President Donald Trump holds a Bible as he visits outside St. John’s Church across Lafayette Park from the White House Monday, June 1, 2020, in Washington. Part of the church was set on fire during protests on Sunday night.AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Donald Trump’s record of hypocrisy and grifting now appears to extend to his “God Bless the USA” Bible. A new report from the Associated Press reveals that nearly 120,000 copies of the former president’s $60 Bibles are printed in China, the same country he’s spent most of his political career lambasting.
Those copies, according to records obtained by the AP, were shipped in February and March, likely making a $7 million profit for Trump.
As we previously wrote, these Bibles aren’t just average publications of a holy text. They include a handwritten chorus of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” as well as a custom embossing “in remembrance of the day that God intervened during President Donald J. Trump’s assassination attempt,” available in special edition copies.
All of which made the potential decision to mandate Trump’s Bible in Oklahoma’s schools deeply alarming. As I wrote last week:
On Friday, the nonprofit news outlet Oklahoma Watch reported that the superintendent’s bid documents included specific standards for the Bibles set to be used in Oklahoma classrooms, standards only met by two editions.
According to the documents, the books must:
- Be bound in leather or a leather-like material
- Include the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights
- Be either the old or new version of the King James Bible
Supplier Mardel Christian & Education reportedly searched through the 2,900 versions of the Bible it carries and found that none fit the bill—but Trump’s “God Bless the USA Bible” does.
Trump’s Bible is, of course, just one of many odd business ventures he has started in this election cycle alone, including $400 golden sneakers.
