All week, Republican heavyweights pronounced that God had his hand on Trump, and that this miraculous, divine intervention saved not only Trump's life, but America itself. "GOD protected President Trump yesterday," House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) tweeted Sunday morning. He told right-wing broadcaster Ben Shapiro, "I think God's gonna give our nation another chance, and I think President Trump is gonna be the leader that does that."
For Trump supporters, Trump's survival is decisive proof God is on his side. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, who represents a south Florida district, tweeted a cartoon meme of an angelic hand deflecting a bullet from Trump's head. "Si Dios contigo, quin contra ti?" she wrote. (If God is with you, who can be against you?)
At the Republican National Convention, Trump loyalists lined up to declare a miracle had saved God's chosen one. "The devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle," Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said Monday night. "But the American lion got back up on his feet and he roared!" MAGA star Marjorie Taylor Greene added, "Two days ago, evil came for the man we admire and love so much. I thank God that his hand was on President Trump." Arkansas governor and former Trump White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, "God Almighty intervened, because America is one nation under God, and He is not done with President Trump."
Other Republicans were even more explicit about how the assassination attempt proves that Christians are locked in spiritual warfare against evil enemies. Tucker Carlson, whose floundering post-Fox career has been revitalized by his outsized presence at the RNC, told a Heritage Foundation gathering on Monday that the assassination attempt proved "there is a spiritual battle underway," and warned that forces that are "against Trump" are "hoping to eliminate" Christians, a statement amplified on the Christian Broadcasting Network.Trump campaign spokesperson Caroline Sunshine, appearing on Fox News on Tuesday, called the left "godless," and then cited Ephesians 6:11 and the need for Trump supporters to "put on the full armor of God." In her convention speech Wednesday night, Kimberly Guilfoyle, the fiance of Donald Trump Jr., proclaimed, "God has put an armor of protection on Donald Trump."
