It’s Holy Week, and President Donald Trump isn’t simply main the nation, he’s leaning onerous into the idea that he’s been chosen to take action.
With renewed religious fervor and a aptitude for providential drama, Trump has been weaving his private religion into the material of his presidency, particularly after surviving an assassination try final yr.
“I believe that my life was saved that day in Butler for a very good reason,” he declared throughout his deal with to a joint session of Congress final month. “I was saved by God to make America great again. I believe that.”
It’s a sentiment that’s turning into central to Trump’s second time period. On the Nationwide Prayer Breakfast in February, Trump mirrored extra personally: “It changed something in me, I feel. I feel even stronger. I believed in God, but I feel much more strongly about it.”
TRUMP ANNOUNCES PICKS FOR AMBASSADORSHIPS TO COMBAT ANTISEMITISM AND PROMOTE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Based on Trump, it wasn’t only a fortunate flip of the pinnacle — it was divine intervention. As he tells it, he regarded towards a chart at simply the fitting second.
“God did that. I mean, it had to be,” he stated.
Even Don Jr., Trump’s loyal son and searching fanatic, chimed in.
“He told me the chance of missing from that distance was like missing a one-foot putt. There had to be somebody that saved you, and I think I know who it is,” Don Jr. stated, “and he looked up.”
Trump usually credit his Presbyterian upbringing for instilling his early sense of morality, and, as he tells it, his future. On the 2024 Nationwide Religion Summit, he recalled attending Sunday faculty, watching Billy Graham crusades, and being raised by a religious Scottish mom and a “very strong” however “great-hearted” father.
President Donald Trump stands for a prayer throughout a swearing-in ceremony within the Oval Workplace on the White Home, March 28, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Photographs)
“I was blessed to be raised in a churched home… and that faith lives on in my heart every single day,” Trump added.
That basis, he argues, is vital not only for him personally, however for the soul of the nation.
Over the previous two years, Trump has repeatedly sounded the alarm over America’s religious decline.
In an August 2024 sit-down with Fox Information host Laura Ingraham, he stated bluntly: “One of the reasons that our country has lost, sort of, everything — it’s lost so much — is we don’t have religion to the same extent.”
Trump usually returns to the federal government’s function in the course of the pandemic as a flashpoint.
“People weren’t even allowed to meet outside… They’d arrest everybody. They were fascists. They were horrible,” he stated. “That was a very bad time for organized religion — but religion, you know, it gives you some hope. Gee, if I’m good, I’m going to heaven.”
On the 2023 Religion and Freedom Coalition occasion, he warned, “Religion is going down in terms of importance and popularity. This is not a question of popularity. We love God, and we want to protect ourselves. It keeps you sane. It keeps you honest. It keeps you good. It keeps you kind. It makes you help other people. And they’re trying to take that away from you.”
President Donald Trump prays throughout an ‘Evangelicals for Trump’ coalition launch occasion in Miami, Jan. 3, 2020. (Marco Bello/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs)
From the White Home podium to packed mega-church rallies, Trump has used his presidency to advocate for non secular liberty as a cornerstone of his management.
“As long as I’m president, no one is going to stop you from practicing your faith or from preaching what is in your heart,” he stated throughout his first time period in 2017 — and he has echoed that promise ever since.
“Faith inspires us to be better, to be stronger, to be more caring and giving… It is time to put a stop to the attacks on religion,” he stated.
Trump’s made worldwide non secular freedom a constant a part of his agenda, too. In a 2017 interview with Christian Broadcasting Community (CBN) host David Brody, Trump centered on persecuted Christians.
“They’ve been horribly treated… If you were a Christian in Syria it was impossible, at least very tough, to get into the United States… We are going to help them,” he stated.
Trump continues to hyperlink America’s founding beliefs on to religion.
“Our Declaration of Independence proclaims that our rights are bestowed on us by our Creator,” he stated on the 2019 Nationwide Day of Prayer dinner. “Each time we pledge allegiance to our flag, we say that we are one nation under God.”
President Donald Trump prays throughout a roundtable dialogue with Latino group leaders in Miami. (Chandan Khanna/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
On the 2017 Nationwide Prayer Breakfast, he added: “Freedom is not a gift from the government, but that freedom is a gift from God. America will thrive, as long as we continue to have faith in each other and faith in God.”
Whether or not he’s recounting Sunday faculty reminiscences or a bullet that missed “where it counts,” Trump’s messaging in 2025 is unmistakable — he believes he’s not simply main a rustic, he’s fulfilling a divine mission.
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“I enjoy a very great relationship with God and a very great relationship” with evangelical Christian voters, he advised CNN host Jake Tapper in 2016. “I live a very different life than probably a lot of people would think… I try to lead a good life and I have.”
Now, almost a decade later, it’s a message that’s solely grown louder, extra private, and — in his view — extra providential.
“It might have touched [my hair],” he stated of the would-be murderer’s bullet. “But not where it counts.”
In Trump’s personal phrases: “I believed in God… but now something happened.”
