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Japanese No. Donald Trump has never belonged to the Catholic Church. He was raised in a Presbyterian church in Queens, New York, and confirmed there as a boy, and in October 2020 he said he now considers himself a non-denominational Christian. His wife, Melania Trump, is the Catholic in the family.
His faith, as he tells it, began at home. He has said his parents “taught me the importance of faith and prayer from a young age.” When he finished Sunday school at that Presbyterian church in 1955, his mother gave him a Bible embossed with his name, and in January 2017 he laid his hand on it to take the presidential oath.
What church did Donald Trump grow up in?
Trump’s parents, Fred and Mary Anne Trump, were members of the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens. The choice of church appears to have followed his Scottish-born mother’s heritage; his father, who was of German descent, had been raised Lutheran. When Trump graduated from the church’s Sunday Church Primary School in 1955, his mother gave him a Bible embossed with his name. In January 2017 he took the presidential oath with his hand on that Bible and on the one Abraham Lincoln used in 1861.
He was confirmed at First Presbyterian in 1959. In Presbyterian churches, confirmation is the point at which someone baptized as a child professes faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and becomes an active member of the congregation, as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Book of Order describes it (W-4.0203). It is not a Catholic sacrament and does not make a person Catholic. When he mentioned the congregation during his 2015 campaign, the church confirmed to CNN that he had attended Sunday school and been confirmed there.
Was Trump a member of Marble Collegiate Church?
In the 1970s the family began attending Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, a congregation of the Reformed Church in America. Its pastor was Norman Vincent Peale, author of The Power of Positive Thinking, whom Trump has described as “my pastor” and “one of the great speakers I’ve seen.” Peale officiated at Trump’s first wedding, to Ivana Zelníčková, at Marble in 1977.
In August 2015, campaigning in South Carolina, Trump told reporters: “I am Presbyterian Protestant. I go to Marble Collegiate Church.” The church answered in a statement to CNN that he had “a longstanding history with Marble Collegiate Church, where his parents were for years active members and one of his children was baptized. However, as he indicates, he is a Presbyterian, and is not an active member of Marble.”
Why does Trump now call himself non-denominational?
Trump described himself as a Presbyterian through the 2016 campaign. In October 2020, answering written questions from Religion News Service, he gave a new answer: “Though I was confirmed at a Presbyterian church as a child, I now consider myself to be a non-denominational Christian.” He said his parents had “taught me the importance of faith and prayer from a young age,” that “Melania and I have gotten to visit some amazing churches and meet with great faith leaders from around the world,” and that during the COVID-19 outbreak he had “tuned into several virtual church services.”
A non-denominational Christian belongs to no particular church body, whether Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist or Catholic. Trump has not been known as a regular churchgoer. He has attended holiday services at Bethesda-by-the-Sea, an Episcopal church in Palm Beach, Florida, near his Mar-a-Lago home; he and Melania Knauss were married there in 2005. Since the early 2000s the preacher Paula White has acted as an unofficial pastor to Trump and his family, and in February 2025 he named her to lead the White House Faith Office.
Is Melania Trump Catholic?
Yes. On May 24, 2017, the Trumps met Pope Francis at the Vatican, and Melania Trump held out a rosary for the pope to bless. Afterward her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, confirmed that the first lady is Catholic.
Has Trump met the pope?
Yes. He met Pope Francis at the Vatican on May 24, 2017, with Melania Trump, and afterward told reporters: “He is something. We had a fantastic meeting.” He attended the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican on April 26, 2025. It is a long road from a Sunday school in Queens to the funeral of a pope, and it began with a mother putting a Bible into her son’s hands.
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