Trump records Oval Office Bible reading

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President Donald Trump took part in a livestreamed Bible-reading marathon on Tuesday, delivering a reading from the Book of 2 Chronicles (Getty Images) Getty Images

On June 1, 2020, amid the George Floyd protests in Washington, D.C., Trump posed with a Bible outside a church near the White House (AFP/Getty) AFP/Getty

Pope Leo, the first US-born pontiff, has repeatedly expressed opposition to the war in Iran and against those who use faith to justify violence (AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images

The president participated in the event with a pre-recorded video. Christians Engaged Christians Engaged

The president deleted the image of himself depicted as Jesus a day later. Donald J. Trump/Truth Social Donald J. Trump/Truth Social

Donald Trump thedailybeast.com

Donald Trump and his Truth Social depicting himself as Jesus. thedailybeast.com

President Trump’s approval rating continues to decline, amid ongoing frustration about rising prices and the Iran war (AP) independent.co.uk

The president hasn’t had positive net approval ratings since before he unveiled his ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs in April of 2025 (AFP/Getty) AFP/Getty

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Trump reads Bible passage from Oval Office, religious messaging shifts from AI provocation to bureaucratic routine, polls show approval stuck below 40%.

Donald Trump recorded a three-minute Bible reading in the Oval Office on Tuesday as part of the “America Reads the Bible” marathon, reciting 2 Chronicles 7:11–22. The appearance comes a week after the president posted an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus on Truth Social, a move that drew backlash even from some allies, according to The Independent and The Daily Beast.

The event is being marketed by organisers as a national religious recommitment tied to the approach of America’s 250th anniversary, with more than 500 participants including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Republican senators Ted Cruz and Joni Ernst, The Independent reports. The passage Trump chose is a familiar staple in US culture-war politics: the line “If my people… shall humble themselves, and pray… then will I… heal their land” is frequently used to argue that the US is, or should be, a distinctly Christian polity. Critics quoted by The Independent and the Associated Press point out the text is a promise made in a specific biblical context—Solomon’s dedication of the first temple in Jerusalem—rather than a general template for modern states.

The episode also fits a broader shift inside the federal workforce. Since returning to office, Trump’s administration has encouraged overt religious expression in government, with federal employees receiving proselytising emails and invitations to worship services, according to The Independent. That matters less as theology than as management: in large bureaucracies, symbolic signals travel faster than policy memos, and they offer a low-cost way to sort allies from skeptics. A Bible reading filmed behind the Resolute Desk is an instruction to the coalition that matters—staff, appointees, and motivated outside groups—about what kind of administration this is meant to be.

The timing is not accidental. Trump’s second-term approval has fallen to a new low in recent polling, with an NBC News Decision Desk survey putting him at 37% approval and 63% disapproval, and two-thirds disapproving of his handling of inflation and the Iran conflict, The Independent reports. An AP-NORC poll has his approval on the economy down to 30%, and a Quinnipiac survey finds a majority of registered voters blaming him “a lot” for rising gas prices. When policy outcomes are expensive and uncertain—tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court, a Middle East ceasefire that still requires naval enforcement—political attention tends to migrate toward gestures that are controllable and instantly legible.

Trump’s religious signalling has also become entangled with foreign policy. The Daily Beast notes his public feud with Pope Leo, whom Trump called “very liberal” and “weak on crime,” after the pontiff criticised the Iran war. In practice, the dispute highlights a recurring pattern: domestic coalition maintenance often takes precedence over diplomacy, and international religious figures become props in US political sorting.

Trump’s reading ended where the passage turns from blessing to warning—promising punishment if the people “forsake my statutes” and “serve other gods.” It was delivered from a desk where, according to the same week’s polling, voters are increasingly judging him on prices rather than piety.