President Donald Trump is set to participate in a national initiative by reading a passage from the Bible, following his recent public disagreement with Pope Leo.
At 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Trump will join ‘America Reads the Bible,’ a program organized to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary.
According to CNN, Trump will appear in a pre-recorded segment where he will read from 2 Chronicles 7:11-22, a passage known for its emphasis on humility.
The key verse, 2 Chronicles 7:14, states, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
This engagement follows Trump’s harsh criticism of Pope Leo regarding the pontiff’s remarks on the Iran conflict.
In a lengthy post on Truth Social last week, Trump denounced Pope Leo as “WEAK on Crime,” criticizing the Chicago-born Pope for meeting with David Axelrod, a political adviser to President Barack Obama, whom Trump labeled as “a LOSER from the Left.”
Obama, Axelrod and the Pope all have Chicago ties.
Trump also took heat for posting an AI-created image where he appeared to be Jesus.
President Donald Trump stands outside St. John’s Church in a controversial photo-op in which he held the Bible upside-down amid the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. On Tuesday night, he’ll read a verse from the Bible to mark the country’s 250th birthday
The President told reporters that he thought the image depicted him as a doctor.
On Thursday, before departing for Las Vegas, Trump claimed that Pope Leo said, ‘Iran can have a nuclear weapon.’
Pope Leo hasn’t made such a claim, and the Catholic Church has been more broadly opposed to nuclear weapons.
Trump also said it wasn’t necessary for him to meet with the Pope and work things out.
The President was raised Presbyterian, but in politics has been more aligned with evangelical Christian leaders.
In the past, he’s had several gaffes related to the Bible.
In 2020, amid the Black Lives Matter protests, Trump walked a block north of the White House to St. John’s Church – after protesters were cleared out using tear gas – and posed for a highly controversial photo-op, in which the Bible was upside-down.
In January 2016, when Trump was running for President for the first time, he misspoke during an appearance at Liberty University, an evangelical college, calling Second Corinthians, ‘Two Corinthians.’
President Donald Trump is prayed over by evangelical Christian leaders in the Oval Office last month. He’s aligned himself with evangelicals since entering politics and captured 81 percent of the evangelical vote in the 2024 election
When asked by journalist Mark Halperin in August 2015 – two months after Trump launched his initial presidential bid – to name his favorite Bible verse, the GOP candidate demurred.
‘I wouldn’t want to get into it because to me that’s very personal. You know, when I talk about the Bible, it’s very personal,’ the real estate developer and reality TV star said at the time. ‘The Bible means a lot to me, but I don’t want to get into specifics.’
When journalist John Heilemann followed up and asked Trump if he was an Old Testament guy or a New Testament guy, the candidate didn’t answer that either.
‘Probably equal,’ Trump replied.
Those missteps haven’t stopped the President from getting broad support politically from American Christians.
During the 2024 election, Trump captured the white evangelical Protestant vote by a whopping 81 percent over Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, according to the Public Religion Research Institute.
Sixty percent of white Catholics also supported Trump.
Polling from late March showed that Trump was already losing ground with Catholics – even before his spat with Pope Leo.
The Catholic vote is considered a critical swing vote in US elections.
