'Perhaps it's God:' Trump offers spiritual reason for surviving assassination attempts

WASHINGTON - Former President Donald Trump offered political and spiritual reasons Monday for surviving two assassination attempts in two months.

While again criticizing the "rhetoric" of Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden , Trump said during an X Spaces interview that something else may be going on: "I mean, perhaps it's God wanting me to be president to save this country; nobody knows."

Trump discussed the pair of attempted murders during an X program otherwise devoted to the launch of a new cryptocurrency project that involves his two eldest sons.

A day after the arrest of man who carried a rifle onto Trump's golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla., Trump also recalled the near-assassination of July 13 in Butler, Pa., when a bullet nicked his ear and drew blood.

"That was some crazy day," Trump said. "And then yesterday, you had another one."

Trump also confirmed that Biden called him to discuss the latest incident, and said that "he couldn't have been nicer."

The X Spaces interview capped a day in which Trump made a sharp turn back to politics after praising law enforcement and thanking Americans in the immediate aftermath of the golf course assassination attempt.

The suspect "believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it," Trump said an interview with Fox News Digital. "Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out."

The Trump campaign also dropped ads and made fundraising solicitations along the same theme.

Some opponents said Trump is trying to silence legitimate criticism, and has engaged in violent rhetoric of his own.

In an X post earlier in the day, former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh said: “Both of these statements are true: the assassination attempt on Donald Trump was utterly horrible and must be condemned by everyone. No one should face violence, no matter who they are. This is also true: no politician today incites more hate and violence with their words than Trump himself.”

Police on Sunday arrested Ryan Routh, 56, after Secret Service agents opened fire on a gunman pointing a rifle toward the golf course that Trump was playing. Routh, a fervent supporter of Ukraine against the ongoing Russian invasion, voted in last March's North Carolina Democratic primary, records show .

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Perhaps it's God:' Trump offers spiritual reason for surviving assassination attempts