I suspect there aren’t a ton of people who think of former President Donald Trump when it comes to talk of spirituality and God and evangelizing. And yet, since his near miss with death in the failed July 13 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump has repeatedly referred to the fact that the bullet that struck him nicked his ear rather than causing far more serious damage as “a miracle.”
Monday evening was no exception as Trump sat down with Twitter/X owner Elon Musk for a “Spaces” conversation that nearly broke the internet. (After a rough start, attributed by Musk to a DDOS attack, the two were finally able to start chatting.)
We tested the system with 8 million concurrent listeners earlier today https://t.co/ymqGBFEJX0
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024
Right off the bat, Musk raised the failed attempt and his admiration for how Trump handled it in the moment. They spoke about it at length, and Trump noted that the timing — the fact that he turned his head right when he did — was essentially a miracle. (Later, Trump pointed out that the immigration chart to which he was referring when he turned his head normally is to his left rather than to his right, and normally is one he refers to toward the end of his speech rather than near the beginning.)
Trump described his impressions of the incident as it happened, and then, noting how everything aligned at just the right moment to spare him a more serious injury, Trump suggested maybe non-believers might want to consider that God is, indeed, real.
TRUMP: “For those people that don’t believe in God, I think we all have to start thinking about that!” pic.twitter.com/nTr32Og39F
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 13, 2024
Trump explained:
“I knew immediately that it was a bullet. I knew immediately that it was at the ear. And, ‘cuz it, you know, it hit very hard, but it hit the ear. And I also heard people shout, ‘Bullets, bullets,’ you know, ‘Get down, get down,’ because I — you know, I moved down pretty nicely, pretty quickly, and we had bullets flying right over my head after I went down, so I’m glad I went down.
“The bigger miracle was that I was looking in the exact direction of the shooter, and so it hit; it hit me at an angle that was far less destructive than any other angle, so that was the miracle. That was — for those people that don’t believe in God, I think we gotta all start thinking about that. You have to — you know, I’m a believer; now I’m more of a believer, I think. And a lot of people have said that to me. A lot of great people have said that to me, actually.”
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They spoke further about just how close a call it was.
ELON: “If you hadn’t turned your head…”
TRUMP: “It was a miracle! If I hadn’t turned my head, I would not be talking to you right now, as much as I like you…”
ELON: “Talking to you from another realm, perhaps!” pic.twitter.com/IAEaoQaVw1
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 13, 2024
Referencing how a local police officer momentarily distracted the shooter when he pulled himself up onto the roof, Trump said:
“What they think is that this guy ran to his site, which he had all planned out with the gun, he ran to the site, and he started shooting fast — and maybe that’s why he…well, he sort of missed, I mean, you know. He got me, but it could’ve been, it could’ve been, could’ve been a much bigger problem.”
Musk then noted: “Yeah, but he totally would have hit if you hadn’t turned your head, so, like, you know, there was a — it was a very near thing, so…”
Trump agreed: “It was a miracle. If I hadn’t turned my head, I would not be talking to you right now — as much as I like you — I would not, I would not be talking to you.”
Musk added: “Yeah, exactly. I mean, you’d be talking to me from another realm, perhaps.”
Trump again agreed: “Yeah, that’s right — we’d be talking from a different place.”
