People have been wondering if Donald Trump’s decision not to put his hand on the Bible while being sworn in has had any impact on his oath of office.
Yesterday (January 20) marked a historical day for the White House as Donald Trump returned to office for the second time, becoming the 47th President of the United States.
The inauguration ceremony in Washington has already caused a stir on social media, as eagle-eyed viewers didn’t skip a beat spotting some seemingly strange moments.
From First Lady Melania Trump‘s excessively large hat which allowed her to ‘dodge’ a kiss from the president to Elon Musk’s thumbs up next to Barron Trump before later being accused of making a ‘Nazi salute’ – something he has denied.
Now, another snippet from the ceremony has gone viral where Trump is being sworn in during his oath of office.
Donald Trump didn’t put hand on Bible during oath
The tradition of swearing on a Bible dates back to George Washington, who actually kissed the scriptures after taking his oath, but as Trump raised his right hand to ‘solemnly swear’ to commit to the position and ‘serve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States’, his left hand strayed away from hovering over the two Bibles his wife held in front of him.
He had a family Bible, given to Trump by his mother, and a Bible used by the 16th President Abraham Lincoln used in his own inauguration in 1861. But apparently, Trump didn’t touch either of them, despite doing so in his first inauguration in 2017.
Many have since been left wondering if Trump’s choice not to touch the holy texts has had any impact on his oath and how the Bible actually factors into the whole affair.
Taking to Twitter, an apparent Trump supporter wrote: “Great. Just great. No hand on the Bible.
“Melania tried to get it close to him but Roberts and Trump didn’t notice.
“Now we get four more years of people saying he’s not president, and four more years of people saying he’s the AntiChrist.”
It’s not clear why Trump decided not to put his hand on the Bible.
Does Trump not putting his hand on the Bible have an impact on oath?
Physically touching a Bible is not actually mandatory or a legal requirement – the Constitution simply requires the president take the oath before assuming office, religious text or not.
Speaking to Reuters, Jeremi Suri, a University of Texas history professor and presidential scholar, revealed there is no practical impact if a president declines to swear on a Bible or historical document.
Suri said: “There’s nothing in the Constitution that says the president has to connect this to God in any way. The oath is to the Constitution.
“I don’t think it has any bearing on him taking the oath.”
The academic also added that the Constitution allows any incoming president to either swear or attest, meaning it is ‘open to someone who is an atheist’.
Long-standing tradition
But that hasn’t stopped Trump’s predecessors from following the tradition to a tee, including Joe Biden, who used a Bible that had been in his family since 1893.
In some instances where the Bible was not used, US presidents used other texts: John Quincy Adams, the sixth president, placed his hand on a book of law, while Lyndon B. Johnson used a Catholic prayer missal that was found on the plane that transported John F. Kennedy’s casket after his assassination, reports The New York Times.
Trump has also referenced God during his inaugural address, commenting that he was ‘saved by God’ to ‘make American great again‘.
UNILAD has contacted the White House press secretary for comment.
All the executive orders Donald Trump has signed so far
Policy recognising only ‘two genders’
The president signed an order which will make it an official policy that there are only ‘two genders’.
The policy reads: “Agencies will cease pretending that men can be women and women can be men when enforcing laws that protect against sex discrimination.
“These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
The order will also bring to an end ‘wasteful’ government programmes which promote diversity and inclusivity, as well as ‘defending women from gender ideology extremism’.
Free speech
The president accused the previous administration of ‘trampling free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech’ and vowed to restore freedom of speech.
The order states it will ‘ensure that no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen’ and will ‘end censorship of protected speech’.
Leaving the World Health Organisation
The president accused the organization of fumbling the COVID-19 pandemic and said the US would no longer be ‘ripped off’ by it.
While signing a document to have the US leave the health agency, Trump said: “World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore.”
TikTok ban
As expected, Trump signed an executive order which hits pause on the US’ ban of the popular app, allowing time for an ‘appropriate course forward’.
“I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok that I didn’t have originally,” he said.
January 6 pardons
Trump’s loss in the 2020 election led to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in turn resulting in the arrests of a number of Trump supporters.
And as anticipated, the president has wasted no time in issuing pardons for offenders. Trump said he’s pardoned around 1,500 people and issued six commutations.
Immigration
Trump has issued a slew of immigration-related policies during his first day back in the White House as he declared illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border a national emergency.
Trump has already gotten started on reversing several Biden-era immigration orders and has plans to send US troops to help immigration agents and restrict refugees.
The president has also got the wheels in motion to prevent children of immigrants in the US illegally from having citizenship.
Speaking at his inauguration, he said: “All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.”
Restoring the death penalty
Calling capital punishment an ‘essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes’, Trump signed an order which will ensure states have enough lethal injection drugs for executions.
“The Attorney General shall pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use,” the order says.
Renaming the Gulf of Mexico
Following through on his promise during a press conference earlier this month, Trump has now ordered the Gulf of Mexico to be called the Gulf of America.
“President Trump is bringing common sense to government and renewing the pillars of American Civilization,” the executive order said.
Despite the order, it won’t change how it is named globally.
Energy policy
Trump has vowed to ‘unleash American energy’, promising to export US energy globally as he signed the order amid what he describes as a ‘national energy emergency’.
“America is blessed with an abundance of energy and natural resources that have historically powered our Nation’s economic prosperity. In recent years, burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations have impeded the development of these resources, limited the generation of reliable and affordable electricity, reduced job creation, and inflicted high energy costs upon our citizens,” the order states.
The order will also reverse Biden’s ban on drilling in Alaska as Trump declared America ‘will be a rich nation again’.
Cost of living
In the order, Trump vowed to issue ’emergency price relief’ to Americans aimed at lowering housing prices and availability and creating ’employment opportunities for American workers’.
Trump will also ‘eliminate harmful, coercive “climate” policies that increase the costs of food and fuel’.
Drug cartels
Trump has said drug cartels will now be classified as terrorist organisations.
“International cartels constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organised crime,” the orders says.
Federal workers
Federal employees have now been classified as political hires – a move which in theory would make them easier to fire.
Trump also declared a federal hiring freeze which will reduce the size of federal government.
