President-Elect Donald Trump will place his hand on two different Bibles during his swear-in as the 47th President of the United States at his second inauguration. Just as he did during his first inauguration in 2017, Trump will use the Lincoln Bible as well as a Bible his mother gifted him back in 1955.
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According to a press release issued by the inaugural committee, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump gifted this Bible to President-elect Trump to "mark his Sunday Church Primary School graduation at First Presbyterian Church, in Jamaica, New York."
According to Fox News Digital, the 1955 family Bible was published by Thomas Nelson and Sons in Trump's home state of New York. Trump's name is featured in the lower part of the cover. Inside, the Bible features signatures from church officials and an inscription of Turmp's name and other details about the Bible itself.
In addition to the family Bible, Trump will also be placing his hand on the Lincoln Bible. Used by Abraham Lincoln himself during his 1861 inauguration, the Bible originally belonged to William Thomas Carroll. Following Lincoln's assassination, however, Carroll gave the Bible to the Lincoln family.
"It has only been used three times since, by President Obama at each of his inaugurations and by President Trump at his first inauguration in 2017," Donald Trump's team said. "The burgundy velvet-bound book is part of the collections of the Library of Congress."
Two Bibles
This has not been the first time that two Bibles have been used to swear in a President. Barack Obama used the Lincoln Bible as well as one owned by Martin Luther King Jr. in 2009 and 2013. In 1953 Dwight D. Eisenhower was sworn in with George Washington's Bible used in 1789. He also used his West Point Bible, according to Newsweek.
Other Presidents who used two Bibles during their inaugurations include Richard Nixon and Harry S. Truman. Nixon used two family heirlooms, similar to Trump. One of Truman's Bibles was a copy of the Gutenberg Bible opened in the book of Exodus.
JD Vance, while not using two Bibles to be sworn in as Vice-President, will use a family King James Bible. This family heirloom belonged to his great-grandmother. It was gifted to Vance back in 2003 when he joined the U.S. Marines.
