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Topics: Donald Trump, Pope Leo, Religion, US News, Politics
Britt Jones
Topics: Donald Trump, Pope Leo, Religion, US News, Politics
Following US president Donald Trump's criticism of Pope Leo and the controversy around AI images appearing to represent him as a Christ-like figure, the POTUS is set to read a Bible passage tomorrow in a video message from the Oval Office.
But instead of reassuring Americans on the subject of Trump and religion, the event has led to an old 2015 interview resurfacing, which shows the president having an extremely odd answer when asked to name his favorite Biblical passage.
According to the White House, the POTUS will be reading from the bible in Washington, as a statement from the organizers said: “On April 21, President Trump is scheduled to read Scripture via video message from the Oval Office during the 6 p.m. EST hour."
It's part of a week of scheduled events, called America Reads the Bible, described as a time to ‘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.’
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The verse Trump is set to read is 2 Chronicles 7:11-22, in which God appears to King Solomon, saying he will 'heal the land' and listen to the people's prayers if they obey his 'statutes and judgements'.
When Trump was elected for the first time in 2016, evangelist Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Billy Graham, cited the passage and described Trump's electoral victory as 'a tremendous movement of God in answer to prayer'.
Now, this event comes at a tricky time for Trump, namely because of his war of words with Pope Leo.
The Pope appeared to condemn the US’ war on Iran, stating: "Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!"
Trump hit back by describing the pontiff as 'WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy'.
The new event has also shone a light on a historic interview with Bloomsburg Politics 10 years ago, where he was asked to name his most ‘favored’ passages in the Bible.
But Trump’s response was odd.
Calling the Bible something that ‘means a lot to me,’ he seemed to struggle with the question, and ultimately refused to answer, telling the hosts that he ‘wouldn't want to get into it because to me that's very personal’, and he didn’t want ‘to get into specifics’.
Then, when asked if he is ‘an Old Testament guy or a New Testament guy’, he said: “Uh, probably equal. I think it’s just an incredible….the whole Bible is an incredible...”
Trump went on to call his 1987 book The Art of the Deal his ‘second favorite book of all time’ after the Bible.
Recently, he’s been in hot water, though after posting two religious pictures that sparked outrage, with the original ‘blasphemous’ image being posted on a Sunday on his platform Truth Social.
There, he was depicted as dressed in a robe and appearing to ‘heal’ a man, not long after he attacked Pope Leo XIV.
Then, he posted another, captioned: "The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this, but I think it is quite nice!!! President DJT.”
This featured Jesus with his arm around the president’s shoulders.
UNILAD has reached out to the White House for comment.