US President Donald Trump and many of his leading Republican and Christian supporters are taking part this week in a marathon reading of the Bible in an America 250-themed event encouraging a “return to the spiritual foundation that has shaped our country.”
The America Reads the Bible event — with each participant reading a passage aloud — is being livestreamed from the Museum of the Bible in Washington and other locations. It featured a video of Trump from the Oval Office on Tuesday evening reading an Old Testament passage that called for national repentance in ancient Israel — words that have been used prominently for decades by those promoting the belief that America has been and should be a Christian nation.
Trump recited the passage from his desk with his hands folded on an open Bible in front of him, though he was looking straight into the camera. The video cut back and forth between two camera angles.
The Bible is “indelibly woven into our national identity and way of life,” Trump said in a statement commemorating the event. The statement cited historical figures such as the Puritan leader John Winthrop as “imploring his fellow Christian settlers to stand as a beacon of faith for all the world to see.”
Critics say the event has a highly partisan list of participants and is part of a larger project to connect the United States’ upcoming 250th birthday with a Christian nationalist vision that portrays the nation’s founding as essentially Christian, something many historians dispute. White Christians, particularly evangelicals, have been crucial to Trump’s electoral base.
Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the terms
The list of participants — which overwhelmingly includes Republican politicians and Christian supporters of Trump — shows it to be “very much a right-wing MAGA, Christian nationalist effort,” said Brian Kaylor, author of “The Bible According to Christian Nationalists: Exploiting Scripture for Political Power,” referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
“If they wanted this to be a unifying American project, there would have been a whole lot more attention to getting political diversity and ideological diversity,” added Kaylor, president and editor-in-chief of Word&Way, a progressive site covering faith and politics.
NOW: President Trump took part in America Reads the Bible this evening, reading 2 Chronicles 7:11–22. pic.twitter.com/SqxvhRtCBu
— Donald J Trump Posts TruthSocial (@TruthTrumpPost) April 22, 2026
Historian Jemar Tisby, whose books have challenged what he says is enduring Christian complicity in racism, criticized the event on Facebook: “You cannot quote the Bible while justifying violence, war and exclusion.” Pastor Doug Pagitt, executive director of the progressive group Vote Common Good, echoed the comment in a statement: “If you like reading the Bible, try living it.”
Bunni Pounds, founder of Christians Engaged, organizer of the event, said that reading the Bible alone isn’t enough. “Faith without works is dead,” she said, adding: “We need the word first to bring faith into our life.”
The Bible event comes just a week after Trump drew rare criticism from his evangelical supporters for circulating a social media meme in which a white-robed Trump appeared as a Jesus-like healer surrounded by patriotic symbols. Trump removed the image from his Truth Social site while insisting he was depicted as a doctor, not Jesus.
It also comes shortly after Trump’s high-profile clash with the US-born Pope Leo XIV over the Iran war.
(Left to right): Pope Leo XIV leads a vigil for peace inside St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, April 11, 2026 (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia); President Donald Trump posts an AI post depicting himself as Jesus, April 12, 2026 (Truth Social); Trump waves to reporters as he walks on the South Lawn upon his arrival at the White House, April 12, 2026, in Washington (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Other high-ranking officials have been or will be reading biblical passages in person or by video in the event, which began Sunday and concludes Saturday. They include US Cabinet officials such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as House Speaker Mike Johnson and several other Republican members of Congress. Prominent evangelical supporters of Trump who are participating include evangelist Franklin Graham, pastor Jack Graham and pastor Paula White-Cain, who heads Trump’s White House Faith Office.
Pounds said that the organization invited Democratic members of Congress, as well as leaders of some denominations that might be considered progressive, but that they didn’t accept.
Each speaker is taking a turn in the ongoing reading from the King James Version Easy Read translation into English of the 66 books of the Bible, as recognized by Protestants.
The 66 books include 24 mainly Hebrew-language books that make up the Jewish Bible, as well as other books, preserved in Greek, from what Christians call the New Testament, though Catholics and Orthodox denominations recognize additional books not included in this reading.
The front cover of the ‘God Bless the USA’ Bible sold by US President Donald Trump, then the Republican nominee seeking to return to the White House, is seen in Washington on October 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
The event does include some Catholic representation, including the president of CatholicVote, which endorsed Trump in 2024.
The event involves a comprehensive reading of the entire Bible, from the famous verses (“Let my people go,” “The Lord is my shepherd”) to the obscure. Passages range from the creation of the world to bloody battles and apocalyptic destruction, from exhortations to love of God, neighbor and the needy to passages telling of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
Trump reads from 2 Chronicles
Christians Engaged, the organizer, is a nonprofit whose stated mission includes “discipling Americans on biblical worldview and their responsibilities to pray, vote and engage.”
Trump read from the seventh chapter of 2 Chronicles, set during King Solomon’s dedication of the temple in ancient Jerusalem. In it, God promises forgiveness if a future generation rebels then repents: “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.”
The verse has long been quoted at many conservative Christian rallies and political events, such as the 2024 Republican National Convention.
Balloons fall as then-former US President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, former First Lady Melania Trump and family stand on stage after he accepted his party’s nomination on the last day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 18, 2024. (Jim WATSON / AFP)
Pounds noted that the Chronicles passage has for decades been a major theme at annual National Day of Prayer events and that organizers invited Trump to read from it. “It’s a powerful statement that he decided to read that passage,” she said.
The Bible-reading marathon comes just weeks before a May 17 event called a “National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise, and Thanksgiving,” to be held on the National Mall. It’s the climactic event of “America Prays,” a project Trump announced last year in conjunction with America 250, calling for prayer for the country and to “rededicate ourselves to one nation under God.”
Several of the groups and individuals involved in America Prays are also participating in this week’s Bible reading event.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
You appreciate our wartime journalism
You clearly find our careful reporting of the Iran war valuable, at a time when facts are often distorted and news coverage often lacks context.
Your support is essential to continue our work. We want to continue delivering the professional journalism you value, even as the demands on our newsroom have grown dramatically during this ongoing conflict.
So today, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6 a month you’ll become our partners while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel