The makers of the God Bless the USA Bible, endorsed by President-elect Donald Trump, have issued a new edition just in time for Trump's second inauguration.
Launched Monday, the limited-run "Inauguration Day Bible" costs $69.99 — or four copies for $59.49 each — and features an embossed cover with Trump's name and the date of his upcoming inauguration. The Bible includes the King James translation along with the text of the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance and the lyrics to the chorus of "God Bless the USA," the 1984 Lee Greenwood hit. It also comes with a DVD of a concert honouring Greenwood's career.
Trump fans can still order the original God Bless the USA Bible for $59.99. There's also "The Day God Intervened" edition, embossed with the date of the failed assassination attempt in July. Some of Trump's supporters have claimed God spared Trump's life. The website also offers a signed Trump Bible for $1,000, Trump-related apparel and links to Trump-themed guitars and God Bless the USA coins.
First announced in 2021 by a marketing company with ties to Greenwood, the God Bless the USA Bible has been a source of controversy ever since. An initial version featuring the New International Version translation was cancelled after a number of authors published by Zondervan, which also publishes the NIV, objected. The Bible was then resurrected when the marketing company switched to the King James Version, which is in the public domain.
It was largely forgotten until this past spring, when Trump began hawking the God Bless the USA Bible in video ads, tying it to the need to reverse the decline of Christianity in America. A video ad claims Trump is bringing faith back to the "forefront of American life."
"Christianity has been experiencing a recent surge, and now more than ever, every home needs to have Bibles readily available," the ad claims, urging Trump fans to buy the edition before January 19. A press release for the new edition says Trump has not yet decided which Bible to use during his swearing in on January 20.
Trump has a complicated history with the Bible. As a candidate in 2016, he referred to the Apostle Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians as "Two Corinthians" during a speech at Liberty University. In 2019, he created more uproar by signing Bibles during a visit to an Alabama church, while in 2020, police expelled a priest from an Episcopal church near Lafayette Square in Washington, DC, so then-President Trump could have his photo taken with a Bible during the protests that followed the death of George Floyd.
This past fall the state of Oklahoma put out a request to buy 55,000 Bibles that had to include the Constitution and other patriotic documents — a description that seemed tailor-made for the God Bless the USA Bible. That request was later amended.
The God Bless the USA Bible, like almost all other Bibles sold in the United States, was printed in China, a nation Trump has loudly criticized. In 2019, Bible publishers in the U.S. worried proposed tariffs during the first Trump administration would raise the cost of Bibles, but Bibles were later exempted from the tariffs.
His paid Bible endorsement, in which Trump said "we must make America pray again," debuted during Holy Week and came about a month after he promised during a speech to the National Religious Broadcasters in Nashville to return political power to Christians.
"If I get in, you're going to be using that power at a level that you've never used before," Trump told the annual gathering in February.
America's Christians fuelled Trump's return to the White House, with almost two-thirds of Protestants (63%) and 58% of Catholics voting for him, according to election polls. That included 72% of White Protestants, 61% of White Catholics, 64% of Hispanic Protestants and 53% of Hispanic Catholics.
Black Protestants (85%) were the only major Christian group to support Harris, along with 78% of Jews, 58% of other non-Christians and 71% of religiously unaffiliated voters.
While claiming the God Bless the USA Bible is the only Bible Trump has officially endorsed, the site also makes it clear Trump does not own or have any control over the God Bless the USA Bible but instead was a paid endorser.
The new ad for the God Bless the USA Bible comes at a time when sales of the Christian Scriptures are booming, according to The Wall Street Journal.
© Religion News Service
