What is the official national motto of the United States?

“In God We Trust” is the official national motto of the United States.

Congress recognized the phrase as the national motto in 1956, during the Cold War. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the law that changed the official motto from the earlier traditional phrase “E pluribus unum,” which means “Out of many, one.”

The wording had appeared on United States coins before 1956. Congress authorized its use on coins during the Civil War, and the phrase first appeared on a U.S. coin in 1864. Its use later expanded to paper currency, including Federal Reserve notes.

The motto should not be confused with the Pledge of Allegiance, whose wording includes “under God,” or with “E pluribus unum,” which remains a traditional national phrase and appears on the Great Seal. The motto’s adoption reflects a mid-twentieth-century policy decision, while its earlier coinage history reaches back to the nineteenth century.