by There was a time, not so long ago, when Donald Trump didn’t seem to know much about the Bible.
When he ran for the nomination of the very Christian Republican party, Trump could not name a single Bible verse. Early in his 2016 presidential campaign he referred to the Eucharist as a “little cracker”. In a subsequent church visit, trying to prove his religious credentials, he put cash in a plate meant to hold communion.
As times have changed.
“Every American needs a Bible in their home, and I have many. It’s my favorite book,” Trump declared in March, in a video posted on Truth Social. “I am proud to endorse and encourage you to get this Bible. We need to pray for America again.”
In the video, Trump, who has a long history of endorsing and selling things, clutches the God Bless the USA Bible — a “patriotic” version of the holy text that Trump is now asking for $59.99.
“I want a lot of people to have it,” Trump continued. “You have to have it for your heart and soul.”
Well, who am I to challenge a former one-term, two-term president, who is currently on trial for paying a porn star. i bought it.
Buying something from Donald Trump is fraught with danger. Trump is known for not following through on business agreements: in the run-up to the 2016 election, hundreds of people, including lawyers, carpenters and painters, came forward to accuse Trump of not paying them for their work.
Happily the Bible, which cost $83.37 after tax and shipping, eventually arrived. I eagerly tore open the packaging, held the bag upside down, and pulled out what was essentially a Christian nationalist fantasy: a Bible full of American flags and bald eagles, with original documents and patriotic song lyrics jammed with the sacred text. .
The front of the Bible is embossed with the US flag. On the back are glossy pages containing some of America’s most sacred documents: the Declaration of Independence; the Pledge of Allegiance; and the lyrics to Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA, a song played repeatedly at Trump’s political rallies.
These pages feature the American flag and some of the country’s most cherished objects: the bald eagle, yes, but also the statue of Liberty, which appears to be a musket, and the Capitol building, which ‘attacked supporters ironically. of Trump three years ago.
One of the most interesting questions in the FAQ section of Trump’s bible website asks: “What if my Bible has sticky pages?”
My Bible did indeed have sticky pages. But don’t be put off: the FAQ guide explains that sticky pages are a common problem with new Bibles, and directs the reader to “a YouTube video that does a great job of explaining how to break in your new Bible.”
That video is six minutes long. It shows a man unboxing a Bible that looks objectively better than the God Bless the USA version, flipping through the entire book, page by page. “Separating the pages is a bit of a tedious process,” says the man.
He was right. Trump’s Bible, which uses a public text from the King James version, is 1,350 thin to the point of translucent pages, and I wasn’t about to go through the whole thing. But all the good stuff seems to be in here: Noah is herding animals hard on a big boat, Job having his life ruined by a bet between god and the devil, and the book of Leviticus – which much of it carried over to the proper way of sacrificing animals. (As a bull, sprinkle its blood around the altar and wash its entrails before setting it on fire; if you are offering a dove, be sure to reach its head before plucking.)
You don’t need to pay $59.99 for that kind of content. Search for “free Bible” online and there are hundreds of places that offer it. But this Trump-endorsed Bible represents something special to its supporters, said Kristin Du Mez, a professor at Calvin University whose research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion and politics.
“My sense is, most people are not buying this Bible to read it,” Du Mez said. “They’re buying the Bible to have it, and to participate in this kind of shared identity. To put down $60 to say: ‘Yes, this is who I am and I’m committed to this, and this is my belief.'”
The shared identity is one that accepts the “myth of Christian America”, said Du Mez: “The idea that America was founded as a distinctly Christian nation: a bright evangelical proto-conservative version of the country, which never really existed. It is that shared vision of a mythic past, and a commitment to restoring some semblance of that mythic order in the present.”
After those early confusions as he tried to appeal to Christians, the evangelicals who make up much of the GOP eventually embraced Trump — the same GOP taking a hatchet to church-state separation. In fact, the former president’s relationship with the religious right has now grown to Trump’s comfort level comparing himself to his messiah.
Further cementing that bond may explain Trump’s decision to promote the Bible God Bless the USA. But there is also the financial aspect.
Trump owes more than $500m as a result of civil court convictions. He’s been charged with more than 90 felony crimes, in five different jurisdictions, and lawyers cost money (if you don’t pay them).
While the God Bless the USA Bible website states that “the Bible is not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J Trump”, it also states that the enterprise “uses the name, likeness and image of Donald J Trump under a paid license from CIC Ventures LLC”.
Trump, according to a financial disclosure report filed last year, is the manager, president, secretary and treasurer of CIC Ventures LLC.
Happy days for Trump then. Although this Bible wheeze has not gone down well with everyone.
“Black-black” and “disgraceful”, was the judgment of priest Loran Livingston, a conservative evangelical who leads the Central church in North Carolina. A pastor in South Carolina said The Bible was a “violation of commandment,” and Raphael Warnock, a Democratic Georgia senator and pastor himself, was not happy either.
“The Bible does not require an endorsement of Donald Trump,” Warnock told CNN.
“And during the last week of his life Jesus drove out of the temple the moneychangers, those who would take holy things and use them as cheap relics to sell in the market.”
It is not clear how many of these “cheap relics” were sold. In early May, God Bless God Bless US Bibles were still for sale online – unlike the Trump-licensed sneakers he was hawking earlier this year.
After the failure of Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka, Trump Mortgage, Trump Magazine, various Trump casinos and the Trump board game, the former president may have finally put his name to a winning product. At $59.99 upwards for a book that is, objectively, not well printed but rather tacky, the God Bless the USA Bible looks pretty safe. Maybe those lawyers will get paid after all.
