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Trump Will Participate in a Marathon Bible Reading
He will read a passage from the Old Testament that his Christian supporters cite as a call to national repentance and divine blessing.
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The authorities dispersed protesters in 2020 so President Trump could have his photo taken with a Bible in front of a Washington church.
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Doug Mills/The New York Times
By
Ruth Graham
April 17, 2026,
9:40 p.m. ET
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President Trump has a complicated relationship with the Bible. He has often called it his favorite book, has posed with it for photographers outside a church and has sold his own edition for $60. But he has also struggled to name a favorite passage or even pick a favorite Testament between the two.
Now, fresh from a week in which he skirmished with the pope and Christians accused him of blasphemy, Mr. Trump will participate in a marathon reading of the entire Bible in Washington, the event’s organizers announced Friday. The event’s leader, a conservative activist who once ran for Congress in Texas, has described it as a “a national reading of God’s law.”
The White House issued a statement on Friday praising the event, America Reads the Bible, as an occasion to “honor Holy Scripture, renew our faith, usher in a historic resurgence of religion on American shores, and rededicate the United States as one Nation under God.”
Mr. Trump recorded his segment of the reading from the Oval Office, organizers said. He read a passage from the Old Testament book of II Chronicles that has become a touchstone for many of his Christian supporters, who interpret it as a call to national repentance and subsequent blessing.
The central verse in II Chronicles 7 reads: “If My people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
“It’s been a hallmark of the religious right to cite this particular passage,” said Matthew D. Taylor, a visiting scholar at the Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University.
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