Trump does not touch Bibles during the inauguration

President Trump bucked tradition on Monday when he did not put his hand on the Bible while taking the oath of office during his second inauguration.

Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath and told Trump, who was walking toward him, to raise his right hand and repeat the words he was about to say.

Trump then raised his right hand, and as Roberts said, “I, Donald John Trump,” first lady Melania Trump was seen approaching with a stack of Bibles.

Instead of placing his left hand on the Bibles, he kept his hand at his side and continued to take the oath of office as his family filed in behind him.

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Melania Trump had two Bibles: one was Lincoln’s Bible and the other was her husband’s personal Bible given to him by his mother when he was a child. Trump laid his hand on these two Bibles when he took the oath of office in 2017.

Trump’s team did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment about why the president did not put his hand on the Bibles.

Vice President JD Vance placed his hand on the Bible as he took the oath.

Some people on social media said Roberts rushed the oath, while others seemed in disbelief that Trump didn’t put his hand on the Bibles, which is a tradition dating back to the president’s first inauguration George Washington.

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While it is traditional for the incoming president to place a hand on the Bible while taking the oath of office, there is nothing in the US Constitution that requires them to do so.

Indeed, presidents “shall be bound by oath or affirmation,” according to Article VI of the Constitution. The same article says, “…no test of religion shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust of the United States.”

Article II of the Constitution It also says that the president must take an oath before taking office, although religion is not discussed.

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The Constitution spells out the exact language to be used in the 34-word oath of office: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will do so to the best of my ability. , to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Many judges have applied four little words, “so help me God.” It is not legally or constitutionally required, unlike other federal oaths that invoke the words as standard procedure. Historians have disagreed about whether President Washington set a precedent by adding the phrase on his own during his first acceptance, but contemporary accounts make no mention of this type of ad-libbing.

Abraham Lincoln was reported to have said it spontaneously in 1861, and other presidents over the years have followed suit. A Bible is traditionally used, with the president placing one hand on it while raising the other during the oath of office.

The Constitution also does not require the president or members of Congress or federal judges to be sworn in by a Supreme Court justice, although they only do so for inaugurations, most of the time.

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When Washington took the first oath of office in 1789, the Supreme Court he hadn’t been trained yet, so New York’s highest-ranking judge did the honors at Federal Hall on Wall Street.

Four years later, Associate Justice William Cushing was sworn in to Washington for a second term, beginning a Supreme Court tradition.

Fox News’ Shannon Bream and Bill Mears contributed to this report.