Opinion: Lessons for Trump From a Man Who Says God Saved His Life, Too

Donald Trump told the Republican National Convention on Thursday night that God had saved him when a would-be assassin made an attempt on the former president’s life, the bullet creasing his right ear.

If that is so, the same must be true of a 59-year-old Milwaukee minister who was shot directly into his right ear during a carjacking last fall.

In the case of the minister, Kevin Simmons, a bullet entered through his ear and exited his left cheek in October of 2023. A gunman who police say was a 14-year-old with a firearm then allegedly shot Simmons twice in his upper body as he was moonlighting as an Uber driver. Those bullets also traveled straight through, leaving Simmons with a total of six bullet wounds. But none of those three shots struck a major organ.

How’s that for a miracle?

Simmons was still alive when the gunman and an accomplice dumped his body out of the car and sped away. He was left deaf in one ear, but he had no trouble making out what he felt sure was the voice of the Almighty.

“I was hearing from God, ‘Another chance to get it right,’” he recalled to The Daily Beast this week. “That’s what I kept hearing.”

He decided there must be a divine purpose behind his survival.

“You say God saved you, there’s a reason for it,” Simmons said. “God, doesn’t save you for you to still be what you’re doing. You got to make a change. You got to recognize that if there is something wrong in my life, I need to correct it.”

He added, “I was like, ‘I gotta be a better dad, I gotta be a better husband, I gotta be a better minister. I gotta be better every day, praying, not holding grudges against anybody. Just living life the way God call you to live life.’”

Simmons was asked if he felt God had also saved Trump.

“I can’t speak for what God did with him; I don’t know,” the minister replied.

“The only thing that can speak for him is his actions after he got shot. You say God save you, then show your appreciation for God with your actions afterwards.”

On Monday, Simmons was at the Vel R. Phillips Youth & Family Justice Center in Milwaukee, attending a pre-trial hearing for the 14 year-old accused gunman, who is being prosecuted as a juvenile. The Republican National Convention commenced that same day at the Fiserv Forum eight miles away. The nominee was a fellow victim of gun violence just five days prior at a rally in Pennsylvania.

“I’m not a Trump supporter, but I don’t want to see anybody get shot—I don’t care who you are—because people don’t like your stance or anything like that,” Simmons told The Daily Beast. “That’s no reason to shoot somebody. That’s uncalled for.”

An indication of what Trump may or may not have learned from his brush with violent death came when he addressed the crowd at the RNC on Thursday night. The question was not just whether Trump will get a second term as president, but also whether he will take advantage of a second chance to be a better human being.

A white bandage on his right ear, Trump started out quietly describing the shooting .

“I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God,” he proclaimed. “I’m not supposed to be here tonight.”

He described how a bullet that would have otherwise struck him in the head only grazed his right ear because turned his head towards a big chart depicting “illegal immigration” that had been set up to the right of the podium.

“I have God on my side,” he again contended.

At the very least, he might have been expected to acknowledge that the immediate threat had not been an undocumented migrant who had crossed the southern border, but rather a 20-year-old, native born citizen who was able to arm himself with a weapon of war.

The all-American gunman with his all-American rifle had only grazed Trump, but he had killed a former volunteer fire chief whose final act was to throw himself protectively over his wife and two daughters.

“Tragically, the shooter claimed the life of one of our fellow Americans, Corey Comperatore, an unbelievable person everybody tells me,” Trump said. “He was a highly respected former fire chief—respected by everybody.”

Trump had what seemed like genuine sympathy in his voice as he recounted speaking with the murdered man’s grief-stricken family. Comperatore’s firefighter gear was displayed on the stage and Trump stepped over to kiss the helmet. He then called for a moment of silence.

“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for others,” Trump then said. “This is the spirit that forged America in her darkest hours, and this is the love that will lead America back to the summit of human achievement and greatness that we need.”

At that moment, it seemed at least possible that Trump’s close brush with violent death had inspired at least a modicum of grace. But he said nothing about mental health care or the ubiquity of guns or other issues that keep America from being as great as it should be. He instead ranted as before about an invasion across our southern border of murderers and rapists and Hannibal Lecters who are supposedly killing Americans by the “hundreds of thousands.”

He continued to give what had essentially become his standard rally speech, a version of which he likely would have given had the gunman not interrupted it on Saturday.

One person who spared himself watching it was Simmons.

“I don’t watch that,” the minister said of the convention.

The Daily Beast gave him a summary of Trump’s speech. Simmons discerned a strategy in the early part, when it seemed that Trump actually may have learned something.

“Trying to draw you in with compassion and everything,” Simmons said. “If you are drawn in far enough, when he goes to his same old jargon, then you probably want to believe what he’s saying.”

As Trump now continues to campaign for his second term, Simmons will continue taking righteous advantage of his second chance. Simmons is still able to serve as a minister at his Church, but he is no longer an Uber driver. He also had to stop being a referee with a youth basketball league.

“I can’t run up and down the floor anymore, so I am just getting the younger people to do that, and I just do whatever part I can do,” he said. “I go to the game and I take the score.”

Simmons keeps trying to be better, however he is able.

“God didn’t just save my life for me to live for myself,” Simmons said.

Read more at The Daily Beast.