President Trump didn’t swear on a Bible at his inauguration. Is it a requirement?
As millions watched President Donald Trump’s inauguration at the White House on Monday, Jan. 20, many noticed that he did not place his left hand on a Bible while being sworn in.
Now people are questioning that gesture, and wondering if the president can be sworn in without using a Bible.
The answer is quite simple: Yes. Here’s why.
Article VI, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution specifically says “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
However, the majority of U.S. presidents have used the Bible during their oath ceremonies.
The 20th Amendment clarifies that the oath’s words themselves bind every president who takes it. The sole requirement is that the oath be taken at noon on January 20th, the first day of a term.
So where did the tradition of including the Bible in presidential ceremonies come from?
According to the White House Historical Association, George Washington began the tradition In 1789, when he borrowed a Bible from a Masonic Lodge to take his oath as the first president of the United States.
The association doesn’t mention why Washington thought to include it, but most presidents have followed suit, including George H.W. Bush, Warren G. Harding, Jimmy Carter, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Each swore on the same Bible Washington used.
Which Bibles did Trump use for his oath?
On Monday, President Trump used the same Bibles from his inauguration in January 2017: a 1953 Revised Standard Version gifted to him by his mother; and the Lincoln Bible, used by Abraham Lincoln in 1861.
Trump’s name was imprinted on the lower part of the front cover of his personal Bible, according to a release. Church officials signed the inside cover, writing his name and the presentation date. Lincoln’s Bible is among the Library of Congress’s holdings and is bound in velvet burgundy.
Trump is the third president to use the Lincoln Bible at his ceremony, following Barack Obama and Lincoln.
Vice President JD Vance also took his oath on a King James Version family Bible that belonged to his maternal great-grandmother, “Mamaw” Bonnie. She presented it to him in 2003 when he left home for the Marine Corps.
Why did Trump have two Bibles at his ceremony?
Most presidents take the oath using a unique family Bible that is open to a section that holds personal value for them, according to the White House Association.
Some have also brought additional Bibles to their ceremony to represent historical significance.
Has there ever been a US president who didn’t swear on a Bible?
According to the Library of Congress, John Quincy Adams took the oath of office on a law book instead of the Bible during his inauguration in 1825. In a diary entry he explained that the gesture was meant to symbolize his oath to the Constitution.
Following President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson took his oath with a Roman Catholic prayer book that was already aboard Air Force One. The book belonged to former President Kennedy.
Since Theodore Roosevelt’s first inauguration took place right after President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901, he didn’t take his oath with a book at all, according to the National Park Service.
This story was originally published January 21, 2025 at 4:09 PM.
