MILWAUKEE — Donald Trump, a bandage over his right year, stepped into the spotlight at the Republican National Convention on Thursday evening as singer Lee Greenwood performed “God Bless the U.S.A.” Thousands of people inside Fiserv Forum had been waiting for this moment all week: The former president was finally going to address nearly being killed at a rally in Pennsylvania five days prior.

“I will tell you exactly what happened, and you’ll never hear it from me a second time because it’s actually too painful to tell,” Trump said, before launching into the story of a would-be assassin’s bullet tearing through his ear and Trump realizing that there was “blood pouring everywhere.”

“And yet, in a certain way, I felt very safe,” a seemingly subdued Trump recounted, “because I had God on my side. I felt that.”

A few minutes later, after saying that the bullet was a quarter-inch away from killing him, the GOP presidential nominee added: “I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God. And watching the reports over the last few days, many people say it was a providential moment — probably was.”

The crowd roared. Trump was, in essence, saying that God may have saved his life because the Lord had chosen him to be president of the United States. This belief, that Trump has a divine right to the White House, was ubiquitous at the RNC this week, with many of his supporters, among them influential politicians and religious figures, ascribing spiritual meaning to the attempted assassination.

In the year leading up to this convention, the Republican Party had already embraced an extreme form of Christian nationalism, the idea that America was founded as a Christian nation and should be governed by an ultraconservative interpretation of scripture. The fundamentally antidemocratic ideology, which leaves little room for equal governance in a pluralistic society like the U.S., is made explicit in the GOP’s official platform, which, among other alarming proposals, suggests a mass deportation scheme to “keep foreign Christian-hating Communists, Marxists, and Socialists out of America.” It was also prevalent within Project 2025, the authoritarian blueprint for a second Trump administration spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation think tank that portrays Christians in America as under siege by “woke” enemies.

Trump surviving an assassination attempt cemented his role as the chosen one, the savior from this scourge of wokeness. The already famous photo of him standing up after the shooting, surrounded by black-suited Secret Service agents as blood drips down his face and he holds up a fist, was everywhere at the RNC — on T-shirts, on TVs playing Fox News, and on big digital screens. The image was imbued with religious significance, bolstering the existing narrative that the 45th president was prophesied to rule over the U.S., and to vanquish all of those woke enemies trying to put him in jail.

“Not even an assassin’s bullet could stop him,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during her RNC speech Tuesday. “God Almighty intervened because America is one nation under God, and he is certainly not finished with President Trump.”

Ben Carson, the former Housing and Urban Development secretary, cited the Bible to explain how God had spared Trump’s life.

“I saw President Trump, a dear friend, escape death by mere inches, and my thoughts immediately turned to the Book of Isaiah that says, ‘No weapon formed against you shall prosper,’” Carson said.

Caroline Sunshine, a Trump campaign spokesperson, resorted to biblical numerology.

“President Trump survived ... [with] divine intervention,” she told Fox News inside Fiserv Forum. “The bullet pierced President Trump at 6:11 p.m. Ephesians 6:11 tells us, ‘Put on the full armor of God, take your stand against the devil and his schemes.’” (Others at the convention, including far-right influencers Charlie Kirk and Jack Posobiec, also invoked Ephesians when talking about the shooting.)

At a Faith and Freedom Coalition breakfast during the RNC, megachurch pastor Jentezen Franklin stated that the assassination attempt proved Trump had been anointed by God. As reported by A Public Witness, a blog about faith and politics, Franklin compared Trump to the biblical figure of Aaron, a priest whom Leviticus 8 describes as being anointed with blood put on his ear, thumb and toe. A Public Witness observed: “Franklin then argued Trump got all three on Saturday: shot in the ear, touched his wound to get blood on his thumb, and then when on the ground talked about needing to get his shoe.”

In a small, brightly lit room Wednesday, about 10 people gathered for a worship service, taking turns doing readings or leading prayer. One man, wearing a red University of Wisconsin Badgers T-shirt, invoked Leviticus 8 in describing how Trump being shot in the ear meant he had likely been anointed by the Lord.

The worship service was run by a group called Intercessors for America, which believes in “spiritual warfare,” or praying for certain political outcomes. Members of the group passed out a pamphlet titled “Praying About the Attempted Assassination,” instructing people on how to pray for Trump. “The world witnessed undeniable video proof of God at work,” it said. “Pray that the full truth of the ability of God to intervene and to save continues to be central to the news story.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), during an interview with Breitbart News at the convention, said the world had “witnessed a miracle” in Butler, Pennsylvania, last weekend. After Breitbart host Matt Boyle suggested he saw God’s hand on Trump’s shoulder during the attempted assassination, Greene described watching footage that proved God himself had intervened.

“Before it happened, the [American] flag above got blown in the wind and it got tied into literally what looked like an angel. Did you see that video?” she said. “It was like an angel coming down.”

On the final night of the convention, Lorenzo Sewell of Detroit’s 180 Church took to the stage about an hour before Trump was set to speak. The pastor described Trump visiting his church last month, making the trip even though it was the former president’s birthday. Sewell said he and his congregation prayed for Trump.

“Only God knew that 30 days later, there would be a miracle by a millimeter,” he told the crowd. “Only God knew that if we prayed for him during his birthday, there would be a miracle by a millimeter.”

Sewell also cited the fact that Trump was shot at 6:11 p.m. and that this likely had something to do with Ephesians 6:11. He then posed a question to political adversaries watching the convention at home.

“To all my Democrat friends, I want to ask you one question: Do you know anybody that was the 45th president, he was convicted of 34 [criminal counts] ... he raised $53 million in 24 hours and could be the 47th president of the United States in America, and he was shot one time — do you know anybody like that?!” he said.

The crowd broke into scattered chants of “Fight!” and “Trump!”

“To all my friends back in Detroit who are Democrats,” Sewell continued, “you can’t deny the power of God on this man’s life. You can’t deny that God protected him. You cannot deny that it was a millimeter miracle that was able to save this man’s life. Could it be that Jesus Christ preserved him for such a time as this?!”

A short time later, Tucker Carlson, the ex-Fox News host and a close confidant of the former president, spoke on the stage for 10 minutes, suggesting that even nonreligious folks might be wondering if God had intervened to save Trump.

“What’s happened over the past month, since the [June 27 presidential] debate, and particularly on Saturday in Butler, I think a lot of people are wondering, ‘What is this?’” Carlson said. “This doesn’t look like politics. Something bigger is going on here. I think even people who don’t believe in God are beginning to think, ‘Well, maybe there’s something to this, actually.’”

And then, not long before Trump himself took the stage, Franklin Graham, the powerful evangelical pastor, stepped up to the lectern.

“I cannot explain why God would save one life and allow another one to be taken,” Graham said, referring to the Trump supporter who was killed in Pennsylvania last weekend by a bullet likely meant for Trump. “I don’t have the answer for that. But one thing I do know is that God loves us and he wants us to be with him in heaven one day.”

Graham proceeded to lead the convention in prayer.

“Our Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening with grateful hearts. Thank you for saving the life of President Donald J. Trump,” he said. “In his own words, it was you and you alone who saved him.”

The big screens inside the arena cut to live footage of Trump in the crowd. He was standing up, bandage on his ear, eyes closed and head bowed in prayer.