Over the decades, I have heard Presidents say, "God bless America" or "God bless the USA" but never have I heard a President end a speech asking for God to bless the whole world. I am sure that the speech was scripted but even so, this was a bold and perhaps very telling way to end a speech concerning a bombing prompted by the use of chemical weapons on innocent civilians and children. Looking up the oddity of Trump's wish for God to bless the whole world, I only found one article in Politico, written by Matthew Nussbaum, entitled: Trump Breaks Precedent by Blessing the Whole World. According to Nussbaum's article, asking for God's blessing on the USA began with Richard Nixon and became a common theme for Reagan and those that followed him.
Trump who campaigned on an "America First" theme would seem to be the last President one would expect to ask for God's blessings on the whole world but President Trump continues to surprise. In this instance, Trump's choice of words was on point with perhaps the most famous verse in the New Testament, John 3:16, which begins: "For God so loved the world".
God bless America and the whole world.
