President Donald Trump has joined a marathon Bible reading event in Washington, D.C., mere days after his feud with Pope Leo XIV sparked widespread backlash.
Trump is now a reader for the weeklong “America Reads the Bible” event that will see nearly 500 faith leaders, influencers, government officials, and everyday Americans take turns reading scripture, with the goal of completing the King James Bible by next Saturday.
According to the event website, Trump will read 2 Chronicles 7:11-22 from the Oval Office during the 6 p.m. EDT hour on Tuesday. Politico reported that the president’s reading will be prerecorded, while many others will read in-person at the Museum of the Bible.
Part of the Old Testament, Trump’s passage features God calling on believers to “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.”
Bunni Pounds, who is leading the event through her nonprofit Christians Engaged, told Fox News that they “needed somebody special” to read the passage, underscoring how “critical” it is for the church.
“We instantly said — who needs to read that? The president of the United States,” Pounds said. “We set it aside for him and have been praying for that for the last year.”
Trump’s participation in the Bible reading comes on the heels of scrutiny over his religiosity.
Last weekend, he issued a rare rebuke of the pope over the Iran war, calling him “WEAK on Crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy.” Days later, he angered many religious figures by posting, then deleting, an image that depicted himself as Jesus Christ.
But the Bible reading is also one of many events celebrating America’s 250th anniversary this year.
DONALD TRUMP IS LOSING HIS MIND
Trump hailed the event in a message on Friday, saying the Bible is “indelibly woven into our national identity” and urging people to “rediscover the Biblical truths that have animated our Republic for two and a half centuries.”
“Together, we will 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,” the president said.