WASHINGTON (RNS) — The second inauguration of President Donald Trump was a faith-filled affair on Monday (Jan. 20), as the former president marked his return to the White House with religious services and prayers from a range of faith leaders, albeit with one notable absence.
“The golden age of America begins right now,” Trump said during his inaugural address, which was delivered inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda instead of outside due to cold temperatures. “From this day forward our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world.”
Trump also recalled the assassination attempt on his life during the campaign.
“I felt then, and I believe even more so now, that my life was saved by God to make America great again,” Trump said.
He later added that his administration “will not forget our country, we will not forget our Constitution and we will not forget our God.” Trump insisted the U.S. will be respected and admired again under his leadership, “including by people of religion, faith and good will.”
The inauguration featured a series of prayers, beginning with an invocation from two faith leaders who prayed at Trump’s last inauguration: Cardinal Timothy Dolan, head of the Archdiocese of New York, joined the Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham and head of Samaritan’s Purse, in offering the invocation.
Dolan, who submits his retirement to the Vatican next month, called on God to offer Trump wisdom, saying, “We blessed citizens of this one nation under God, humbled by our claim ‘in God we trust,’ gather on this Inauguration Day to pray.”
The Rev. Franklin Graham speaks during the inauguration of President Donald Trump in the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (Video screen grab)
Graham began his remarks by addressing Trump directly, saying, “Mr. President, the last four years, there are times I’m sure you thought it was pretty dark, but look what God has done.” The line sparked applause.
Graham then offered a prayer thanking God for aiding Trump, saying, “When Donald Trump’s enemies thought he was down and out, you and you alone saved his life and raised him up with strength and power.”
Shortly thereafter, Trump was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts. The first lady held up two Bibles, a family Bible and the one used by President Abraham Lincoln at his 1861 inauguration, although Trump did not appear to place his hand on them. Then the band broke out into the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” whose refrain declares, “Glory, glory, hallelujah! His truth is marching on.”
After Trump’s remarks, the benediction was offered by three different religious leaders: Rabbi Ari Berman, President of Yeshiva University; Pastor Lorenzo Sewell of 180 church in Detroit; and the Rev. Frank Mann, a priest in the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Missing was Imam Husham Al-Husainy, who leads the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center in Dearborn, Michigan, a city with a large Muslim American and Arab American presence. Al-Husainy, who expressed support for Trump during the campaign before the president went on to win an unexpected victory in Dearborn, was originally announced as one of the faith leaders who would be part of the benediction but was not introduced during the proceedings. The reason for his absence was not immediately clear, and Al-Husainy could not be reached for comment.
In his prayer, Berman referenced the prophet Jeremiah, recalling his blessing for Jerusalem: “Blessed is the one who trusts in God.”
“America is called to greatness, to be a beacon of light and a mover of history,” he said. “May our nation merit the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s blessing, that like a tree planted by water, we shall not cease to bear fruit.”
He was followed by Sewell, who thanked God for calling Trump “for such a time as this, that America would begin to dream again,” before he began to recite pieces of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, a nod to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which coincided with Trump’s inauguration.
Finally, the Rev. Frank Mann — a priest in the diocese of Brooklyn — asked God to “inspire our new leaders to be champions for the vulnerable and advocates for those whose voices are often silenced.”
Mann closed out his prayer with a quote from Trump, referencing a line the president used on the campaign trail: “Americans kneel to God and to God alone.”
Trump and the faith leaders spoke while flanked by Vice President JD Vance, members of the Trump family and a group of tech CEOs: Elon Musk, head of SpaceX and the X social media platform; Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, which owns Facebook; Tim Cook, CEO of Apple; Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon; and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google. Seated behind them were Trump’s various cabinet nominees, such as Fox News host Pete Hegseth, an evangelical Christian and the president’s pick to run the Department of Defense.
All living former presidents were in attendance, along with the former first ladies, with the exception of Michelle Obama, who in her 2024 Democratic National Convention speech sought to juxtapose Trump against values she held dear, such as “do unto others” and “love thy neighbor.”
President-elect Donald Trump talks with Vice President-elect JD Vance and Usha Vance as he arrives for a service at St. John’s Church, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, ahead of the 60th Presidential Inauguration. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Earlier that morning, Trump, who won a second term in November over former Vice President Kamala Harris after being defeated by former President Joe Biden in 2020, began his day with a service at St. John’s Church, Lafayette Square. The Episcopal church, which sits near the White House and is sometimes referred to as the “church of the presidents,” traditionally hosts a service on Inauguration Day for incoming presidents, as it did for Trump on the morning of his first inauguration in 2017.
After being greeted by the Rev. Robert Fisher, the church’s rector, Trump, who was raised Presbyterian but began identifying as a nondenominational Christian in 2020, took his seat in the front pew.
The service included participants associated with Trump and Vance, such as the Rev. Jack Graham, the pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, who has long supported Trump. Graham read a passage from the book of Proverbs — namely, Proverbs 3:5-8, 13-18. In addition, Fr. Henry Stephan from the University of Notre Dame — a Dominican priest whom Vance credits with helping him convert to Catholicism — read 1 Peter 4:10-11, and Alveda C. King, founder of Alveda King Ministries, read Galatians 3:25-29.
The service also included a brief benediction from Fisher, in which he called on God to guide Trump and Vance before invoking Micah 6:8.
“May they, and we all, heed the words of Micah who proclaimed that, ‘What the Lord asks of us is to Do justice, Love mercy, And walk humbly with our God,’” Fisher said, according to an email exchange with Religion News Service.
Fisher also noted in the email that he had final say over which prayers and Scripture readings were selected for the service, and his goal was to choose things that were “unifying, elevating, and nonpartisan.”
Hymns and songs sung at the gathering included “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” “This Little Light of Mine,” “My Country, ’Tis of Thee” and “America the Beautiful.”
During the service, Trump sat next to his wife, as well as Vance, who is Catholic, and second lady Usha Vance, who was raised Hindu. Members of the extended Trump family sat nearby, prominent podcaster Joe Rogan was seen across the aisle, and Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, sat behind the first family.
In addition, a trio of tech titans who voiced various levels of support for Trump after his victory in November — Zuckerberg, Cook and Bezos — were spotted sitting alongside each other in the pews. Pichai sat behind them.
Musk was not spotted in photographs of the service, despite attending the inauguration later. Musk, an enthusiastic supporter of Trump who spoke at his victory rally in Washington on Sunday night, was raised Anglican and now identifies as a “cultural Christian.”
Unlike 2017, when Texas Pastor Robert Jeffress preached a sermon during the service voicing support for a border wall, this year the church chose to nix a homily altogether. Fisher said in a message to church members, this change was an attempt to return the service to its “original, simpler nature.”
After the service, Trump joined Biden at the White House for tea — a traditional ritual in the transfer of power that did not occur in 2021, after supporters of Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
Trump will attend another interfaith prayer service tomorrow at the Washington National Cathedral, which will feature a sermon from the Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, who has been critical of Trump in the past.
Trump’s inauguration coincided with MLK Day, a federal holiday. Some of Trump’s longtime religious critics used the moment as an opportunity to both celebrate King’s legacy and voice pushback to Trump.
In Atlanta, at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King once preached, the Rev. William Barber II, a pastor and activist who preached at Biden’s inaugural prayer service, described a “schizophrenic America” that waffles between different ideals.
“In this moment we must remember whose we are and who we are,” Barber said. “We are not of those who shrink back into destruction.”
Referencing the inauguration, Barber rejected claims by Trump and his allies that the president won a “mandate” in the November election, arguing instead that “you never win a mandate to violate justice. You never win a mandate to hurt people with your power.”
Barber added: “We come today to remember Dr. King but more so to commit ourselves to the spirit, to the commitment … that every day we’ve got life in our bodies, to tell America who she is supposed to be.”