Echoing the claims of some evangelical supporters who believe Donald Trump was sent by God to save America, Eric Trump told a Christian podcast in a clip resurfaced this week that “divine intervention” placed his father in the White House.
“I think he’s created the greatest political movement in history, and I really do believe someone, something is looking down and guiding him every single day because there’s no way in the world he could be where he is today without the intervention of God,” said the junior Trump, who oversees management and operation of his father’s global real estate holdings. “I feel it, I know it.”
The next-generation Trumps have waded into religion before, with mixed results. In 2021, Donald Trump Jr. told a group of young conservatives to ignore one of the central tenets of Christianity.
“We’ve turned the other cheek, and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference — I understand the mentality — but it’s gotten us nothing. OK?” Trump Jr. said. “It’s gotten us nothing while we’ve ceded ground in every major institution in our country.”
While cutting aid to the poor, demonizing refugees and promoting division within the country may not seem like Christian values, Eric Trump isn’t alone in assigning a divine nature to his father’s presidency.
“He won the White House against impossible odds,” he said, in the podcast episode originally from January 2024. “I really do believe that there’s divine intervention there.”
The president himself claimed God wanted him to win in his inaugural address in January.
“Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom and, indeed, to take my life. Just a few months ago, in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear,” Trump Sr. told the nation. But I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.”
For many on the right, the failed Pennsylvania assassination attempt solidified their belief that Trump was ordained by the Almighty, that God prompted the GOP nominee to turn his head a fraction of an inch to save himself and the nation.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Trump soon afterward, “God has had his hand on you since you first ran for President,” and “no man could survive all you have been through without the grace of God upon you.”
The elder Trump has never been a man of great faith. In 2016, he told a group of Christian conservative voters, “Why do I have to repent or ask for forgiveness if I am not making mistakes?” he said. “I work hard, I’m an honorable person.”
But such comments have been overlooked because Trump has given the evangelicals what they wanted most, paving the way for Roe v. Wade to be overturned with his Supreme Court appointments. During his current term, Trump has made eradicating “anti-Christian” bias a priority and appointed Christian right leaders to influential posts within his administration.
On social media, Trump critics pointed out the dangers of false idolization.
“So much horror was brought into the world by people thinking god was on their side,” wrote one. “What a bunch of crap!” one person added.
One man on X went much further, comparing Trump to a Biblical figure: “TRUMP is the Anti-Christ! They wear the MARK OF THE BEAST upon their heads! Revelation 13:16” The X posting included a photo of a group of his supporters all wearing red MAGA hats.
