Trump reads from Bible in Oval Office in taped message for Christian group

Donald Trump read a Bible passage from the Old Testament during a Tuesday event billed as a celebration of the US’s founding, days after he clashed with Pope Leo XIV and upset some of his religious supporters by posting an AI-generated image appearing to depict himself as Jesus.The event, titled America Reads the Bible, was imagined as a “sacred opportunity to call our nation back to its spiritual foundation”, according to its website.“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,” Trump read from 2 Chronicles 7:11-22 in a video message recorded in the White House’s Oval Office, with the presidential flag behind him.Great American Media, a Texas-based company that creates family and faith content, livestreamed the reading from Washington DC.The Family Policy Alliance Foundation, a conservative lobbying group, put on the weeklong Bible-reading marathon through its ministry, Christians Engaged. The foundation has pushed to defund abortion providers and restrict transgender medical care. Other Trump administration officials, including the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, are expected to participate.“We’re making a statement during this week as America reads the Bible, that there is so much in the Bible that we can gain wisdom and discernment from, there is so much that can heal our families, that can rescue us from depression and anxiety and can heal our inner cities and heal our land ... I believe the president’s saying that by reading this scripture specifically,” Bunni Pounds, founder of Christians Engaged, told Fox News Digital last week.Trump’s appearance comes after a slew of recent moves that have drawn scrutiny and sowed division among his devout supporters.In early April, the president caught enormous flak for threatening to wipe out Iranian civilization, as he pressured the country to reopen the strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for oil tankers.Pope Leo XIV admonished Trump’s remarks as “truly unacceptable”, to which the president responded by lashing out on social media. In a 12 April Truth Social post, Trump called the first American-born pontiff “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy”. He also said the pope was only elected so the conclave could curry favor with him.The exchange brought into renewed focus Trump’s childhood, during which time he attended a Manhattan church led by a pastor who opposed John F Kennedy’s presidential candidacy because of the politician’s Catholic beliefs.The fallout from the broadside has placed the Republican party in a thorny position, as lawmakers attempt to shore up support before the 2026 midterms. A recent Pew poll found that more than eight in 10 American Catholics regard Leo favorably.The president also recently found himself in the crosshairs of some prominent Christian allies, after posting an AI-generated image that appeared to depict him as Jesus, tending to an ill, bed-bound man. Some conservative supporters slammed the meme as blasphemous. When asked by reporters about the later-deleted post, Trump said he thought it was portraying him as a doctor.Despite a history of inflammatory remarks and a hush-payment scandal involving a former porn actor, evangelical Christians remain a core voting bloc for Trump.On the 2024 campaign trail, he pledged to “bring back Christianity”. He has increasingly blurred the lines between state and church.Last year, he established a Religious Liberty Commission, tasked with considering voluntary prayer time in public schools and the first amendment rights of pastors, among other topics. Dan Patrick, Texas’s lieutenant governor, who chairs the commission, recently derided Democrats as the “anti-God left”.