Did President Trump swear on the Bible or not?

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Lois Ugbede

Claim: An X user claims that Trump did not put his hand on the Bible during his swearing-in.

Verdict: True. Our findings reveal that President Trump did not place his hand on the Bible while taking his oath of office.

Full Text

Following Donald Trump’s inaugural ceremony on Monday as the 47th president of the United States (US), an X user, juju (@ayeejuju), claimed that Mr Trump did not swear on the Bible.

The post’s caption reads, “Trump did NOT put his hand on the Bible while being sworn in.”

A review of the post’s comment section shows that many X users were interested in its veracity.

One user, Steve (@__stevej), questioned whether the hand on the Bible is legally required.

“Is the hand on the Bible legally required?” @__stevej inquired.

Another user, SUAREZ (@suayrez), said it was unnecessary since he had done it before. In his words, “Trump did it in 2016, so you only do it once.“

However, a user @AnimalMother70 believes the image is not real as he wrote, “Nice Photoshop.”

We also saw a version of this claim on Facebook with the same image shared by Ben Lown.

Another version of the claim by Steven P Rice reads, “For all of you so-called Christians… Trump didn’t swear on the Bible. Look where his hand is.”

Seeing the issues raised about this claim, DUBWA decided to verify its veracity.

Verification

We watched several clips from the Inauguration by First Post, PBS News Hour, and the White House and observed that President Trump did not place his hand on the Bible while taking the oath of office. We also observed that unlike Mr Trump, his vice, JD Vance, took his oath with his hand on the bible.

A keyword search led to news articles on the subject. A report by Reuters noted that this action, whether intentional or not, has no impact on his position as president.

Another CBS News report noted that while it is common for incoming presidents to place their hands on a Bible while taking the oath of office, it is not a legal requirement.

ABC News also re-echoed that placing the hand on the Bible is not a legal requirement.

We uploaded the image shared with the claim on AI (a tool that detects deepfake images and audio) and found it to be genuine, not photoshopped, as suggested by an X user in the comment section. We also found another version of the image used by CNN from Morry Gash.