Donald Trump Bible Reading: Full Text and What Passage Means
President Donald Trump will stream a recording of himself reading 2 Chronicles 7:11–22 on Tuesday evening as part of a weeklong "America Reads the Bible" event, stepping into the public eye at a fraught moment in his relationship with American Christians.
The 2 /1/2-minute recording will be played at the Museum of the Bible and streamed online via the faith-based platform Pure Flix at 6 p.m. ET.
The recording, which Trump taped last week, comes just days after he deleted an AI-generated social media post depicting him as Jesus healing a sick person. The image prompted rare criticism from key evangelical allies, and Trump later claimed he believed it showed him as a doctor working with the Red Cross.
The timing also follows an escalating public clash with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran war, in which Trump has attacked the first American pontiff on social media and ruled out apologizing.
“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,” the passage reads in part.
For decades, the verse has served as a rallying point for evangelical Christians and was also cited at the 2024 Republican National Convention. Christopher Hale, publisher of Letters from Leo, a Substack newsletter focused on Pope Leo XIV, told Newsweek that many evangelicals interpret it “as support for asking God to bless their country.”
For Hale, the timing sends a clear message to evangelicals and Christians across the country. “The president is attempting to do some damage control in response to events over the past two weeks,” he said.
Bunni Pounds, founder and president of Christians Engaged, the nonprofit organizing the event, said she prayed Trump would read this particular passage. “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 said in an interview with CNN.
Pounds downplayed any connection between the Bible reading and Trump’s deleted Jesus image, noting his participation was scheduled before the post. But she characterized his decision to remove it as “moving.”
Trump is among nearly 500 participants in the marathon Bible reading, which began Saturday and will be livestreamed from the Museum of the Bible and online through the Pure Flix streaming service. Other participants include his chief of staff Susie Wiles, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The event has also drawn a constellation of Republican officials and evangelical figures, including Texas Senator Ted Cruz, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, televangelist Franklin Graham, actor Patricia Heaton, entrepreneur and The Chosen creator Dallas Jenkins, author and speaker Lisa Bevere, and disability advocate Nick Vujicic, among others.
The president worked with White House Faith Office Director Jennifer Korn, evangelist Paula White-Cain, and Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley to extend invitations to Trump and several Cabinet members to participate in the reading event.
The Full Passage of Solomon's Prayer and God's Response
The full passage, as it appears in Bible.com's King James Version, is below:
Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord, and the king's house: and all that came into Solomon's heart to make in the house of the Lord, and in his own house, he prosperously effected. And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice.
If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; 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. Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.
For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and shalt observe my statutes and my judgments; then will I stablish the throne of thy kingdom, according as I have covenanted with David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel.
But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations. And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to every one that passeth by it; so that he shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land, and unto this house? And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.
A Verse With a Long Political History
Though Trump is not known as a practicing Christian, he has cultivated a powerful connection with evangelical voters and their most resonant scriptural touchstones. The 2 Chronicles passage he will read Tuesday is one of them.
The verse has been a recurring reference in American political and religious life for decades. President Dwight D. Eisenhower took the oath of office in 1953 with his hand on a Bible opened to 2 Chronicles. Ronald Reagan cited it in his 1984 National Day of Prayer proclamation. It has been read at numerous National Day of Prayer events and was featured at the 2024 Republican National Convention.
During Trump’s first term, evangelist Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of Billy Graham, pointed to the passage as evidence that God was answering prayers for his presidency. It also appeared during the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, when “Cowboys for Trump” founder Couy Griffin referenced it while speaking to the crowd.
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This story was originally published April 21, 2026 at 5:22 PM.