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Editor’s note: The Miami Herald will be attending the Believer Summit on Friday. Check back for updates.
Donald Trump since taking office Narrowly dodged an assassin’s bullet At a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, some of his supporters conveyed a unified message: It was God who saved the former president’s life and blessed Trump with the White House.
That belief will be a central theme when Christian conservatives gather in West Palm Beach on Friday to watch Trump speak at the Believers Summit, a three-day event organized by the right-wing group Turning Point Operations. In announcing Trump’s appearance, the group’s founder, Charlie Kirk, touted a “renewed focus on God’s providence for America’s future.”
“It is clear to everyone who has paid attention and observed the events of the past few weeks that President Trump is here entirely by the grace of God. The President has acknowledged as much,” Kirk said in a statement this week. “Our country came very close to unimaginable turmoil and chaos. But we were spared.”
The call was echoed across conservative political circles — from state legislators and members of Congress to religious leaders and activists.
Minutes after the assassination attempt this month, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio Claiming “God bless President Trump.” U.S. Senator Ted Cruz said in a speech at the Republican National Convention last week that he was “thankful that God protected President Trump and turned him back when the shooting happened on Saturday.”
Trump, whose right ear was injured in the shooting, has tended to believe that he was saved by divine intervention. Accepting the Republican presidential nomination in Milwaukee Last week, he recounted his experience during the shooting, saying “there was blood everywhere, but in a way, I felt very safe because God was with me.”
“It is only by the grace of Almighty God that I stand before you,” he said, to cheers. “Many say it was providence. It may well be so.”
A 50-year-old firefighter was attending the rally and was killed in the shooting, and two other spectators were injured.
Conservative Republicans have long believed that God was behind their cause, but news of Trump’s brush with death has taken it a step further, with some conservatives believing that God not only saved the former president but also hailed him as the savior of a country plagued by secularism and moral decay.
“Certainly, religion and politics in this country have been intertwined since the beginning,” said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida. “But I think the religious right is more deeply involved in politics now than at any time since the Reagan era. (Trump) encourages them, and he unites them in a very effective way.”
Trump has spent much of his life in the public eye as a businessman and celebrity rather than a devout religious conservative. Before entering the political arena nearly a decade ago, the billionaire real estate mogul was widely known as a wealthy playboy who married three times, had multiple extramarital affairs and expressed moderate views on controversial issues such as abortion rights.
His decision in 2016 to name Mike Pence, a prominent evangelical Christian, as his running mate was intended, at least in part, to assuage concerns among some religious conservatives about Trump’s candidacy. Since then, he has frequently courted religious conservatives. He has built relationships with evangelical leaders and given speeches to congregations in churches, such as King Jesus in Miami, and became the first sitting president to attend the anti-abortion March for Life in Washington, D.C.
Now, Jewett added, “some people think he’s destined to lead the country, and he’s cultivating that image for himself.”
“[Christian conservatives]have come around to accepting an imperfect leader or messenger who is willing to push for the policies they want,” Jewett said. “I mean, the most obvious example of that is overturning Roe v. Wade, and the religious right is giving him so much credit for that.”
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