Whyte-Kaine Paula

Main article: Religion in the United States

Biography

In 1991, Paula White-Kane founded the International Church Without Walls Church.

She later became a pastor at the New Destiny Christian Center in Florida, and then founded her own organization, Paula White's Ministry.

2002: Meet Donald Trump

White met Trump in 2002 after one of her television prayers. Trump drew attention to her and invited her to pray with the participants of The Apprentice show. After that, their acquaintance grew into a long personal and professional collaboration.

Paula purchased an apartment in one of his New York buildings and remained close by for the next twenty-five years.

As Trump embarked on a political career, she helped mobilize white evangelicals among his supporters, which played a key role in his victory in the 2016 election.

In 2017, Paula White became the first female minister to hold a prayer at the inauguration of the President of the United States.

In November 2019, Trump appointed her special adviser to the Faith Initiative, later designed for a full-fledged office in the White House. This structure coordinates the administration's engagement with religious organizations within the United States and abroad, creating a direct channel between power and churches, charitable missions, and international humanitarian projects.

Thanks to Paula, the White House receives a direct channel to millions of believers, and religious communities have representation at the highest level of government.

2025: Activity in Africa

White is actively developing international ties. She visits African countries, participates in missionary and charitable projects, maintains contacts with leaders of evangelical networks. Her portfolio includes meetings with the presidents of DRC, Rwanda, Uganda and Gabon. These trips simultaneously help advance spiritual mission interests and U.S. state interests in the region, strengthening American influence through religious networks.

In Kinshasa, she held a joint prayer with DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi and his wife, supporting efforts to resolve the conflict in the east of the country.

The tour coincided with the intensification of the rhetoric of the US administration about the "genocide of Christians" in Africa, which was actively supported and promoted by evangelical leaders. This tactic brought Paula White additional image points: now she was met as a defender of Christians, which strengthened her influence on the continent.

The tour also bore political connotations, with White visiting DR Congo and Rwanda to create the conditions for a peace deal to be signed between the leaders of those countries.

Paula White has long-standing ties to pastors in Africa. She actively interacts with leaders of charismatic and Pentecostal churches, which enjoy great influence in the countries of the region and form significant religious networks.

White's key partner is Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams of Ghana, head of Action Chapel International in Accra, one of the continent's largest charismatic churches. He is her spiritual mentor, and their cooperation has been going on for more than ten years.

Paula White is also in close contact with Pastor Robert Kayanja of Uganda. He leads one of the most influential Pentecostal movements in the country and organizes major religious conferences. Cooperation with him lasts more than 20 years, which allows White to maintain his ties in Africa at the level of large church communities.

White's influence spreads not only through in-person visits, but also through media. Its Paula Today program is broadcast in more than 195 countries, and Dominion TV, founded by Duncan-Williams' wife Rosa Whitaker, covers 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and broadcasts sermons by African evangelical leaders with whom White collaborates.

Religious activism in Africa has long been intertwined with U.S. diplomatic and political influence. White herself acts as a key link between American evangelicals and African leaders.