comment.

In fall 2024, Amanchukwu became a visiting fellow at the Center for Renewing America, an organization founded by Russell Vought, a lead author of Project 2025 who was recently confirmed as Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget. (The group did not respond to questions about Amanchukwu’s work.)

At many school board meetings, Amanchukwu appears wearing hoodies emblazoned with his quotes from past meetings. These hoodies (see below) are available for purchase on his website, iknowgodmerch.com, for $60. (At the time of publication, Amanchukwu’s merch store was password protected.)

Amanchukwu has also written two books, which he promotes frequently in podcast appearances. He released a film in October 2024 about his school board tour, which can be purchased for $9.99. The film, produced in partnership with TPUSA Faith, features other prominent right-wing figures, including billionaire and self-proclaimed historian David Barton.

When Amanchukwu announced his school board tour, he said he would travel to the “wokest and bluest and darkest cities in America.” Instead, his tour has largely stopped in purple or red districts, including Boise, Idaho; Washoe County, Nevada; Gwinnett County, Georgia; and Midland, Texas. On at least two occasions when he visited school boards that only allow public comments from people residing in their district, Amanchukwu has claimed to be the roommate of a local activist.

Amanchukwu’s school board speeches follow a routine format. He identifies a few books he feels do not belong in school libraries. These books often feature LGBTQ characters and range from picture books to more mature young-adult novels. Amanchukwu reads a passage from one of the more mature books and admonishes school board members for allowing such “perverse” material in their libraries. Amanchukwu frequently breaks meeting rules, which has resulted in him being escorted out of meetings by police on several occasions—and provides eye-catching content for his social media accounts.

At a meeting of Florida’s Indian River County School Board in August 2023, Amanchukwu was escorted from the meeting by police because he continued reading from 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher after the board asked him to stop. Amanchukwu and TPUSA have used footage of Amanchukwu being removed from this meeting to promote his school board tour and foster a narrative that Amanchukwu is being persecuted for his beliefs.

At a school board meeting in New Jersey, Amanchukwu, who is Black, was asked to leave after using the n-word, but refused to leave the speaker’s podium for several minutes. He shouted to the school board that he would not leave because it was his “Rosa Parks moment.” He also compared himself to Rosa Parks on an episode of Kirk’s podcast.

In Mesa, Arizona, Amanchukwu called school board members “racist bigots” for celebrating Black History Month when less than 5 percent of the student body is Black and for having a library book about a trans Black boy. Amanchukwu specifically called out the board’s only Black member, saying she should be “voted off first.”

On podcasts, Amachukwu’s language is even more inflammatory and insulting—often directed at women and trans people.

On an episode of Kirk’s podcast, Amanchukwu mocked a woman featured in a Planned Parenthood sex education video, saying she looked like a “two-liter bottle.” Amanchukwu said the video would deter students from having sex because they would be disgusted by the woman’s appearance. “I mean the last thing you want to think about is sex looking at that woman…” he said, “if it’s a woman.”

In July 2024, Amanchukwu uploaded a video about his visit to a school board meeting in Washoe County, Nevada. In it, he spent several minutes attacking Debi Stears, the collections director for Washoe County libraries, and quoted a Bible verse implying it would be better for her to be killed than to continue providing books he deems inappropriate for children.

“Debi, Debi, Debi, you don’t know what you’re doing,” Amanchukwu said. “Do you not know that the Bible tells us in Luke 17:2 ‘it is better for a man to be thrown into the sea with a millstone around his neck, than for someone to do harm to a child’?”

In an episode of a conservative podcast on Rumble, a right-wing alternative to YouTube, Amanchukwu said that he would physically attack a transgender athlete—presumably a minor—if they were to compete against his young daughter.

“I can only imagine myself being in the stands and seeing some hairy man walking out on the track or getting ready to jump in the pool to swim against my precious baby girl. Man, let me tell you something, it would be WWE Raw, because listen Brad, I’m just gonna be honest with you, you are not gonna disenfranchise and defraud my baby girl, alright. The way I love my daughter, no siree. I’m going on that track, I’m jumping in that pool, and we’re gonna fight it out. And by the time we’re done, no one’s gonna want to get in the pool because I have turned it upside down. I’m gonna turn green,” Amanchukwu said. “I’m not saying that I’m trying to promote people to violence, but I am saying I’m calling people to speak up and use their voice.”