Trump’s ‘God Bless the USA’ Bible Was Made in China
Donald Trump’s “God Bless the USA” Bibles were printed in China.
The Bibles — gussied-up editions of the King James Bible that include some of the nation’s founding documents and the lyrics of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” — have been heavily promoted by the Trump campaign, even as the former president attacks China as a threat to American jobs and manufacturing.
According to a Wednesday report from The Associated Press, the Bibles, which retail for $59.99, are being produced for less than $3 each by a printing company in Hangzhou, China. Import and export shipping records analyzed by the AP identified three separate shipments of Bibles with an estimated value of $342,000, suggesting $7 million in revenue off the grift.
Trump produced the Bibles in partnership with Greenwood and offers special editions including a signed copy that retails for $1,000, and a “The Day God Intervened” edition commemorating the assassination attempt against Trump in July. The website where the Bibles are sold claims no affiliation with Trump’s presidential campaign, only the use of his “name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC.”
According to financial disclosures reviewed by The Associated Press, Trump at one point received $300,000 in royalties from the sale of the Bible. The disclosures did not clarify what sales period the sum covered, or if additional payments have been made since.
For all the stylings of the Bible as a pro-America product, their production in China directly contradicts Trump and his campaign’s rhetoric on China. The former president has proposed levying a 60 percent or more tariff on Chinese goods and promised that his return to office would prompt a “mass exodus” of manufacturing from China to the United States.
During this month’s vice presidential debate, Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, lauded the former president for having “the wisdom and the courage” to bring back American manufacturing from China.
It’s hard to see how that would happen when Trump is hawking products made by his supposed trade adversary.
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