Trump, Washington and the 'Miraculous Care of Providence'
Donald Trump is a lucky man. A few centimeters and a slightly turned head were the difference between life and death. Imagine if his head exploded on national television: what chaos, vitriol and whirlwind would have erupted and scorched America’s already divided soul?
Thankfully, only God knows — and there are those who credit His divine intervention for protecting the former president. Even Trump himself has stated on Truth Social “it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening,” and in a New York Post interview, said, “By luck or by God, many people are saying it’s by God I’m still here.”
While still a dark day in U.S. history (since there were, unfortunately, other victims, including one killed), this brush with death offers a chance toward peace. Indeed, Trump told the Washington Examiner that he has “completely rewritten” his speech for the Republican National Convention (RNC) this week, focusing on “national unity” instead of attacking President Joe Biden’s policies. Likewise, on Sunday (July 14), President Biden gave a rare speech in The White House Oval Office, telling the nation, “We can’t allow this violence to be normalized,” adding, “The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do that.”
Whether either presidential candidates are genuine remains to be seen — one hopes they are. The circumstances are dire: Americans are deeply polarized and nearly half believe in the possibility of another civil war, according to a Marist Poll published in May. Then there are the everyday and existential concerns over the economy, inflation, border security, foreign wars, the increasing debt and so on. The American people need hope things will improve.
Still, to his credit, Trump brilliantly understood the moment after the assassination attempt, boldly standing up and telling his supporters to “fight” on. Immediate comparisons can be made to Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt who, after being shot in the chest, resolutely carried on delivering a campaign speech, thus solidifying himself as an American legend. Trump did the same in Butler, Pa., on July 13.
Yet the rhetoric regarding divine intervention evokes another president who had escaped death multiple times: George Washington.
The fearless soldier often risked life and limb in battle. During the French and Indian War, at the Battle of the Monongahela (July 9, 1755), Washington had “two horses shot out from under him and four bullet holes shot through his coat,” and at the Battle of Princeton (Jan. 3, 1777), he was within “30 yards from the British line and was an easy target,” according to Mount Vernon.
More than a year later, at the Battle of Monmouth, Washington, again, cheated death. After a failed attack against the British by his subordinate Gen. Charles Lee, he rode to the front, rallying and inspiring the soldiers to fight on, “stemming the panic through pure will,” while his “cool presence emboldened his men to resist the approaching British bayonets and cavalry charges,” writes Ron Chernow, author of Washington: A Life. In the day’s events, a cannonball “exploded at his horse’s feet, flinging dirt in his face,” yet “Washington kept talking [to an officer] as if nothing happened,” according to Washington: A Life; meanwhile, his white charger died from the heat, but Washington soldiered on.
Washington’s officers were awed by his derring-do. The Marquis de Lafayette perhaps summarized their sentiments toward the commander’s actions at Monmouth best, saying, “I thought then as now that I had never beheld so superb a man.” Others throughout the first president’s life felt similarly. After hearing reports about Monongahela, Presbyterian minister Samuel Davies “predicted that the ‘heroic youth Col. Washington’ was being groomed by God for higher things. ‘I cannot but hope Providence has hitherto preserved [him] in so signal a manner for some important service to his country,” Chernow states.
Similarly, in addressing Washington’s actions at Monmouth, Henry Laurens — president of the Continental Congress — echoed Davies’ sentiments from years prior, writing to the general, “Our acknowledgements are especially due to Heaven for the preservation of Your Excellency’s person, necessarily exposed for the salvation of America to the most imminent danger in the late action.”
Was God at work? Did He want to protect Washington in order to lead the United States? Washington may have believed in divine intervention after surviving Monongahela, writing, “The miraculous care of Providence…protected me beyond all human expectations.” Even though the first president’s religiosity is the subject of much debate, he displayed a great sense of religious tolerance (especially toward Jews), and regularly attended church services but “loathed religious fanaticism,” as Chernow states. Nevertheless, as Mount Vernon suggests, “Washington did see God as guiding the creation of the United States”; indeed, the first president saw religion as vital to the American republic, emphasizing in his farewell address that “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”
In short, belief that a higher power may exist, whether active or distant, informed his decision-making, character and thus the nation’s founding. He recognized that the mystique contemporaries bestowed on him — gained from his bravery in the face of death — was an opportunity to forge a new nation, but around principles, not merely to himself. Arguably, no other American president unified opposing political factions more than Washington; and no other was more revered in his lifetime.
To a lesser man, these deemed providential acts would only inflate one’s ego, deluding their purported indestructibility as a mandate from heaven. But we all die. That is life. To think otherwise is farcical. Washington humbly understood he was no immortal yet by rejecting absolute power, he cemented himself as an immortal in history. King George III said as much, calling him the “greatest man in the world” after Washington relinquished his commission as Commander of the Continental Army.
Trump, however, is not Washington in terms of grandeur. He is considered one of the more divisive actors in recent American history. However, there are similarities. On religion, Trump’s personal faith — like Washington — is a bit complicated to say the least. The 45th president was raised Presbyterian, but became a non-denominational Christian in late 2020. Still, he receives overwhelming support from Christians and evangelicals when compared to Biden; moreover, Trump is supportive of reintegrating Judeo-Christian values in American society, as evidenced by his recent endorsement of placing the Ten Commandments in public schools classrooms like in Louisiana.
No one, though, would accuse Trump of adhering to a strictly pious, Christian life. However, like the first president, he recognizes religions’ importance as a fabric undergirding American society. At the 68th National Annual National Prayer Breakfast, Trump said, “So much of the greatness [Americans] have achieved, the mysteries we’ve unlocked, and the wonders we’ve built, the challenges we’ve met, and the incredible heights that we’ve reached has come from the faith of our families and the prayers of our people.”
But after the assassination attempt, Trump is at a crossroads. If Providence, like in Washington’s life, indeed intervened, his miraculous survival will either fuel humility or the ego. Signs point to the former, as Trump told the New York Post, “I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead.” He even claimed the doctor who tended to his ear wound said “he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle.”
Trump has certainly earned a new mystique; and as the frontrunner to win the 2024 presidential election, according to RealClear Politics, the opportunity is ripe for him, like Washington, to use this newfound lease on life to tamper polarization, to reinvigorate American principles, to rise above the nagging political squabbles he was privy to entering in his first term, to be a great unifier and become the man God is calling him to be (as He indeed calls us all).
If Trump follows Washington’s precedent, and humbly believes his life is under the “miraculous care of Providence” as it seemed to be on July 13, he too may become one of the greatest men the world has ever known. The nation needs a great man.
