‘If my people': Days after posting himself as Jesus, Trump reads telling Bible verse - Here's why it's so polarising

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (Apr 21) participated in a week-long national Bible-reading event, delivering a pre-recorded reading from the Oval Office. The POTUS included a highly charged Bible verse in his reading that is long considered polarising and is associated with the Christian nationalist movement. Trump's symbolic return to his latent Christianity comes just days after he stirred controversy by posting a picture depicting himself as Jesus Christ and as he continues to be embroiled in a very public feud with the head of Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV. Trump later deleted the AI-Jesus post and claimed he thought it depicted him as a doctor.

Why is the Bible verse considered polarising?

Trump read from 2 Chronicles 7:11-22, using the Easy Read version of the King James Bible. The said passage calls for repentance in ancient Israel and has long been quoted and promoted by those who argue that America was founded as a Christian nation and must return to God, reports AP.

The passage, set during the reign of King Solomon at the dedication of the first temple in Jerusalem roughly 3,000 years ago, includes the frequently cited 14th verse: "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."

Bunni Pounds, founder of Christians Engaged, the group behind the marathon, called it "a powerful statement that he decided to read that passage." However, Trump critics see it differently. "This verse is not about the United States," said Baptist pastor and Word&Way editor Brian Kaylor, author of a book on Christian nationalist use of scripture. "It is a promise made to one particular person in one particular moment. It doesn't really work to pull it out of context and apply it to whatever you want to." Kaylor described the passage as "a popular verse among Christian nationalists" that has taken on a partisan and polarising character in recent decades.

A lesson in humility?

The Bible passage Trump read also included a sterner verse that drew its own attention: "But if you turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments... then will I pluck them up from 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 nations." The passage, is considered a direct warning from God to Solomon and Israel that abandoning His laws and worshipping other gods would bring judgment, specifically losing the land and the Temple. Whether Trump noticed the irony of reading a passage about the true God and turning from wickedness, days after comparing himself to Christ and attacking the pope, is unclear.