{"id":26189,"date":"2025-01-24T11:31:25","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T16:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=26189"},"modified":"2025-01-24T11:31:25","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T16:31:25","slug":"president-trump-doesnt-place-his-hand-on-the-bible-during-swearing-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/01\/president-trump-doesnt-place-his-hand-on-the-bible-during-swearing-in","title":{"rendered":"President Trump Doesn\u2019t Place His Hand on the Bible During Swearing In"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Adobe Stock | Inset: IrfY \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

President Trump has been officially sworn in and some observers are already criticizing how he didn\u2019t place his hand on the Bible during the oath-taking. \u201cIt’s curious that Trump, who spoke about his near death experience after being targeted by an assassin’s bullet as divine intervention, neglected to put his hand on the Bible when he took the oath,\u201d wrote David Axelrod<\/a>, a common critic of the President. \u201cI can only imagine the torrent of comment if @BarackObama had done the same.\u201d Others wondered if this invalidated Trump\u2019s presidency. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing in the Constitution that says the president has to connect this to God in any way. The oath is to the Constitution,\u201d said Jeremi Suri, a presidential scholar<\/a>. Article VI of the Constitution states that a president is bound by saying the words of the oath, not on the sort of document he places his hand on during the oath-taking.<\/p>\n

Images of Trump taking the oath of office while his wife, Melania Trump, stood aside with two Bibles made their way across social media. According to reports, Melania held a family Bible that had been gifted to President Trump and the \u201cLincoln Bible,\u201d which Abe Lincoln swore on during his 1861 inauguration. The president\u2019s critics were quick to question Trump\u2019s faith. \u201cThe first President of the United States in over 100 years to not put his hand on the Bible while taking the oath of office. I think you’ve been duped, evangelicals!\u201d wrote one user.<\/a> \u201cTrump 2017 hand on the bible. Trump 2025 no hand on the bible. What changed?\u201d asked another<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s supporters were quick to lay the blame on Chief Justice Roberts, who performed the swearing in ceremony. \u201cFor those wondering why Trump’s hand wasn’t on the Bible. Justice Roberts started the oath before Melania could get there,\u201d wrote one user on X.<\/a> Roberts can be seen administering the oath before Melania and Trump\u2019s children settle in place around him. \u201cChief Justice Roberts owes President Trump and Melania an apology for rushing the swearing in,\u201d wrote another<\/a>. \u201cHe didn\u2019t give Melania any time to get there with the Bible. Honestly President Trump was probably so happy to get it done he didn\u2019t even notice. But it was very disrespectful to Melania.\u201d Others speculated if Roberts had rushed the ceremony because it had started two minutes late, potentially leaving the US without an acting president.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the controversy, President Trump moved quickly on signing a series of executive orders. Many of his orders repealed orders signed by former President Joe Biden, such as drawing the US from the Paris climate accord, pulling the US out of the World Health Organization (WHO), and declaring that the government would only recognize two genders: male and female. He also issued pardons for around 1,500 people convicted or criminally charged in the January 6 rally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump has been officially sworn in and some observers are already criticizing how he didn\u2019t place his hand on the Bible during the oath-taking. \u201cIt’s curious that Trump, who spoke about his near death experience after being targeted by an assassin’s bullet as divine intervention, neglected to put his hand on the Bible when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":26159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[157,534,55,516,54,5,573,2443],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible","category-end-of-the-world","category-islam","category-israel","category-muslim","category-politics","category-poverty","category-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nPresident Trump Doesn\u2019t Place His Hand on the Bible During Swearing In<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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