How President Donald Trump’s brush with death turned his faith into fire

It’s Holy Week, and President Donald Trump isn’t just leading the country, he is leaning hard into the belief that he’s been chosen to do so. 

With renewed spiritual fervor and a flair for providential drama, Trump has been weaving his personal faith into the fabric of his presidency, especially after surviving an assassination attempt last year.

“I believe that my life was saved that day in Butler for a very good reason,” he declared during his address to a joint session of Congress last month. “I was saved by God to make America great again. I believe that.”

It’s a sentiment that’s becoming central to Trump’s second term. At the National Prayer Breakfast in February, Trump reflected more personally: “It changed something in me, I feel. I feel even stronger. I believed in God, but I feel much more strongly about it.”

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According to Trump, it wasn’t just a lucky turn of the head — it was divine intervention. As he tells it, he looked toward a chart at just the right moment. 

“God did that. I mean, it had to be,” he said.

Even Don Jr., Trump’s loyal son and hunting enthusiast, chimed in. 

“He told me the chance of missing from that distance was like missing a one-foot putt. There had to be somebody that saved you, and I think I know who it is,” Don Jr. said, “and he looked up.”

Trump often credits his Presbyterian upbringing for instilling his early sense of morality, and, as he tells it, his destiny. At the 2024 National Faith Summit, he recalled attending Sunday school, watching Billy Graham crusades, and being raised by a devout Scottish mother and a “very strong” but “great-hearted” father. 

“I was blessed to be raised in a churched home… and that faith lives on in my heart every single day,” Trump added.

That foundation, he argues, is critical not just for him personally, but for the soul of the country.

Over the past two years, Trump has repeatedly sounded the alarm over America’s spiritual decline. 

In an August 2024 sit-down with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, he said bluntly: “One of the reasons that our country has lost, sort of, everything — it’s lost so much — is we don’t have religion to the same extent.”

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Trump often returns to the government’s role during the pandemic as a flashpoint.

“People weren’t even allowed to meet outside… They’d arrest everybody. They were fascists. They were horrible,” he said. “That was a very bad time for organized religion — but religion, you know, it gives you some hope. Gee, if I’m good, I’m going to heaven.”

At the 2023 Faith and Freedom Coalition event, he warned, “Religion is going down in terms of importance and popularity. This is not a question of popularity. We love God, and we want to protect ourselves. It keeps you sane. It keeps you honest. It keeps you good. It keeps you kind. It makes you help other people. And they’re trying to take that away from you.”

From the White House podium to packed mega-church rallies, Trump has used his presidency to advocate for religious liberty as a cornerstone of his leadership.

“As long as I’m president, no one is going to stop you from practicing your faith or from preaching what is in your heart,” he said during his first term in 2017 — and he has echoed that promise ever since. 

“Faith inspires us to be better, to be stronger, to be more caring and giving… It is time to put a stop to the attacks on religion,” he said.

Trump’s made international religious freedom a consistent part of his agenda, too. In a 2017 interview with Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) host David Brody, Trump focused on persecuted Christians.

“They’ve been horribly treated… If you were a Christian in Syria it was impossible, at least very tough, to get into the United States… We are going to help them,” he said.

Trump continues to link America’s founding ideals directly to faith. 

“Our Declaration of Independence proclaims that our rights are bestowed on us by our Creator,” he said at the 2019 National Day of Prayer dinner. “Each time we pledge allegiance to our flag, we say that we are one nation under God.”

At the 2017 National Prayer Breakfast, he added: “Freedom is not a gift from the government, but that freedom is a gift from God. America will thrive, as long as we continue to have faith in each other and faith in God.”

Whether he’s recounting Sunday school memories or a bullet that missed “where it counts,” Trump’s messaging in 2025 is unmistakable — he believes he’s not just leading a country, he’s fulfilling a divine mission.

“I enjoy a very great relationship with God and a very great relationship” with evangelical Christian voters, he told CNN host Jake Tapper in 2016. “I live a very different life than probably a lot of people would think… I try to lead a good life and I have.”

Now, nearly a decade later, it’s a message that’s only grown louder, more personal, and — in his view — more providential.

“It might have touched [my hair],” he said of the would-be assassin’s bullet. “But not where it counts.”

In Trump’s own words: “I believed in God… but now something happened.”