Vance to use Bible owned by his great-grandmother during inauguration

J.D. Vance speaks at a Middletown rally on July 22, 2024. NICK GRAHAM, STAFF

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

JD Vance speaks at a Middletown rally on July 22, 2024. NICK GRAHAM, STAFF

JD Vance will take his oath of office on the Bible that once belong to his great-grandmother.

The Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee announced the Bibles to be used for Vice President-elect Vance and President-elect Donald Trump for today’s 60th Presidential Inauguration.

Vance will be first to take the oath of office, which on Friday was announced the noon inauguration ceremony would move inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda due to freezing temperatures forecasted in the D.C. area. It’s projected to be 9 degrees as a low.

Trump’s second inaugural may be the coldest since President Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985 when it was 7 degrees. It was also moved inside.

The Vice President-elect will use a family Bible that belonged to his maternal great-grandmother. His “Mamaw” Bonnie presented it to him on Sept. 22, 2003, the day he left home for the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, South Carolina. The Bible is a King James Version published by Thomas Nelson and Sons, a New York publisher.

Trump will use two bibles. One will be his personal family Bible, given to him by his mother in 1955 after a Sunday school graduation at First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, New York.

He will also use the Lincoln Bible, which was first used on March 4, 1861, for President Abraham Lincoln’s swearing in ceremony. This burgundy velvet-bound bible had only been used three times since, by President Obama at each of his inaugurations and by President Trump at his first inauguration in 2017.

The Lincoln Bible is part of the collections at the Library of Congress.

Those who planned to watch the inauguration on the National Mall will be relocated to Capital One Arena, which is where the NBA’s Washington Wizards, NHL’s Washington Capitals and the NCAA’s Georgetown Hoyas men’s basketball team play home games. Trump said he would visit the crowd after he is sworn in to a second non-consecutive term.

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