Donald Trump has officially been sworn in as the 47th president inside the U.S. Capitol, taking charge as Republicans claim unified control of Washington and set out to reshape the country’s institutions.
This is the third time a president has been sworn in on the federal holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama also were sworn in for their second terms on the holiday.
The holiday honoring the civil rights leader was established nearly 40 years ago. It is observed on the third Monday of January every year.
The Constitution places Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
Klobuchar said the coincidence is “a further reminder we must strive to uphold the values in our Constitution.”
President Trump used his own Bible, which was given to him by his mother, and the Lincoln Bible for his swearing-in ceremony.
The Lincoln Bible was provided during Lincoln’s 1861 inauguration by William Thomas Carroll, clerk of the Supreme Court. That’s because Lincoln’s family Bible was still packed and on its way to Washington from Springfield, Illinois, along with the Lincoln family’s other belongings.
In 2017, Trump stacked a family Bible atop Lincoln’s while taking the oath. He’s set to do the same with his own Bible and Lincoln’s this time.
That recalls Barack Obama, who also used the Lincoln Bible during his first swearing-in in 2009. During his second in 2014, he paired it with a Bible that had belonged to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
