Has God Endorsed Trump?

After Saturday’s failed assassination attempt more than one person said to me some version of, “I may be damned for saying this, but I’m sorry he missed.” Well, I can’t go there. While I can’t imagine how Trump’s death would have improved things, I can easily image how it would have made things worse.

That said, the failed attempt on Trump’s life and his defiant reaction to it, are likely to have the Nietzchean effect. As in, “What doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger.” What could be better for the strongman image than surviving an assassination attempt with a bloodied face and clenched fist?

Trump and the Republicans seem to be on a roll. On his regular Friday night appearance on the PBS Newshour, an exasperated David Brooks made what I trust was an ironic observation — it almost seems as if God wants Trump to be President.

“And I have to say,” said Brooks, “I’m mystified by how well they’re (Trump and the GOP) are sitting. I think the Republicans are just sitting pretty and feeling it. And God is good, omniscient, and omnipotent, and yet somehow he seems to want Donald Trump to be reelected, because there’s just been a string of events that have lined up for Trump, whether it’s DeSantis being a bad candidate, whether it’s the indictments, whether it’s the Democrats imploding in the middle of the Republican Convention.”

While I doubt that Brooks seriously thinks God operates in this way — picking winners and losers in American politics — the way things have rolled for Trump seems somehow charmed. There’s little doubt that the failed assassination attempt, like Biden’s disastrous performance on June 27, all make Trump stronger. Strong enough to push a candidate who has never before had the support of a plurality to a win in November.

Add in this week’s extraordinary decision by Judge Aileen Cannon to throw out the classified documents case! Must be a lot of high-fiving going on at Mar-a-Lago.

So does God want Trump to win? Is God on his side? There are plenty of people who will answer both questions in the affirmative.

My own sense is that God’s purposes in history are more obscure and hidden. Assertions of “God being on our side” should be met with skepticism. Jesus Christ, who is God’s own definitive self-revealing, was taunted and ridiculed along the lines of, “If God is on your side, why don’t you come down from that cross!” To the world a crucified man was the very opposite of anyone who had God on his side. To the world it was the strongman, the Caesar, who had God on his side.

Things are not always as they appear. “Thus saith the Lord, ‘my ways are not your ways, my thoughts not your thoughts,’” said the prophet Isaiah. The Apostle Paul said much the same, though in the light of the cross. “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” (I Corinthians 1: 25)

My counsel, first to myself and then to you, is listen to Jesus, words spoken to his disciples, and now to us, for the times of testing and trial.

“There will be signs in the sun, the moon and the stars, and on earth distress among the nations . . . People will faint from fear and foreboding . . . Now when these things begin to take place stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21: 25 ff.)

“In the world you will face tribulation. But be of good courage for I have overcome the world.” (John 16: 33).

And, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12: 21)