A far-right Christian Trump supporter who's also the Superintendent for Oklahoma Public Schools is mandating that The Bible be taught in all of the state's schools.
Ryan Walters is using taxpayers to buy 55,000 Bibles to distribute to Oklahoma public schools. But he has some very narrow specifications for which version of the Bible it can be.
Bids opened Monday for a contract to supply the schools, but few can meet the specs: the Bibles "must be the King James Version; must contain the Old and New Testaments; must include copies of the Pledge of Allegiance, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights; and must be bound in leather or leather-like material."
What he's mandating is the Trump Bible, which was just one of the many MAGA grifts to pay off Donald's massive legal fees.
Also known as the Lee Greenwood "God Bless the U.S.A. Bible," Trump gets a share of sales for having his signature stamped on every copy. This means the people of Oklahoma are paying taxes to enrich a guy who doesn't pay his.
Each Trump Bible costs $60 each. Paperback versions of the standard King James Bible can be purchased online for as little as $2.99, but you can also download it for free if you're so inclined.
Former Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson told The Oklahoman that Walters' request for proposals from other Bible distribution companies might violate state law.
“It appears to me that this bid is anything but competitive,” Edmondson said. “It adds to the basic specification other requirements that have nothing to do with the text. The special binding and inclusion of government documents will exclude almost all bidders. If the bid specs exclude most bidders unnecessarily, I could consider that a violation.”