Trump Reads 2 Chronicles 7:11-22 at America Reads the Bible Event After AI Jesus Post Controversy
A Complicated Moment for Faith and Politics
One day after he posted — then deleted — an AI-generated image comparing himself to Jesus Christ, President Donald Trump sat at his desk in the Oval Office and read from the Bible directly to a camera. The two-and-a-half-minute passage from 2 Chronicles 7:11-22 will be played at the Museum of the Bible and streamed online Tuesday evening via the faith-based Pure Flix service.
Trump is one of nearly 500 people reading scripture this week as part of “America Reads the Bible,” a weeklong event organizers describe as a “spiritual celebration” of the country’s 250th anniversary. The effort is led by Christians Engaged, a nonprofit aimed at engaging the country and its leaders on the need for the Bible’s teachings. Participants include Trump, chief of staff Susie Wiles, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others. They are reading from Genesis through Revelation — some in person at the Museum of the Bible, others virtually like Trump.
Why This Particular Passage Matters
The passage Trump read is a significant one. It has served as a rallying cry for the Christian right in the US and across the globe for decades. It reads in part: “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.”
Bunni Pounds, a former political consultant who now leads Christians Engaged, had saved this passage for an elected official. She said she prayed that Trump would be willing to read it. “I’ve just been praying with a small group of people, asking the Lord to move to allow our president to pray this prayer, the words of God that he would hear,” Pounds told CNN.
A Complicated Relationship with American Christians
The reading comes at a complicated moment for the president’s relationship with American Christians. Trump’s recent AI-generated social media post, which depicted him as Jesus healing a sick person, spurred rare pushback from key allies in the Christian right. The president eventually backed down, deleting the post and suggesting he thought “it was me as a doctor and had to do with Red Cross.”
At the same time, he has ratcheted up tensions with Pope Leo XIV, lobbing criticism at the first American pontiff for days on social media and stating emphatically that he has no plans to apologize as the two publicly disagree over the Iran war. That extraordinary rift has underscored a shift among some American fundamentalists and evangelicals toward embracing a “MAGA Jesus,” a movement invoked by some of his followers in recent years that offers Trump as its “chosen one.”
The president, an irregular church-goer who lashed out at his political enemies during this year’s National Prayer Breakfast and was once criticized for bringing a Bible to a photo-op, has spent much of his second term chipping away at the wall between church and state, championing faith initiatives that have led to a systematic religious revival within the government’s operations, culture, and policy.
A “Tender and Open” Heart?
For Pounds, Trump’s installation of people of faith across the White House and administration shows that “his heart is really tender and open towards the Lord.” “He’s so authentic and real, whether we like the things he says sometimes and the things we don’t like, that he wouldn’t have done it (participated in the scripture reading) if he didn’t believe it,” she said. She downplayed any connection between the reading and Trump’s deleted post, noting that his participation was scheduled prior to the posting — but said that his decision to take it down was “moving.”
Margaret Susan Thompson, professor of history and political science at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School, told CNN the verse has been seen by many Evangelical Christians as a “justification of calling upon God to bless their nation.”
How the Invitation Came Together
Pounds leveraged connections from her time in politics, working with White House Faith Office Director Jennifer Korn, the office’s senior adviser, evangelist Paula White-Cain, and Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley to extend an invitation to Trump, along with several members of his staff and Cabinet. She said they “really grabbed the vision of what we were doing, wanted to be a part, and have been amazing partners.” “We just felt like it was important for the leader of our nation, if he was willing to read the Bible, to read the Bible with us,” she added.
What This Means Going Forward
For observers of the intersection of faith and politics, this moment offers a useful case study. It shows how a single scripture passage can carry decades of political weight. It reveals how a president’s personal conduct — from AI-generated images to public feuds with the Pope — can complicate his standing with a key constituency. And it demonstrates how a well-organized nonprofit can create a national platform for spiritual engagement, even in a polarized environment.
The question for readers is not just what Trump said or did, but how we interpret the relationship between public power and private faith. When a leader reads a prayer of national repentance, does it signal genuine humility or political calculation? The answer likely depends on where you already stand. But the event itself — nearly 500 people reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation — is a reminder that scripture remains a living text in American public life, whatever one makes of the messenger.
CNN’s John Blake, Rene Marsh, Steve Contorno, Aleena Fayaz, Kaanita Iyer, and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn contributed to this report.
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Mike Brown
Mike Brown – One of those authors who helps readers not get lost in today's news flow. He dives into political affairs as well as world events, social trends, and everyday stories that matter to everyone. The main focus of his work is fact-checking, clear language, and the ability to lay out the key points so that the reader gets a comprehensive and reliable picture of the topic in just a few minutes.
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