What does the motto mean?
Answer
The nation's trust and faith
Explanation
The national motto In God We Trust expresses the country's stated trust and faith in God. The phrase reflects a religious frame of reference common in American public language since the founding era and articulated specifically during the Civil War, when Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase received many letters arguing that the country's coins should acknowledge God during the national crisis.
The phrase was first used on the two-cent coin authorized by the Act of April 22, 1864, then extended by subsequent legislation to other coins and (after Public Law 84-140 of 1955) to paper currency. Public Law 84-851, signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on July 30, 1956, declared In God We Trust to be the national motto of the United States, codified at 36 U.S.C. section 302.
The wording is intentionally general (the phrase mentions God without specifying any denomination, scripture, or theology) and has been treated by the federal courts as a form of ceremonial deism that does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The Supreme Court declined to grant certiorari in cases challenging the motto on currency in 1970 (Aronow v. United States) and again in later challenges. The phrase is sometimes paraphrased as the country's trust and faith in God, but its plain meaning is that the country, collectively, places its trust in a higher power and is not relying solely on its own resources.
The motto was chosen and made official in the early Cold War, when the United States sought to distinguish itself in public symbols from the officially atheist Soviet Union; the same period saw the addition of under God to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954. The motto coexists with the older E Pluribus Unum, which has appeared on the Great Seal since 1782 and continues to appear on most U.S. coins; the two function side by side on currency such as the quarter and the half dollar.
The motto's meaning is therefore both religious (an acknowledgment of God) and civic (a statement that the country does not rely solely on military or economic strength), and it is recited or invoked at congressional sessions, military funerals, presidential inaugurations, naturalization ceremonies, and many state and local government meetings.
Why this matters for your test
Understanding what the motto means lets applicants read the religious vocabulary that runs through American public life, from currency and federal buildings to public ceremonies. It also clarifies that the motto's wording is intentionally general and that its constitutional status has been settled by the courts.
Source: USCIS 128 Civics Questions (2025)
