In the days following assassination attempt on Donald Trump, Republican lawmakers and right-wing media pundits have ramped up the religious rhetoric when speaking about the former president’s narrow brush with death. While prayers and well-wishes were to be expected, conservatives’ insistence that Trump survived the attempt on his life by divine intervention, just so that he could be reelected, crosses the line into cult territory.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a known Christian nationalist, took to X (formerly Twitter) Sunday to share his theory that “GOD protected President Trump,” during the chaotic shooting, which killed one rally-goer and injured two others. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, whose hopes of being named vice president on Monday were reportedly dashed, expressed a similar sentiment. But these comments only skimmed the surface of Republican reactions.
“God spared our great leader Donald J. Trump,” said Representative Mary Miller Monday during a breakfast with the Illinois delegation to the Republican National Convention, according to the Chicago Sun Times.
During a prayer at that same event, Demetra DeMonte, the Republican National Committeewoman for Illinois, reportedly said, “Thank you for sparing Donald Trump… surely you sent an angel.”
Fox News hosts Emily Compagno and Kayleigh McEnany also argued Monday that the failed assassination attempt against their Republican candidate was proof of God’s guiding hand in the universe.
“And there by the grace of God, President Trump is still standing there before us,” Compagno said, calling the former president’s subtle head movement “a miracle at a minimum.”
“It is a miracle,” McEnany agreed. “Providence comes to mind, you know. He clearly had Christ protecting him in that moment.”
On Newsmax, anchors Bianca de la Garza and Larry Elder discussed the belief that Trump had survived due to divine intervention.
“Speaking of divine intervention, the greatest football catch in NFL history is called the Immaculate Reception. I call this the immaculate protection,” Elder said. “Just a fraction of an inch. He could’ve been hit in the head.”
But Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick might take the cake for most over-the-top cultism.
Patrick took to X to share a text he sent to Trump shortly after the attempt on the former president’s life.
“By the slightest turn of your head in a mere microsecond or the shield of a teleprompter, your life was spared by the Grace of a Merciful and Holy God,” Patrick wrote. “I shared with you not long ago, on our flight to Houston, that God has had his hand on you since you first ran for President. That I believe. No man could survive all you have been through without the Grace of God upon you.”
“The Bible verse ‘And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?’ appears in the book of Esther 4:14,” Patrick wrote. “Praise God your life was spared ‘For such a time as this.’”
The religious fervor for Trump was quick to spread online, as some people claimed to spot a spiritual sign hanging above Trump’s rally before the former president had even mounted the stage: a flag that got twisted looked kind of like an angel.
