Trump to speak at Florida summit for religious right amid talk of divine intervention

Editor’s note: The Miami Herald will be at the Believers’ Summit on Friday. Come back for updates.

In the days since Donald Trump narrowly dodged a would-be assassin’s bullet at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, a unifying message has emerged among some of his supporters: that it was God who saved the former president’s life – and, in turn, blessed Trump’s bid for the White House.

That belief is set to serve as a central theme when Christian conservatives gather in West Palm Beach on Friday to see Trump address the Believers’ Summit, a three-day gathering put on by the right-wing group Turning Point Action. In announcing Trump’s appearance at the conference, the group’s founder Charlie Kirk boasted of “a renewed focus on God’s providential hand on the future of America.”

“It’s clear to all who have watched and observed the events of the last few weeks that President Trump is only here by the Grace of Almighty God,” Kirk said in a statement this week. “The president acknowledges the same. Our nation was a quarter of an inch away from being thrown into unimaginable turmoil and chaos. But we have been spared that outcome.”

It’s a claim that has been echoed across conservative political circles — from state lawmakers and members of Congress to religious leaders and activists.

Within minutes of the attempted assassination this month, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio asserted that “God protected President Trump.” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz opened his speech at the Republican National Convention last week by “giving thanks to God Almighty for protecting President Trump and for turning his head on Saturday as the shot was fired.”

Trump, whose right ear was injured in the shooting, has himself leaned into the notion that he was saved by divine intervention. As he accepted the Republican presidential nomination in Milwaukee last week, he recounted his experience during the shooting, saying that “there was blood pouring everywhere, and yet in a certain way I felt very safe because I had God on my side.”

“I stand before you only by the grace of Almighty God,” he said to wild cheers. “Many people say it was a providential moment. It probably was.”

One rally attendee, a 50-year-old firefighter, was killed in the shooting, while two other spectators were wounded.

Conservative Republicans have long embraced the notion that their causes have the might of God behind them, but the messaging around Trump’s brush with death takes it a step further. Not only did God save the former president, some conservatives argue, but anointed him as the savior of a country plagued by secularism and moral decay.

“Certainly religion and politics in this country have been intertwined from the beginning,” said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida. “But I think the religious right is more involved in politics today than they have been at any point since the Reagan era. [Trump] has encouraged them, he’s rallied them in a way that’s really effective.”

For much of his life, Trump’s public persona has been that of a businessman and celebrity rather than of a devoutly religious conservative. Prior to arrival on the political stage nearly a decade ago, the billionaire real estate mogul was known more as a wealthy playboy who had been married three times, carried on numerous affairs and expressed moderate views on divisive issues like abortion rights.

His decision in 2016 to tap Mike Pence, a prominent evangelical Christian, as his running mate was intended, at least in part, to ease some religious conservatives’ concerns with Trump’s candidacy. Since then, he has frequently made overtures to religious conservatives. He built relationships with evangelical leaders, addressed congregations at churches like El Rey Jesús in Miami and became the first sitting president to attend the anti-abortion March for Life in Washington, D.C.

Now, Jewett added, “there are people who think he’s ordained to lead the country, and he cultivates that image for himself.”

“[Christian conservatives] have come around in the sense of accepting an imperfect leader or messenger, because he’s been willing to push the policies that they’re looking for,” Jewett said. “I mean, the most obvious example is the overturning of Roe v. Wade that he gets so much credit for among the religious right.”