A satirical “Bible” donation is triggering book challenges across the Sunshine State — all of them filed by the book’s own author.
South Florida-based activist Chaz Stevens is once again testing the limits of Florida’s school book laws, this time by donating, then formally challenging, his own work across all 67 School Districts.
This week, Stevens distributed a digital chapbook he co-wrote, “The Trump Bible,” licensing one e-book copy per enrolled student statewide. He then filed identical formal objections to the book under Florida Statute 1006.28, invoking the same review process used in recent years to remove or restrict controversial titles from school libraries.
The maneuver is designed to exploit what Stevens sees as a gap in state law: While lawmakers moved in 2024 to curb prolific challengers, they did not address whether authors can challenge their own material.
The original 2022 law (HB 1467) made it easier for residents to object to school materials, prompting a wave of challenges statewide. In response, lawmakers approved an update to the law in 2024, limiting individuals without children in a District to one challenge per month.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Office explicitly cited Stevens — who had filed numerous objections to books, including the Bible, dictionaries and thesauruses — as a reason for the change.
“The amendment was drafted to stop me from challenging books authored by others,” Stevens told Florida Politics this month.
“It was not drafted to address whether an author has standing to challenge the availability of his own work. I’m filing on author-standing grounds, a question the 2024 amendment did not resolve.”
A page from the ‘Trump Bible.’ Image via Chaz Stevens.
By donating his own book and then seeking its removal, Stevens is attempting to force School Districts — and potentially courts — to confront that unresolved question.
The book is intentionally provocative. Titled “The Trump Bible: History of the World Part I — The King Don Version,” the chapbook pairs biblical passages with episodes tied to President Donald Trump.
Each of its seven chapters references figures connected to Trump, including Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen, E. Jean Carroll, Ivanka Trump, Jeffrey Epstein and Stephen Miller.
Stevens said the project began as a parody after Trump shared an artificial intelligence-generated image online depicting himself as a Christ-like figure, prompting widespread backlash and a rare deletion by the President.
“The book is a parody making fun of the President of the United States, who posted a picture of himself putting his hands on the forehead of somebody as if he’s bringing them back to life,” Stevens said. “Then I thought, ‘I have some experience with the Bible. Let me create and donate this Bible to the schools and then try to reject it.’”
Artist and activist Chaz Stevens, a self-professed ‘constitutional stress-tester,’ has a well-documented history of challenging Florida strictures. Image via Chaz Stevens.
His broader argument hinges on consistency. Stevens previously challenged the presence of the traditional Bible in school libraries, including in Broward County, citing its references to bestiality, cannibalism, infanticide and rape, among other things.
Officials declined to remove it.
Now, he is asking whether districts will treat his satirical version differently, despite what he describes as similarly objectionable content.
“Should they allow my other Bible, which is just as obnoxious as the first Bible, to stand?” he said.
The book’s content appears crafted to trigger review under the same standards applied to other challenged works. In his challenge, Stevens points to passages that include sexually explicit satire, crude humor and references to minors and drug use — material, he argues, which meet thresholds that have led to scrutiny or removal of other books.
Among the cited examples: a fictional advertisement for a drink called “Consentivus Pedo Cola” with references to minors and drug use, a parody of a biblical rape story involving a transactional exchange with a sex worker, and a crude comedic scene adapted from Mel Brooks’ “History of the World, Part I” involving urination humor.
At least one District has responded. In an April 20 email, Lee County school officials told Stevens the book was not yet in circulation and would undergo review by a certified media specialist before being made available to students, in accordance with District policy and state law.
“This review must be completed before any resource is made available to students to ensure full compliance with Florida law,” wrote Megan DeRosso, the District’s Assistant Director of Core Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment.
Stevens responded with characteristic irreverence.
“My genuine and sincere thanks to you, and your colleagues, for taking our kids to the next level,” he wrote. “As to my book, it’s horrible … and deserves to be banned. What sort of idiot writes a book about Trump as God?”
Another page from the ‘Trump Bible.’ Image via Chaz Stevens.
Beyond the immediate legal question, Stevens said he wants to draw attention to what he sees as a looming issue: the use of artificial intelligence in evaluating or removing books.
He said he used AI tools to help refine his own writing, but worries similar technology could soon be deployed at scale across Florida and the U.S. to flag objectionable content in school libraries without proper context.
He pointed to recent reporting out of the United Kingdom, where AI-assisted reviews led to the removal of nearly 200 books from a school library in Manchester, including George Orwell’s “1984,” Nicholas Sparks’ “The Notebook” and Michelle Obama’s “Becoming.”
“AI is going to be the next Rubicon that we’re going to go with this,” Stevens said. “I just think I’m ahead of the curve drawing attention to this rule so that when the AI stuff comes — and it’s coming — that we’re back up to speed again. I am the canary in the coal mine.”
The book challenge campaign is only one part of a broader, coordinated effort. Stevens plans to release the full seven-chapter work on June 14, Trump’s birthday. Two days earlier, he intends to install a display dubbed the “Conservitus Pole: Erectivus Edition” inside the Wisconsin State Capitol rotunda under a government permit — a nod to his earlier “Festivus” pole protest that outraged GOP Florida lawmakers in 2015.
The display will include a bright neon heart reading, “Don + Jeff,” referring to Trump and Epstein, a former friend of the President’s.
Boca Raton lawyer Tommy Wright, who co-authored the “Trump Bible,” also worked on the “Conservitus Pole.”
“The book and the installation are two halves of the same birthday gift,” Stevens said.
