Selling salvation: Trump has earned $1.3 million (so far) from his MAGA Bible grift
The "God Bless the USA" Bible sold faith, flags, and sticky pages—and Trump's base bought it
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How much can you make from slapping your name on an overpriced, made-in-China Bible with sticky pages that no one else was buying, then pitching the whole thing as a Christian Nationalist gift for your most devoted and gullible fans?
If you’re Donald Trump, the answer is $1,306,035. So far.
That’s how much the White House reported he made from the Trump Bible.
That report, from the Office of Government Ethics (ha!), covers the year before Trump re-entered the White House and shows, among other things, that he made over $57 million as a cryptocurrency advocate, $50 million from Mar-a-Lago, and earned (?) a total income of over $600 million. (When you have no shame, you can apparently fleece people out of anything.) But a portion of that money came from the expensive Bible he hawked last year. (An earlier disclosure from last August showed he made $300,000 from the Greenwood Bible, suggesting a hell of a lot of MAGA cultists bought the book after he won the election and before Christmas.)
The “God Bless the USA” Bible includes the KJV translation, along with the text of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance, and (the kicker) the “handwritten chorus” of Lee Greenwood’s famous song.
It’s a Christian Nationalist’s wet dream.
Trump first advertised the $59.99 (plus shipping!) book in March of 2024, just before Easter, on his social network, though the video was posted on Greenwood’s Rumble page:
Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country, and I truly believe that we need to bring them back, and we have to bring them back fast. I think it's one of the biggest problems we have. That's why our country is going haywire. We've lost religion in our country. All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many. It's my favorite book…
…
… In the end, we do not answer to bureaucrats in Washington. We answer to God in Heaven. Christians are under siege. We must protect content that is pro-God. We love God, and we have to protect anything that is pro-God… Our Founding Fathers did a tremendous thing when they built America on Judeo-Christian values. Now that foundation is under attack, perhaps as never before…
…
… I think you all should get a “God Bless the USA” Bible now and help spread our Christian values with others. There you have it. Let's make America pray again. God bless you and God bless the USA.
It’s his “favorite book,” he said… even though when he was asked in 2015 to share his favorite verse, he couldn’t think of a single one. When that was followed up with a question about whether he preferred the Old or New Testament, Trump responded “Probably equal.”
It wasn’t clear at the time what Trump’s personal involvement was—or how much of a cut he got for every copy sold—but it was a perfect opportunity to remind conservative Christian voters that their faith and his politics were intertwined. He was quite literally pandering to Christians, selling them something they already own (and could easily get for free) at a time when he just wanted their cash.
But the backstory behind this book was even more interesting than Trump’s personal involvement.
This supposedly patriotic Bible first hawked by Greenwood was first advertised in 2021, slated for publication on the 20th anniversary of 9/11. It was $49.99 at the time—I guess Trump’s endorsement jacked up the price. But when it was initially announced, there was serious pushback in Christian circles.
That’s because the NIV translation used in that particular Bible meant it presumably had a stamp of approval from Zondervan, one of the largest Christian book publishers in the world. One petition made the concerns explicit:
This is a toxic mix that will exacerbate the challenges to American evangelicalism, adding fuel to the Christian nationalism and anti-Muslim sentiments found in many segments of the evangelical church.
That petition called for Zondervan/HarperCollins to cease publication of this book.
A handful of popular progressive Christians—some of whom had written books for the same publisher—also denounced the project:
American nationalism is its own civil religion, where America rather than Jesus is the center of attention. Instead of Jesus and the Church being the light of the world and the hope for humanity, America becomes the Messianic force in the world…. It has its own theology — manifest destiny, the doctrine of discovery and American exceptionalism. And this is precisely why it is dangerous to mesh patriotism with orthodox Christian faith.
After all, the Bible does not say “God bless America.” It says, “God so loved the world.” The national anthem should not be in the church hymnal, and the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States should not be in the Bible.
…
We don’t need to add anything to the Bible. We just need to live out what it already says.
At a time when many Americans were still coming to terms with Christian Nationalism, this was an explicit attempt to merge church and state in a way that made many Christians uncomfortable. (Ah, the good old days.)
Incredibly, the pushback had an effect.
HarperCollins, along with its Christian imprints Zondervan and Thomas Nelson, said they would not be publishing the book at all. In fact, they said they never even finalized a contract; the project was announced prematurely.
But then that book was resurrected. This time, it used the (non-trademarked) KJV text with Trump’s stamp of approval. (“Yes, this is the only Bible endorsed by President Trump!” said the website’s FAQ.)
The publishers also made clear this was the KJV translation and “We do not offer additional translations at this time.” (Got that, Zondervan?)
Oh. And the pages might be sticky. Because why not.
Would the Trump-approved version of the book sell? It wasn’t clear if it would, but you had to imagine the sort of people buying it aren’t the kind of folks who read books, period. Buying it, much like purchasing a red MAGA hat, was nothing more than a symbol of devotion to the only Higher Power conservative Christians care about: Trump.
The website also noted that the website “uses Donald J. Trump’s name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC, which license may be terminated or revoked according to its terms.” In other words, Trump wasn’t really even involved with this. They were just paying him to for his name. (At that point, Trump should really have packaged the product with his Trump Vodka since that would be the only way the experience would be pleasurable.)
The Washington Post said this was nothing new. Trump had already made headlines for doing the same thing with ugly sneakers.
CIC Ventures LLC, a company that Trump reported owning in his 2023 financial disclosure, has a similar arrangement with 45Footwear, which also says it uses Trump’s “name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC, which license may be terminated or revoked according to its terms.”
A Trump spokesperson and God Bless the USA Bible did not immediately respond to questions about how much Trump was paid for the licensing deal or stands to make from each book sale.
I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: For Christians to accept Trump as a protector of their faith means they’re supporting a thrice-married racist who paid hush money to a porn star he was having an affair with when his current wife was pregnant with his fifth child. A sexual abuser. The Two Corinthians guy. The candidate caught bragging about non-consensually grabbing women because he was a celebrity. The guy who lies about everything. The guy who says he doesn’t need forgiveness. The guy who held up a Bible in front of a church after his team used tear gas to drive away peaceful protesters. And that was only stuff from the first term. He’s only gotten worse since then and he’s currently threatening nuclear war.
If you think that guy is in any way compatible with the main character of your favorite book, good luck trying to get the people who live in reality to accept your beliefs.
Since Trump began promoting that Bible, at least one of his acolytes have treated it like it’s a textbook. Literally. Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters said he wanted to spend $6 million on 55,000 copies of the Trump Bible so he could send one to teachers all over the state. (After the legislature balked at playing along, Walters purchased 500 copies for use in AP Government classes.) It was a complete waste of money and not just because the content was, again, already available for free online.
There are now additional versions of the Trump Bible available for purchase, too. For $99 (plus shipping!), you can get the Presidential Edition, the First Lady Edition, the Platinum Edition, a gold-colored version, and more.
$1,000 will get you one personally autographed by Trump.
What we don’t know from the White House’s disclosures is how much Trump makes from each copy sold or how many copies have been sold. Needless to say you can buy near-identical versions of this book (with a similar cover) for waaaaaay less than what they’re selling it for, according to Christianity Today.
Tim Wildsmith, a Baptist minister in Nashville who reviews Bibles on his YouTube channel, said the God Bless the USA Bible appears to be cheaply made.
“I would expect this Bible to be maybe $15 to $20 tops,” Wildsmith said. “It disappoints me that it’s even out there, and it disappoints me that people are making money off of this. … This feels more like a money grab than anything else.”
Right. Of course it’s a money grab. That’s an accurate assessment of everything Trump does. He would sell off the country’s national parks if he thought the money would go directly into his pocket. And yet conservative Christians, by and large, don’t give a damn that he’ll use their religion to enrich himself in every way except spiritually.
(Portions of this article were published earlier)
Endless grift after endless grift by Trump to enrich himself through the office of the Presidency. Rethuglikkkans are silent as the grave.
Where's all the GOP outrage that was on full display when they went after Jimmy Carter for having a peanut farm? They DEMANDED he give it up immediately and Carter did so.
No standard quite like a double standard.
Those who worship at the feet of Jabba the Hut are just begging to be fleeced