A 'God moment' in Michigan as Trump preaches to faithful

Renee White was seated behind Donald Trump one week ago when shots rang out as a gunman tried to assassinate the former US president at a Pennsylvania rally.

On Saturday, she was attending his first campaign event since the shooting, convinced God has placed a "protective hedge" around the Republican seeking a return to the Oval Office.

White, a 57-year-old from North Carolina who has traveled to dozens of Trump speeches, was among many faithful in the thousands-strong crowd at the rally in Grand Rapids who said they had no doubt Trump is alive today because of divine intervention.

The messianic fervor has only grown since the shock shooting one week earlier. And it was coursing through the arena from the moment a prayer for Trump kicked off the proceedings.

"God has a protective hedge around him," White told AFP, recalling the chaos in Butler, Pennsylvania when Trump was injured by a would-be assassin, and how the 78-year-old Republican rose to his feet and defiantly pumped his fist in the air.

"Trump has a job and a mission to do, like Noah and Moses" from the Bible, said White, wearing a baby blue "Make America Great Again" cap.

"Do we believe that this is a God moment? Yes," she added. "He's taking arrows for all of us."

Trump himself, wearing a smaller, more discreet bandage on his ear Saturday compared to the large white square visible earlier in the week, also touched on how providence played a role.

"I stand before you only by the grace of almighty God," he told the crowd.

"I shouldn't be here right now, but something very special happened."

- 'Closer to God' -

Jan Dejong, a retired nurse who waited in line for hours to enter Saturday's rally, said the post-shooting energy, the vibe, and Trump himself -- it all feels different.

"Something changed," she said, noting Trump's somber demeanor at the recent Republican National Convention, where he was crowned the party flagbearer to challenge President Joe Biden in November.

Trump "is thankful to be here," Dejong said. "I think he was spared, to be our president."

While many insist faith had a hand in Trump's survival, rally-goer Danny Clemons of Benton Harbor, Michigan said it does not make Trump a divine figure.

But he believes faith ran in both directions on that fateful day in Pennsylvania.

"Him not being assassinated, I think that made him more of a believer, I think that brought him closer to God," Clemons told AFP.

In his pre-politics days, Trump displayed a distaste for religion and boasted of actions that stand in clear opposition to Christian precepts.

But Trump "looks like a different person after that" assassination attempt, according to Clemons.

Trump has said he was raised Presbyterian but now considers himself a "non-denominational Christian."

Sitting in the arena seats was 60-year-old Fred Kopplow, a health care executive from Traverse City who said he too believes "faith did make an intervention" when Trump ever so slightly turned his head, leaving a bullet to graze his ear instead of causing catastrophic damage.

"It wasn't the wind," Kopplow said. "Something had to intervene."

While Trump and two other people were injured, one rally attendee in Butler -- a firefighter -- was killed in the shooting as he protected his family in the chaos.

"I think it's beyond sad but he had a greater good," Kopplow said. "He didn't die in vain."