- By Aditya Jha
- Mon, 20 Jan 2025 01:50 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
President-elect Donald Trump will have his hands on two bibles during the swearing-in ceremony. While one of the bibles will be the one used by ex-US President Abraham Lincoln for inauguration in 1861, the other bible was given to Trump by his mother in 1955, holding an emotional significance.
Trump's inaugural committee confirmed that the president-elect had used the same two bibles in his swearing-in ceremony in 2017 too. The committee stated that Trump is using the Lincoln Bible for the sake of tradition and is also using the Bible gifted by his mother due to the emotional connection.
Trump's mother gifted him the Bible in 1955 to mark his Sunday Church Primary School graduation at First Presbyterian Church. The Bible was specially designed as Trump's name was written on the lower portion on the front cover of the holy book. The church officials had signed the Bible inside the cover page.
The Lincoln Bible has been used three times since its first use by the ex-president himself. Ex-president Barack Obama had also used the Lincoln Bible in two of his swearing-in ceremonies. In fact, Obama had used two bibles on both of the occasions; the other one was owned by Martin Luther King Jr.
Apart from Trump, there were several US Presidents who had two bibles in their hands during the swearing-in ceremony, including Harry S Truman, Dwight D Eisenhower, Richard M Nixon, and Barack Obama. Trump's team stated that he wanted to convey that he will be swearing to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States".
Though the constitution of the US mandates the presidents to take an oath of office, there is no compulsion of holding any religious book in their hand while doing so. The tradition of holding a Bible was first started by George Washington during his first inauguration; it was continued later by his successors.