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- In his new book, Mark Meadows fondly described Trump’s infamous Bible photo op.
- The walk to the church “was a perfect metaphor for President Trump’s career in politics thus far,” he wrote.
- He portrayed Trump as having restored order amid the chaos of racial justice protests in summer 2020.
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Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows wrote that he was “never prouder to be serving under President [Donald] Trump than I was walking with him across Pennsylvania Avenue” to St. John’s Episcopal Church for his infamous Bible photo-op on June 1.
Meadows shared his experiences in the Trump White House in his new book, “The Chief’s Chief,” which hit shelves on Tuesday.
The police killing of George Floyd in May 2020 in Minneapolis prompted anti-racism demonstrations across the United States. In Washington, DC, the basement of St. John’s church on Lafayette Square, which is across from the White House, was set on fire, damaging the building.
Ivanka Trump suggested that her father stage the photo-op after getting “messages of disgust from people all over the country who were outraged at what had happened to St. John’s Church,” according to Meadows.
“As I watched President Trump listening to his daughter, I could tell he loved the idea,” Meadows wrote. “Having just come back from my own daughter’s wedding, I knew that they enjoyed a unique bond that went far beyond words.”
The original plan, according to Meadows, was to make an address in the Rose Garden before leading a “group of his closest aides and advisors” over to the church, where Trump would deliver an unannounced address. This plan was ultimately nixed because the church was boarded up, Meadows added.
Meadows also detailed a scramble within the White House for a Bible for Trump to hold up at the church.
“Somehow, word got out to the whole West Wing that we were looking for a copy of the Good Book,” he wrote. “In about two minutes flat, we had a big stack of Bibles.”
Trump ultimately picked a Bible from the stack, and was “less focused on the look of the Bible than the way it felt in his hands,” according to Meadows.
Meadows also wrote admiringly about what went on to become an infamous photo op, and took place immediately after Secret Service and US Park Police used tear gas and other forceful methods to remove largely peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square.
At the time it appeared as though the park was cleared specifically for the photo op, but a 2021 inspector general report found that the clearing of the park had been planned ahead of time and wasn’t related to Trump’s foray to the church.
“As I walked behind him, I thought that our walk from the White House was a perfect metaphor for President Trump’s career in politics thus far,” Meadows wrote. “He knew that there were millions of people in the United States who wanted something from him. He knew this because, unlike any other person who had ever held the office, he was willing to listen to them.”
In Meadows’ telling, Trump was demonstrating to the US that “law and order was restored.”
“I doubt that we could have stopped him from walking to the church that afternoon with ten military tanks,” he wrote. “I was never prouder to be serving under President Trump than I was walking with him across Pennsylvania Avenue to declare once and for all that in the United States of America, we would not stand for the degradation of our heritage or the burning of churches.”
Meadows went on to write: “President Trump said little. He knew that the image of the president of the United States standing in front of a church that was attacked the night before was powerful enough.”
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