Why Trump will be sworn into office with a Bible

For else US President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office on Inauguration Day Monday in Washington, DC, raising his right hand and placing his left hand on top of a Bible.

Why do presidents put a hand on the Bible?

The answer is simple: tradition. That is what the first president of the United States, George Washington, did in 1789, according to The White House Historical Society. The organizers had forgotten to bring a Bible to the ceremony, so he borrowed one from a Masonic lodge. Other presidents who were sworn in with the Bible used by Washington include Jimmy Carter, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Warren G. Harding, and George HW Bush.

Washington also set a precedent for kiss the bible after taking the oath of office. Presidents followed suit until 1853, when Franklin Pierce put his left hand on the Bible instead of kissing it, ending the custom.

Some future presidents use Bibles that have been in their families for generations. The incumbent, President Biden, was taken under oath with a Bible that has been in his family since the 19th century.

At Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, he used two Bibles—one his mother gave him and the Bible Lincoln was sworn in at his first inauguration.

Some presidents did not use a Bible to take the oath of office, including Theodore Roosevelt, who did not use one when he was sworn into office in 1901, and John Quincy Adams, who chose a law book for his oath of office in 1825. indicating his responsibility to uphold the US constitutional law.