Michigan Republicans flock to Trump: Some see ‘the hand of God’ in action

FLINT, Michigan — They wore it on their T-shirts and expressed it in the way they kneeled to pray: At his first event after the Secret Service opened fire on a suspected gunman hiding in the bushes around Trump’s Florida golf club — the second apparent assassination attempt on his life in almost as many months — Trump's supporters were invoking the divine.

Over and over here Tuesday, they asked themselves, who was this lucky? And was it luck, or something more like providence that helped Trump had been able to survive not one but two attempts on his life.

“The hand of God is with him,” said Connie Hahne, 68.

Craig Nagy, a bakery owner who wore a T-shirt that read “ JESUS IS MY SAVIOR TRUMP IS MY PRESIDENT,” said, “God knows what we need.”

And not long after a song by the Michigan native Kid Rock blared through the arena bragged of being an “American Badass,” a man in Army fatigues knelt, raised the holy book in the air and prayed for Trump’s safety.

“Because God's got a plan,” said Tim Long, who said he is also a candidate for Wayne County commissioner. “God is giving the American people a choice.”

That many Trump supporters attribute his survival of what authorities say appeared to be a second assassination attempt to the divine marks a new fervor taking hold in the final weeks of the election — and a digging in of his base, framing the election in stark and apocalyptic terms.

Cheryl Loucks, a retired nurse from Metamora, wore a shirt with an image of Trump rising from the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, after the first assassination attempt, that said it plainly, quoting Isaiah 54:17: “ NO WEAPON FORGED AGAINST ME SHALL PROSPER.”

“The Lord is watching out for him,” she said.

Trump helped stoke the religious fervor, saying "2016 we had a lot of spirit. In 2020 we had unbelievable spirit and then we got let down because what happened should never have been allowed to happen in this country again. But I have never seen the spirit like I’ve seen right now for this race. Never."

The event was a town hall with Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s former White House press secretary. She, too, felt that God had her former boss in mind.

"You know the left has tried everything they can think of. They’ve tried to impeach this president. They’ve tried to throw him in jail,” Sanders told the crowd. “And not once — but twice — two would-be assassins have tried to take this president down. But we’re here to let them in on a little secret: God is not done with President Trump."

Trump acknowledged terrestrial concerns as a candidate, describing running for president as a “dangerous business.”

“You know they think race car driving is dangerous. No. They think bull riding — that’s pretty scary right? No. This is a dangerous business. We have to keep it safe."

Trump, as he has before, credited his survival of the July shooting in Pennsylvania to the fact that his head happened to be turned to present his “ all-time favorite chart in history ”as he discussed immigration.

But Glen Guernsey, Jr, a 51-year-old General Motors worker who was attending his first event with Trump, insisted his survival had nothing to do with charts.

“Nothing happens by accident,” Guernsey said.

Before the town hall, Guernsey practically begged Trump not to say mean things about Harris or attack her race or repeat his baseless claims about Haitian migrants abducting and eating pets.

Trump, Guernsey said, should say to the crowd, ‘I was spared. And I'm here to tell you, we need to forgive. We need to bring our country back to calmer, peaceful times. I am committed to forgiving and moving on. I wish [Harris] no harm,’ and remind his own followers ‘I do not support violence in any way.’”

When Trump took the stage, he said “only consequential presidents get shot at” and evinced his trademark bravado and used humor to downplay his historically bad run of luck.

Even when Trump acknowledged that he “got a very nice call from Kamala” following the incident over the weekend, it did not go over well with members of the crowd, many of whom were already restless because the Secret Service had shut down the concession stands an hour before the event started.

“Liar,” someone in the crowd yelled back.

“It was very nice,” Trump said. “We appreciate that, but we have to take back our country. We have to win. We're going to win, and we're going to make America great again. That's all there is.”

There was no new Trump on display, no predictions from attendees that he has changed because of recent events. There were also some of the typical false statements and exaggerations.

Speaking on energy policy, Trump appeared to confuse Afghanistan for Alaska, telling the crowd “We have Bagram in Alaska. They say it might be as big, might be bigger than all Saudi Arabia." Bagram is an airbase in Afghanistan, and Trump may have meant to refer to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

When asked by an audience member what is the biggest threat to Michigan manufacturing, Trump said, “To me, we only really have one major threat and that’s called nuclear weapons.”

“We have other countries that are hostile to us,” Trump said. “They don’t have to be hostile to us. I always say if you have a smart president, you’ll never have a problem with China, Russia or any of them.”

Trump, too, defended his crowd size — a new attack line from Democrats — saying “Nobody’s ever seen a town hall like this. You know town halls are supposed to have about 300 people. You have about 8,000 people here. And equally as important you have about 8,000 people that are not here they’re walking away.”

Outside a few minutes later, though, only dozens of people milled about the entrance, sitting in foldable lawn chairs and pulling up the rally on their phones. As Trump was speaking, a few blocks from the arena, a pro-Trump retailer hawked flags that read “FUCK BIDEN AND FUCK YOU FOR VOTING FOR HIM” and showed Trump, sleeveless, wielding an assault rifle like Rambo, wrinkling and waving in the evening breeze.