President Donald Trump will deliver a video reading of 2 Chronicles 7:11, 22 from the Oval Office on Tuesday evening, joining a weeklong public Scripture-reading marathon organized to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence. The event, called America Reads the Bible, runs daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the Museum of the Bible's World Stage Theater in Washington, D.C., and aims to read the entire Bible, Genesis to Revelation, before the week ends.

Trump's reading is scheduled for the 6 p.m. ET hour on Tuesday. Organizers said the passage was not assigned at random. It was deliberately reserved for the president.

The passage includes 2 Chronicles 7:14, a verse that has echoed through American public prayer for decades: "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." That language, drawn from God's response to Solomon after the dedication of the temple, has long served as a touchstone during periods of national hardship and reflection.

A passage chosen with purpose

Bunni Pounds, the founder and president of Christians Engaged and the driving force behind the initiative, told Fox News why organizers held the passage for a special guest slot:

"We needed somebody special to read Second Chronicles chapter seven. And so we instantly said, who needs to read that? The President of the United States."

Pounds described 2 Chronicles 7 as one of the most important Scripture readings for the American church. She framed the president's participation as a source of hope for national healing and renewal, and said the broader event is meant to prompt citizens to reconnect with the biblical foundations that have shaped the republic for two and a half centuries.

The Washington Times reported Pounds saying the initiative carries a clear message of gratitude and purpose:

"We are thankful that President Trump has agreed to read one of the most important Scripture passages for the American church, offering God's promise that if we pray and repent as His people that He will forgive our sins and heal our land."

Pounds modeled the initiative after the biblical account of Ezra's public reading of Scripture, an event in which the people of Israel gathered to hear the Law read aloud after returning from exile. The parallel is intentional: a nation pausing to hear its foundational text spoken in public, together.

Nearly 500 leaders, 122 ministries, one book

The scale of the event is considerable. The Christian Post reported that the initiative brings together nearly 500 leaders and representatives of 122 ministries in Washington. The readings are being livestreamed by Great American Pure Flix, making the full week available to viewers nationwide.

An opening celebration was held Saturday. The White House issued a presidential message on Friday, the eve of that celebration, formally recognizing the initiative. The message traced the Bible's role in American history from the arrival of the Mayflower through the founding period and into the present day.

Specifically, the presidential message cited John Winthrop's 1630 invocation of the Sermon on the Mount, the Declaration of Independence, and the 1787 Northwest Ordinance. It referenced a letter from President John Adams to Benjamin Rush in which Adams called the Bible the most profound work of philosophy and morality ever conceived. It noted George Washington's inaugural oath, during which Washington placed his hand on the Bible and kissed it after taking office.

The White House also highlighted Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, in which Lincoln quoted Scripture four times and mentioned God 14 times. The message cited Franklin D. Roosevelt's radio prayer on the eve of the Normandy landings in 1944 and Ronald Reagan's 1983 proclamation naming that year the Year of the Bible. The thread connecting these moments is plain: presidents of different parties and different eras treating the Bible not as a partisan prop but as a shared inheritance.

Trump himself put it directly. AP News reported the president's statement commemorating the event: "The Bible is indelibly woven into our national identity and way of life."

That kind of language was once unremarkable in American civic life. Today it draws fire from critics who frame any public acknowledgment of the Bible's role in the nation's founding as "Christian nationalism." The term has become a convenient label for dismissing what most Americans, for most of the country's history, simply called heritage. When FDR prayed on the radio before D-Day, nobody called it a theocratic power grab.

The administration's deep bench of participants

Trump will not be the only senior official reading. Dr. Ben Carson, the neurosurgeon and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during Trump's first term, is scheduled to follow the president's reading, along with his wife, Candy Carson. The roster of administration participants is long and senior: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, and HUD Secretary Scott Turner are all scheduled to take part.

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, Domestic Policy Council Director Vincent Haley, White House Faith Office senior adviser Paula White-Cain, and deputy faith director Jenny Korn round out the administration's presence. The breadth of participation, from the Cabinet to the policy councils to the faith office, signals that the White House views this as more than a symbolic gesture.

House Speaker Mike Johnson took part in the opening celebration and is scheduled to read from Genesis 24. Johnson framed his involvement in terms that would have been familiar to any previous generation of American leaders. He said he was "honored to stand alongside fellow Americans acknowledging the moral and religious heritage of the nation."

Breitbart reported Johnson going further: "This is more than symbolism. It's a rededication."

The initiative's tagline captures its ambition in six words: "One Week. One Nation. One Book."

Faith, politics, and the founding

The event arrives at a moment when the intersection of faith and public life draws intense scrutiny. Trump's relationship with evangelical supporters has been a defining feature of his political career, and his willingness to engage publicly with Scripture, whether through events like this or through controversies over religious imagery, keeps that relationship in the spotlight.

Organizers described the event in sweeping terms. "This will be a defining spiritual moment in the life of our nation," they wrote in a social media post promoting the marathon.

Whether one finds that language stirring or overwrought, the historical record the White House cited in its presidential message is not in dispute. The Bible shaped the vocabulary of the American founding. Winthrop quoted it. Adams praised it. Washington swore on it. Lincoln wove it into the address that many scholars consider the finest in presidential history. Roosevelt prayed from it before the largest amphibious invasion in human history. Reagan proclaimed a year in its honor.

The 84-hour reading marathon, running Sunday through Saturday, is an attempt to put that continuity on public display at a time when tensions between political leaders and religious institutions often dominate the headlines. The organizers' bet is that reading the whole Bible aloud, in public, with the president and his Cabinet participating, speaks louder than any policy argument about the place of faith in American life.

Over a dozen Christian leaders prayed with Trump in the Oval Office on March 18, 2025, a gathering that set the tone for the kind of open, unapologetic engagement with faith that this administration has embraced. The America Reads the Bible event is the largest public expression of that posture to date.

For Americans of faith, and for the millions who believe the country's moral compass has drifted, the sight of a sitting president reading Scripture from the Oval Office carries weight that no press release can replicate. Stories of persecuted believers fighting for religious freedom remind us that public Scripture reading is not a luxury everywhere in the world. In many countries, it is a crime.

What the passage says

The specific text Trump will read, 2 Chronicles 7:11, 22, is God's response to Solomon after the completion of the temple. It includes both a promise and a warning. The promise: if the people humble themselves, pray, and turn from wickedness, God will hear, forgive, and heal. The warning: if they turn away and serve other gods, the consequences will be severe and visible to the nations.

It is a passage that does not flatter its audience. It calls for repentance before it offers restoration. That an American president would read it publicly, from the seat of executive power, is a choice that says something about the moment, and about what the organizers believe the country needs to hear.

The broader event also showcases a growing confidence among Christians worldwide in reclaiming public space for their faith. The America Reads the Bible marathon is not a quiet, private devotional. It is 84 hours of Scripture read aloud in the nation's capital, streamed to anyone with an internet connection, and backed by the full weight of the White House.

A nation that cannot remember where it came from will not know where it is going. Reading the book that shaped the founding is not nationalism. It is memory.