Trump to read Old Testament passage in Bible marathon after Christian backlash

Donald Trump is scheduled to read an Old Testament passage on Tuesday, April 21, at about 6 p.m. Eastern, joining a weeklong Bible-reading event at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., that arrives after he angered many Christians with a social-media image that appeared to depict him as Jesus and a public clash with Pope Leo XIV.

The passage reported for Trump is 2 Chronicles 7:11-22, a selection organizers deliberately reserved for him because many Christian supporters view it as a call to prayer, repentance and divine blessing for the nation. The reading will come by video message from the Oval Office during America Reads the Bible, which runs April 19-25 and is being presented as a 250th-anniversary commemoration of the Bible’s influence in America.

Organizers say the Bible will be read continuously from Genesis to Revelation over seven days, with the program livestreamed on Great American Pure Flix from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern each day. Christians Engaged and Great American Media are promoting the event, which will be hosted at the Museum of the Bible’s World Stage Theater and opened to both in-person and online participation.

The scale is substantial. Organizers say nearly 500 leaders will take part, though one event page cites 420 readers and another account puts the total at 475 or more leaders, along with more than 100 national ministries. Bunni Pounds, the founder of Christians Engaged and one of the organizers, welcomed Trump’s participation and declined to address the controversy surrounding him, even as the appearance is likely to be read by faith leaders as either conviction, outreach or damage control.

That tension sits at the center of Trump’s planned appearance. He is not entering a pulpit for a campaign-style rally, but stepping into a tightly framed scripture reading at a moment when many Christians have been unsettled by his recent behavior. The choice of 2 Chronicles, with its emphasis on humility and national turning, gives the appearance theological weight while also underscoring the political calculation behind it.

For Trump, the reading offers a symbolic show of alignment with Christian voters who remain important to his coalition. For organizers, it is a chance to cast America Reads the Bible as a national movement aimed at spiritual renewal through uninterrupted scripture reading. Whether the moment lands as reconciliation or image repair will depend on whether the constituencies offended in recent days are persuaded by the reading itself.