Joe Neglia, from Tempe, wears a folded paper over his right ear, mimicking Donald Trump’s ear bandage on the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 16, 2024. (Adriana Zehbrauskas/News21)
Arizona Republican delegate Stacey Goodman covered her right ear with gauze and tape at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 17, 2024, showing solidarity with former President Donald Trump, whose ear was cut by a would-be assassin’s bullet four days earlier. (Photo by Keetra Bippus/Cronkite News)
MILWAUKEE – Among the red, white and blue crowd at the Republican National Convention, the support for former President Donald Trump is palpable. Some Arizona delegates admire the achievements of his first term and view him as a strong leader and businessman.
For others, it runs deeper – especially since Saturday, when a sniper’s bullet nicked his ear in a shocking assassination attempt that failed when Trump turned his head slightly at precisely the right moment.
“Trump has the armor of God on him,” said Stacey Goodman, a delegate from Cave Creek wearing a piece of gauze over her ear in solidarity with the injured nominee. “Had his head been turned one centimeter to the right, one centimeter to the left, he would not be with us today.”
Footage of the shooting bears that out.
Throughout the week, delegates and speakers have voiced the belief that it took a heavenly hand for Trump to leave the rally site near Pittsburgh alive – and that, by implication, his return to power has been blessed at the highest possible level.
Trump and his inner circle fully embrace the divine intervention narrative.
“I don’t believe in coincidences but I do believe in God’s plan,” his son, Donald Trump Jr., declared in a prime time speech Wednesday night.
Trump’s former White House press secretary, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders – whose father, Mike Huckabee, was a Baptist minister before serving as governor and running for president – made much the same point in primetime the previous evening.
“God Almighty intervened because America is one nation under God and he is certainly not finished with President Trump,” she said.
The day after the shooting, Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social that “it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”
Among delegates, that belief is widespread.
“God’s watching over him and God’s got his back,” Susan Cheatham, a delegate from Buckeye, said on the convention floor. “He’s for the people, he’s real, he took a bullet for us – literally.”
Data from PRRI, a nonpartisan opinion research organization, found that in 2023 roughly 58% of Arizonans considered themselves Christian. And the vast majority of Christians in Arizona (82%) also identified as Republican or Republican leaning, according to a 2014 Pew Research Center survey.
Trump’s 2024 platform includes the creation of a “Federal Task Force on Fighting Anti-Christian Bias” to root out any instances of discrimination, harassment and persecution against Christians in America.
Arizona delegates at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 17, 2024. (Photo by Keetra Bippus/Cronkite News)
Of the 226 hate crimes reported in Arizona in 2023, according to the state Department of Public Safety, just under half (112) involved racial bias. Another 50 involved religious bias, of which 34 were acts of antisemitism. Four involved Christian targets.
Trump is “pro-God,” Cheatham said.
Trump did not focus much on religion during the 2016 campaign, when many evangelical leaders initially resisted his ascent. His campaign website didn’t emphasize religious freedom. In 2020, with religious conservatives strongly in his corner, he vowed to protect prayer in schools. Defending religious freedom is No. 7 of his 20 “core promises” this year.
A Pew Research Center poll in February found that most American adults who view Trump favorably are religious to some degree.
Religiosity is deeply entwined with the MAGA movement.
On Day 1 of the convention, an Arizona woman who blames her husband’s death on President Joe Biden’s lax border enforcement cited faith as a unifying Republican principle.
“We are here tonight because we believe that America is always and should be one nation under God,” said Sara Workman. “We need God in our hearts and Donald Trump back in the White House.”
“With faith, hope and love in my heart, I know we will make America great again,” she said.
The crowd erupted in cheers and quickly started chanting “USA! USA!”