Trump chooses his mother's and Lincoln's Bibles for swearing-in

The act of choosing an inaugural Bible - or Bibles - by the elected president has become very symbolic in the country.

On Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump announced his choices: a Bible his mother gifted him in 1955 when he graduated from Presbyterian Sunday school and the one president Abraham Lincoln used at his inauguration, reports The Washington Post.

Explaining the selection, Presidential Inauguration Committee chairman Tom Barrack said in a statement, "In his first inaugural address, President Lincoln appealed to the 'better angels of our nature. As he takes the same oath of office 156 years later, President-elect Trump is humbled to place his hand on Bibles that hold special meaning both to his family and to our country."

 

The last, and only other president since Lincoln, to use the Lincoln Bible was Obama, both in 2009 and 2013.

As for other presidents, Franklin Delano Roosevelt used his family's Bible, written in Dutch and printed in 1686. John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic elected to the White House, chose a Douay Bible.

Trump's second Bible selection references his Presbyterian upbringing in Jamaica, Queens, in New York City. His mother gave it to him on June 12, 1955, upon his graduation from Sunday Church Primary School at First Presbyterian Church on Children's Day.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. will administer the oath to Trump, who did not say in his statement whether either of the Bibles will be open to a particular passage, as is often done during the swearing in ceremony.

Meanwhile Vice-president-elect Mike Pence will be sworn in by Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas.

In his own statement, Pence announced that he will use the Reagan family Bible - used by President Ronald Reagan. It will be the first time the Reagan Bible has been used to take the oath since.

And unlike Trump, Pence has planned to open the book to the same passage Reagan used, and one the vice president-elect often referenced on the campaign trail:

"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.