Cardinal Timothy Dolan will lead the opening prayer at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, the archbishop of New York said during an interview with New York’s WPIX on December 24, 2024. 

“The president was kind enough to ask me to do the opening prayer,” Cardinal Dolan said in the interview. “He had asked me to do the one in 2016 too, so [when] he asked me this time, I said, ‘Well I did it eight years ago; I hope this one works.’”

Cardinal Dolan said the opening prayer during President Trump’s 2017 inauguration, when he read King Solomon’s prayer from the Book of Wisdom.

“Give us wisdom, for we are your servants, weak and short-lived, lacking in comprehension of judgment and of laws. Indeed, though one might be perfect among mortals, if wisdom which comes from you be lacking, we count for nothing,” Dolan prayed in 2017. 

Cardinal Dolan said in the interview that he had discussed matters of faith with President-elect Trump.

“Something mystical happened in the two assassination attempts,” Cardinal Dolan said that President-elect Trump had told him, referring to incidents at a July 13 campaign rally in Pennsylvania and another that took place in Florida in September.

Trump is holding an interfaith service on Sunday, January 19, one day before the inauguration.