Conspiracy Theories Abound Because Trump Didn't Put His Hand On Bible While Taking Oath Of Office

Posted • January 20, 2025: Because Roberts started before everyone was ready, Trump ended up not placing his hand on the Bible. Of course, Jonathan Turley was quick to give his analysis and to call back to another time Chief Justice Roberts flubbed things with the oath of office: Jonathan Turley @JonathanTurley: “The Chief Justice moved a tad too quickly before Trump could put his hand on the bible. Roberts previously had an embarrassing moment with Obama. On this occasion, Roberts got the oath right but the timing was off. However, there is no need for a redo…” https://jonathanturley.org/2009/01/21/chief-roberts-grammatical-malfunction-does-the-oath-count/ -- In the strictest sense, Turley is right: Legally speaking, a do over is not necessary. Thus, you might notice that this says nothing about swearing on a Bible at all. Furthermore, the final words that Trump and Roberts said, ‘so help me God,’ is not in the oath, probably because the founders were open to the thought that an atheist might someday be president. Article VI specifically says that.

The other thing to note is that this oath isn’t technically required at all. Why? Because he already took the oath. The literal language of the Constitution doesn’t say that he must swear the oath before each term, only that he swear the oath sometime before he actually starts to be president—and that sometime could theoretically have been January 20, 2017 when he did it the first time. When Roberts flubbed Obama’s oath of office, Roberts came to White House and did the oath again, just to clear up any doubt. While we agree with Turley that there is no legal need to do so, we think its probably a good idea to have Trump do it again, hand on the bible, with Chief Justice Roberts, and post it on video, just to shut the crazies up. Yes, and we are already seeing conspiracy theories:

beefy_vibes🇺🇸 @realitybites555: “Why wasn’t President Trump’s hand over the Bible while he was taking his oath of office? Because Trump is not President of the Corporation of America, he is President of the Republic of America. He was already sworn in for that. His oath is not to the corporation.” -- Sorry, what? The first conspiracy theory of the new season of America. The last four seasons of the presidency were pretty terrible, and much like when Bo and Luke Duke were briefly replaced with Coy and Vance Duke during season 5 of the Dukes of Hazzard, America decided to bring a previous cast member back when ratings tanked. Hopefully, America will recover better than the TV show. (…)

• More at: Twitchy - Trump Didn't Put His Hand on the Bible While Taking the Oath of Office (And It's Legally Irrelevant)
https://twitchy.com/aaronwalker/2025/01/20/trump-didnt-put-his-hand-on-the-bible-and-its-legally-irrelevant-n2407011