Trump doesn’t place hand on Bible during swearing-in
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump did not place his hand on the Bible as he took the oath of office during his inauguration on Monday.
First lady Melania Trump stood next to the president holding two Bibles, but the 47th president of the United States didn’t place his hand on either as he raised his right hand to take the presidential oath, which Chief Justice John Roberts issued.
There is no legal requirement for the president to place his hand on the Bible. According to Article VI, Clause 3, of the U.S. Constitution, which covers oaths of office, members of Congress, state legislatures, and executive and judicial officers throughout the country are bound “by oath or affirmation” to support the Constitution.
“But,” it continues, “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
During his first inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017, Trump placed his right hand atop two Bibles held by the first lady as Roberts swore him in as the 45th president.
Trump took the oath of office on Monday immediately after Vice President JD Vance was sworn in by Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. As Vance took the oath of office, he placed his right hand on a Bible that was held by his wife, Usha Vance, as she also held one of their three children.
During his presidential campaign, Trump endorsed the “God Bless the USA Bible” that, according to its website, was “inspired by” country singer Lee Greenwood’s patriotic ballad.
“Happy Holy Week! Let’s Make America Pray Again. As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless the USA Bible,” Trump wrote at the time, directing his supporters to a website selling the Bibles for $59.99.
During his inauguration speech on Monday, Trump spoke of God protecting his life when he was shot in the ear in an assassination attempt at a July 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“Just a few months ago, in that beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear,” Trump said. “But I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.”
(MADISON, WI) — Democratic-backed Dane County Judge Susan Crawford will win the hot-button Supreme Court race in Wisconsin, The Associated Press projected Tuesday. The race was seen as a barometer on how Americans are feeling at this point in President Donald Trump’s second term
While the race is technically nonpartisan, it became the center of a political firestorm, as well as the target of millions spent by groups linked to tech billionaire and key Trump adviser Elon Musk, who supported Republican-backed Brad Schimel.
ABC affiliate WISN reported Tuesday evening that election officials in Milwaukee said there are ballot shortages at some polling sites in the city because of “historic turnout,” but that voters should stay in line and that staff are working on getting resources to the impacted polling places.
In a victory speech to supporters, Crawford acknowledged the immense attention and money that the race for control of the court attracted, particularly from Musk.
“I’ve got to tell you, as a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin, and we won,” she said. “So today, Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections, and our Supreme Court. And Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale.”
Schimel supporters shouted “No!” when he told them he had called Crawford to concede, but he said, “No, no, no, no, you’ve got to accept the results … I’m not up here making any joke. The numbers aren’t gonna turn around. They’re too bad and we’re not going to pull this off.”
Asked earlier Tuesday what it would mean if Musk’s efforts worked, Crawford said, “Well, I think it’ll be a sad day for democracy… but I’m pretty confident that voters are going to see through those tactics, and that we will have a successful day.”
Crawford and Schimel were vying to replace retiring Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, and her apparent victory will cement the court’s liberal leaning.
“This is playing out like a presidential-style election. You turn on your TV, any local broadcast station here across the state of Wisconsin, you are inundated with political-type ads for what is technically a nonpartisan judicial race, but this is a full-on political race … this is becoming a true litmus test for the first 100 days of the Trump administration,” Matt Smith, political director at Milwaukee’s ABC affiliate WISN-TV, told ABC News Live anchor Diane Macedo last week.
Independent voter Eric Sams voted for Trump in November but said he voted for Crawford on Tuesday.
“I believe that women’s rights are issues. Even Trump says it’s a state issue. If you’re going to make it a state issue, then our state needs to have access for women to be able to have access to reproductive rights,” Sams said.
Dwayne Heulse also voted for Trump, but said Tuesday the president’s endorsement of Schimel didn’t matter.
“I don’t care who Trump supports,” he said. “I will go after the guy who I think is the best, and that’s what I look at first. He can support the man on the moon, but I’m not going to vote for him unless I feel that this is a person who is going to meet the qualities I want, especially as a judge.”
Asked Tuesday about the national attention on the race, Schimel said, “If you told me six months ago that this was what was going to be happening, I I would not have believed it. But here we are, and you know, you just have to keep your head down. I’ve been running for Wisconsin voters, it’s been a — I’ve run a 72-county race.”
Crawford will join the bench as the court potentially grapples with key voter issues such as abortion access and redistricting. For example, there is a Wisconsin Supreme Court case regarding if the Wisconsin Constitution protects the right to an abortion, which the court might consider after the new justice is seated.
The race was also seen as a preview of how voters in the battleground state feel a few months into Trump’s second term — especially as Musk and his work with the federal government through the Department of Government Efficiency becomes a key issue given his groups’ investments in the race.
Musk continued to push the idea that the Wisconsin election matters because of how potential redistricting cases could impact the balance of power in the House of Representatives. He claimed to Fox News without offering proof that if the conservative candidate loses, Republicans could lose their majority in the House because Wisconsin’s congressional districts would be redrawn.
“Well, the reason tonight’s elections are so important is that the judge race will decide whether the Wisconsin district, districts get redrawn. They’re kind of trying to gerrymander Wisconsin to remove two Republican seats. And as you know, the — the House is currently Republican by a razor thin margin, which means that losing this judge race has good chance of causing Republicans to lose control of the House,” Musk said.
The justice elected won’t take office and order districts to be redrawn, however. The court could revisit congressional districts if the issue comes before the court in a case.
“That is why it is so significant, and whichever party controls the House, to a significant degree, controls the country which then steers the course of Western civilization,” Musk said at a high-profile town hall on Sunday in Green Bay.
On Sunday, the tech billionaire also controversially gave away two $1 million checks to attendees at a rally in his latest effort to support Schimel.
Schimel is a former state attorney general and a circuit court judge in Waukesha County. He received almost $20 million in support (such as spending for TV ads) as of Monday from groups linked to Musk, per a tally by the Brennan Center for Justice.
Schimel has also received endorsements from Trump, Musk, Donald Trump Jr., and other key conservative figures.
Schimel has welcomed the conservative support, yet said at a rally last week that he would treat any case fairly, including if it was a case brought by Trump.
However, Crawford and her allies have alleged he would not treat cases involving Trump or Musk fairly, and she made Musk a main target of her campaign.
Schimel, asked on Thursday by ABC affiliate WISN to share his closing argument ahead of the final days in the race, said, “My closing argument is that people need to take this race seriously. So much is at stake. We have to restore objectivity to this court right now … We have to put the court back in its proper role where it’s not making the law. It’s not going through a political agenda. It is applying the law the way the legislature writes it, to the facts of the case.”
Crawford is a Dane County circuit court judge and a former private attorney. At points, she represented Democratic-aligned groups such as Planned Parenthood, an organization supporting abortion access.
Major liberal donors such as Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Democratic donor George Soros have given money to the Wisconsin Democratic Party, and the state party has donated $2 million to Crawford. The national Democratic Party has also invested in the race. She also has the endorsements of former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Crawford told WISN that her closing argument was about an impartial court: “It’s about making sure that we have a Supreme Court that is fair and impartial in interpreting our laws to protect the rights of Wisconsinites. The other choice is an extreme partisan, someone who is selling out to special interests, has a long history of doing that, and has now tied himself to Elon Musk.”
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, as of Monday, more than $90 million has been spent in the race — making it the most expensive judicial election in the nation’s history. That amount includes more than $49 million spent by Schimel or groups supporting him, and more than $40 million spent by Crawford or groups supporting her.
The nonprofit says that the previous record for spending in a state supreme court race was in Wisconsin’s 2023 state supreme court election, when $56 million was spent.
Voters took notice. One Wisconsinite who voted early told WISN, “There’s a lot of outside money coming in, in our state. And I wanted to make sure that my voice is being represented and not other people.”
As of Monday, around 644,000 people in Wisconsin had voted early in person or by mail, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
The Associated Press also projected that the ballot initiative enshrining a requirement to have a photo ID to vote into Wisconsin’s state constitution will pass.
A photo ID is already required by state law to vote in Wisconsin; enshrining it into the state constitution will not establish new requirements, but will likely make it harder to undo the law.
Democratic groups and voting rights organizations criticized the ballot initiative as potentially disenfranchising voters. Supporters of the initiative argue it will strengthen election security in Wisconsin and cement a requirement that has already been in place.
A Marquette University Law School poll taken in late February also found that a majority of registered voters in Wisconsin support photo ID for voting, and separately, a majority of registered voters in Wisconsin said they would support the ballot initiative.
ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Ben Siegel, Will Steakin, Averi Harper, Hannah Demissie, Katherine Faulders and Nicholas Kerr contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Months after she was announced to be President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Education, Linda McMahon is on the hot seat in Capitol Hill Thursday as she faces senators over the future of the agency, which the president has vowed to kill.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee is holding its hearing to grill McMahon, a businesswoman with close ties to Trump who has no teaching experience.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Department of Education has been mismanaged and has damaged education, calling it a “con job” during a news conference Wednesday. The president is expected to sign an executive order directing McMahon to submit a proposal for diminishing the department, and then the president said she should “put herself out of a job,” even though such an action would require an act of Congress.
Democratic senators have said they intend to scrutinize the nomination based on 76-year-old McMahon’s lack of experience in public education.
McMahon was interrupted by protesters during her opening statement where she defended her nomination and pushed for more school choice.
“If confirmed I will work with Congress to reorientate,” she said.
McMahon confirms that only Congress can shut down DOE
At an executive order signing event last week, President Trump said, “I told Linda, ‘Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job.’”
“I want her to put herself out of a job,” Trump added.
The president has maintained that states should have control over their schools.
However, abolishing the agency can only be done if Congress passes legislation to eliminate it. Experts say it is illegal to dismantle the department without congressional authorization, which would require 60 Senate votes in favor of doing so.
HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La., and ranking member Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., both pressed McMahon on whether she believes dismantling the agency can be done without Congress. McMahon responded that only Congress would be able to do so.
“The it is set up by the United States Congress, and we work with Congress. It clearly cannot be shut down without it,” McMahon told Sanders.
However, she told Cassidy she was “all for the president’s mission of returning education back to the states” and that the states would still receive federal funding.
“We want to be working with Congress. We’d like to do this right. We’d like to make sure that we are presenting a plan that I think our senators can get onboard with and our Congress would get on board with that would have a better-functioning Department of Education. But it certainly requires congressional action,” McMahon said.
McMahon’s journey from WWE matriarch to DOE nominee
McMahon co-founded World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and is also the company’s former president and CEO.
Trump said he chose McMahon for being a “fierce advocate” for parental rights in education who will fight “tirelessly” to expand school choice and “spearhead” his effort to send education decisions back to the states, according to the president’s official nomination statement. The president also praised McMahon’s leadership and “deep understanding” of both education and business.
McMahon’s personal financial wealth is unclear but she reported owning assets that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars and which could potentially surpass $1 billion. The Trump loyalist was co-chair of his presidential transition team and is a long-time donor who has given tens of millions of dollars to support pro-Trump causes.
McMahon previously worked in the first Trump administration as head of the Small Business Administration (SBA). She had previously made two unsuccessful bids for U.S. Senate when she ran against current Senate Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy in 2010 and 2012, respectively. She is also Chair of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) board but will leave that position if confirmed as U.S. Secretary of Education.
McMahon has advocated for apprenticeship and workforce training programs, school choice and parental rights. Although she is not currently an educator she received her teaching certification from East Carolina University and sat on the Connecticut state board of education before her first unsuccessful senate bid. She has also served two stints on the Board of Trustees at Connecticut’s Sacred Heart University, where she is currently the treasurer.
McMahon’s scandals cast shadow over nomination
Meanwhile, McMahon’s years as a wrestling executive came with their share of alleged scandals, which has brought her experience with young people under scrutiny.
A 2024 lawsuit brought by five plaintiffs – John Does who served as the WWE ringside crew when they were teens – accused her and her husband, Vince McMahon, of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse by an announcer and executives at the company. If confirmed by the Senate, McMahon would be tasked with overseeing sexual misconduct investigations within education programs.
The McMahons have denied the claims.
Laura Brevetti, Linda McMahon’s attorney, told ABC News that the FBI investigated the decades-old allegations at the time and found no grounds to further investigate them, calling the lawsuit “baseless.”
McMahon’s allies believe she will be an agent of change, a disrupter, and the dismantler that the Department of Education needs. Skeptics also claimed that the federal agency spends too much on education without adequate academic results.
But many in the education community fear that if McMahon helps Trump abolish the agency, it could adversely impact the millions of students who rely on critical programs overseen by the department that are intended to help vulnerable students succeed, like Title I funding for students from low-income communities.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House said Monday a Signal group chat discussing a U.S. attack on Houthis in Yemen that inadvertently included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, “appears to be authentic.”
Members of the Trump administration coordinated highly sensitive war plans on an unsecure group chat, Goldberg wrote in a report for the publication on Monday.
White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes shared with ABC News the statement he provided The Atlantic confirming the veracity of a Signal group chat, which Goldberg said included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others.
“At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain. The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to our servicemembers or our national security,” Hughes said in the statement.
Asked about the incident, President Donald Trump said he “doesn’t know anything about it,” and later added that he was hearing about it for the first time from the reporter who asked the question.
The Pentagon referred questions about Hegseth’s participation in the Signal discussion and the sharing of attack plans to the National Security Council and the White House.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce was asked about the Atlantic’s report — including why members of the Cabinet were having a classified conversation over Signal and whether Rubio was concerned about the implications of the incident.
“Well, I have two very short things to say to you: First is that we will not comment on the secretary’s deliberative conversations, and secondly, that you should contact the White House,” Bruce responded.
Democratic Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement, “The carelessness shown by President Trump’s cabinet is stunning and dangerous.”
“If true, this story represents one of the most egregious failures of operational security and common sense I have ever seen,” Reed said. “Military operations need to be handled with utmost discretion, using approved, secure lines of communication, because American lives are on the line.”
Other congressional Democrats expressed incredulity and called for investigations.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer urged Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Republicans to work with Democrats on a “full investigation” into the incident.
“Mr. President, this is one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence I have read about in a very, very long time,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “This kind of carelessness is how people get killed. It’s how our enemies can take advantage of us. It’s how our national security falls into danger.”
Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel, posted on X: Pete Hegseth, the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in history, is demonstrating his incompetence by literally leaking classified war plans in the group chat…Hegseth and Trump are making our country less safe.”
Delaware Sen. Chris Coons said the participants in the chat had “committed a crime — even if accidentally” and added, “We can’t trust anyone in this dangerous administration to keep Americans safe.”
Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego called the episode “Amateur hour.”
“These are the genuises [sic] that are also selling out Ukraine and destroying our alliances all around the world,” he added. “No wonder Putin is embarrassing them at the negotiation table.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson downplayed the incident, saying, “The administration is addressing what happened, apparently, an inadvertent phone number made it onto that thread. They’re going to track that down and make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
Pushed if conducting such a discussion on on a third-party app was irresponsible, Johnson replied, “Look, I’m not going to characterize what happened. I think the administration has acknowledged it was a mistake, and they’ll tighten up and make sure it doesn’t happen again. I don’t know what else you can say.”
Johnson added he doesn’t believe Waltz or Hegseth should be disciplined.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who faced Republican criticism over her use of a private email server while at the State Department, wrote on X, “You have got to be kidding me.”
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez, Shannon K. Kingston, John Parkinson, Jay O’Brien and Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
