An unusually reflective Trump suggests divine intervention in aftermath of rally shooting

By Kristen Holmes, Alayna Treene and Steve Contorno, CNN

(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump has responded to the assassination attempt against him in a manner unfamiliar to some of those around him: with a calm and seemingly methodic resolve.

Since being pulled off a Butler, Pennsylvania, stage bloodied and defiant by Secret Service agents, Trump has spent the past two days sharing his harrowing experience with close allies and advisers. In conversations both public and private, Trump has said he is lucky to be alive after Saturday’s rally.

To some, Trump has even suggested divine intervention spared his life.

“It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. “We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness.”

That sentiment is one Trump has truly internalized, according to some of those who have spoken to him in recent days, and one Trump, who is not an especially religious or spiritual man, has reiterated during the aftermath of Saturday’s traumatic event.

“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,” Trump said during an interview with the New York Post Sunday. “By luck or by God, many people are saying it’s by God, I’m still here.”

It’s a conviction that will certainly reinforce the messianic imagery of Trump long promoted by his most ardent supporters and the evangelical communities that have stood by him for years. Indeed, outside the venue Saturday, as rallygoers were evacuated, they passed a truck emblazoned with images of Trump seated in front of Jesus, whose hands rested on the former president’s shoulders.

“God Bless President Trump,” the billboard said.

Trump, who has long believed he could be a target of political violence, has responded to Saturday’s harrowing events by calling for the country to come together. In a series of interviews on Sunday with conservative media, Trump said he threw out the searing speech he intended to deliver when he accepts the Republican Party’s nomination at the convention in Milwaukee.

“The speech I was going to give was a real humdinger,” Trump told the Washington Examiner. “Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now.”

On Sunday, Trump wrote “Unite America!” on his Truth Social as he looked ahead to the convention. By Monday, though, Trump had expanded his definition of harmony to include dropping all of the legal cases against him.

“The Democrat Justice Department coordinated ALL of these Political Attacks, which are an Election Interference conspiracy against Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, ME,” Trump posted to Truth Social shortly after Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the federal case over Trump’s handling of classified documents.

The events of the weekend rattled Trump’s family and close advisers, some of whom have spent most days with the former president since he announced his campaign for reelection in late 2022.

In conversations with more than a dozen aides, allies and advisers, they described a campaign that remains resolved to march ahead, taking cues from their boss, who popped up after being injured in the rally shooting to thrust a fist in the air and yell, “Fight.”

“Everyone’s just feeling very grateful and very relieved that, whether it’s divine intervention or luck, or whatever it is, just super grateful,” one senior adviser said. “I mean, it could have turned out really, really bad.”

A person close to Trump said the family is feeling “spiritual, in a way” as they take stock of nearly losing their patriarch. In a Sunday Instagram, Eric Trump shared a picture of his mother and Trump’s ex-wife Ivana shaking hands with Ronald Reagan, who had also survived an assassination attempt while president in 1981.

“Two years ago today, we lost this incredible woman!” Eric Trump wrote. “I have no doubt she was watching down on my father last night – it was nothing short of divine intervention…”

Some of Trump’s children have made similar remarks in private tying the anniversary of their mother’s death to Trump avoiding disaster, the person said.

Saturday was not the first time Trump averted disaster since entering presidential politics a decade ago. In 2016, Secret Service agents sprinted to surround then-candidate Trump when a protester rushed the stage. At the end of that campaign, Trump was again whisked away by his secret service detail when authorities suspected someone in his audience was armed.

In his final year as president, Trump also battled a Covid-19 case that marked the most serious known health threat to a sitting American president in decades. Then, a visibly diminished Trump nevertheless defiantly said upon leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life,” even as he struggled to recover from a virus had killed tens of thousands of Americans, including his friend, Herman Cain.

None of those run-ins with disaster, though, elicited quite a response like the one from Trump in the past 48 hours.

CNN’s Alejandra Jaramillo and Kimberly Berryman contributed to this report.

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