If there’s one thing Donald Trump can count on, it’s that MAGA cable channel Newsmax will feverishly boost whatever grift he’s currently peddling.
While the former president has faced widespread backlash and mockery for endorsing a $60 “God Bless the USA” Bible during Holy Week, the reportedly Qatari-funded network’s hosts have spent the past few days gushing over Trump’s cash grab and helping the presumptive GOP nominee sell his wares.
“This is beautiful, this is blessed,” cartoonishly MAGA host Greg Kelly bellowed on Wednesday night, adding: “I think this is fabulous. And I think this is the answer to a lot of our problems. And so does President Trump.”
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Amid a serious cash crunch from his various criminal and civil cases, Trump on Tuesday posted a video to his social-media site Truth Social urging supporters to shell out $59.99 (plus shipping and handling) for “the only Bible endorsed by President Trump.”
The “God Bless the USA” edition of the Bible, named after country singer Lee Greenwood’s famous song, comes with handwritten lyrics of the 1984 patriotic anthem along with copies of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. “It’s my favorite book,” Trump says in the infomercial while imploring his fans to “make America pray again.”
The book is sold through a website that claims Trump’s “name, likeness and image” are being used “under paid license” from CIC Ventures LLC—a company also attached to the $399 “Never Surrender” gold high tops Trump unveiled at Sneaker Con earlier this year. The principal address of CIC Ventures—essentially a financial pipeline to Trump—is the same as the ex-president’s golf course in Palm Beach, Florida. While his presidential campaign does not directly receive funds from the book sales, Trump is personally receiving royalties from the arrangement.
Needless to say, the shameless ploy for MAGA dollars hasn’t been well-received outside of right-wing media—to the point where Fox News has virtually ignored it. Outside of a middling joke on Greg Gutfeld’s show on Wednesday night, the conservative cable giant has stayed away.
Newsmax, however, has gone all-in on the Trump Bible.
“A really beautiful keepsake,” Newsmax host Bianca de la Garza declared at the end of her program Tuesday afternoon. “It’s not just the Bible. It has many beautiful things inside of it as well. And that is just one new venture there. Lee Greenwood, of course, a friend of the program here.”
De la Garza, who came to Newsmax in 2022 under a shroud of controversy, further fawned over the Trump-endorsed holy book on Wednesday and slammed its critics. “What would the founding fathers think of all of this?” she asked while invoking Abraham Lincoln, who was not among the founding fathers of the United States.
“So far, it appears no weapon formed against [Trump] has prospered. You see, I actually own this bible, the ‘God Bless the USA’ Bible. Not because of Trump, but because it was gifted to me by Lee himself,” de la Garza added, holding up a copy of the book. “It was quite beautiful.”
After saying she’d continue to “talk about Jesus” on her program, de la Garza concluded by grousing about the “unhinged narrative” from the left before exclaiming: “The gospel, the good news, triumphs over fake news.”
Elsewhere on the pro-Trump channel, Wake Up America host Charlotte McBride wondered “how these Bibles are gonna do” since “we saw how his golden sneakers flew off the shelves.”
And Newsmax pundit Dan Geltrude praised Trump for his “good timing” by launching this endeavor just days before Easter. “He’s an opportunist and perhaps the world’s greatest salesman, so it doesn’t surprise me. And if I had to predict, he’s probably gonna sell a lot of Bibles,” Geltrude added.
Even anchor Greta Van Susteren, often seen as the closest thing to a “centrist” host on Newsmax, gave Trump’s gaudy stunt some airtime. After airing the ex-president’s Truth Social video touting the book, Van Susteren told viewers, “You can get a ‘God Bless the USA’ Bible for $59.99.”
It was Kelly, though, who fully went the distance in spreading the gospel about Trump’s scripture. “Remember this? 2020. They thought it was the most horrendous thing they had ever seen—a president with a Bible in front of a church,” Kelly grumbled, referencing the then-president standing in front of St. John’s Church with the Bible after deploying police to clear out racial-justice protesters. “How dare he do something like that? Well, the same crowd has gotten a lot crazier now that Donald Trump has made available to people a Bible.”
Kelly aired the ex-president’s “fabulous” commercial before complaining about the mockery Trump has received over this gambit. “It’s kind of amazing that this is now considered radical speech,” he fumed. “This is controversial. People are accusing him of blasphemy. This is the furthest thing. This is beautiful, this is blessed.”
While Newsmax is transparently trying to boost the ex-president’s Bible sales, the right-wing cable channel hasn’t always been so direct with its efforts to get viewers to part with their cash.
The network, which only recently acknowledged it received a $50 million investment from the Qatari royal family (and softened its coverage of Qatar as a result), has previously aired lengthy advertorials disguised as news broadcasts and interviews. Partnering with disgraced former GOP congressman Tim Murphy on a “Christ Cure” book, for instance, Newsmax has used Murphy news segments as part of a scheme to sell the book alongside newsletters catered to its audience.
