On Presidents Day, Pray for President Trump

Would you be willing to leave a comfortable, lucrative career for a temporary position — where halfway through the assignment you need to reapply, knowing that all kinds of folks are vying for the job?

Along with the role, you get a free place to live in a not so safe neighborhood — but you have to pay for your own food.

It’s a 7 day a week position, you’re always on call, and people are constantly analyzing every word you write or say. In fact, more than half the people don’t like you, a large percentage seem to hate you — and then there are the people who want and even try to kill you.

As for the previous holders of the position — why did they leave the job? 

Well, in this case, one-third of them either died while employed or someone plotted, schemed or actually tried to kill them.

By now you’ve likely figured out that the job I’m referring to is the Office of President of the United States.

We celebrate them all today on this Presidents Day, and although you likely think some are more worth celebrating than others, all 45 men took on a tough job — and usually with the best of intentions.

Consider some of these numbers:

14 of these men served two terms or 8 years. One, Franklin Roosevelt, served three terms and three months of a fourth term. Four were killed while in office: Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy.

In recent years, the number of thwarted plots to kill the president makes your head spin and your heart hurt. As President Trump painfully discovered back when he was running for his current term in the summer of 2024, the presidency is a dangerous undertaking.

It would be good and appropriate on this Presidents Day of 2026 to hit the “pause” on the partisan button and acknowledge that the role of chief executive of the United States is a tough one – and we should be grateful for the people who were and are willing to serve in the Oval Office.

Between his first and current term, Donald Trump has served 1,853 days. Those days are long, difficult and often highly contentious. All the easy problems have been solved by the time they reach a president’s desk. As such, he needs and deserves our prayers.

For this very reason, Scripture commands that we lift up our leaders. Wrote the Apostle Paul, “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Tim. 2:1-2). 

If our leaders are pursuing good goals with good and selfless intentions, we do well when those leaders succeed.

Please also join in also praying for President Trump’s family.