Seconds after surviving a would-be assassin's bullet to the head, Donald Trump was standing – exhorting the crowd to “Fight… Fight… Fight”
By Tim O'Brien
The 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, suffered a near-death experience on Saturday night at the Farm Show Grounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, at the hands of alleged gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks. When Crooks fired the shot that clipped Trump’s right ear, the presumed Republican nominee was just warming up – delivering his well-honed stump speech that is as much like a one-man show as it is a political talk.
His usually upbeat delivery was on point, his give-and-take with the audience was in sync. His natural comfort with a friendly “MAGA” crowd was obvious, and his sparing reliance on a teleprompter was evident.He was in his element.
Trump was attacking the incumbent, President Joe Biden, with his characteristic sarcasm, humor, and derision. He did it mostly through policy and character attacks. As biting as Trump’s comments can be, none were outside the boundaries of America’s long tradition of bare-knuckles politics.
Trump’s characteristic aggressiveness has long left him open to accusations of disingenuousness, callousness, and shallowness. His brazen shilling of just about anything with the “Trump” name on it has done little to counter such accusations. Trump athletic shoes, Trump Bibles – even Trump’s most ardent supporters have long accepted that with him, you have to take the good with the bad, or more to the point, the powerful and effective global leader with that part of him that is pure P.T. Barnum.
That changed on Saturday.
Seconds after surviving a head-shot taken by a would-be assassin, Donald Trump was standing – surrounded by Secret Service Agents, pushing his bloodied head above them all and in full risk of more danger – exhorting the crowd to “Fight… Fight… Fight.”
Who does this?
Who does this?
Certainly not someone who ran for president to make more money.
Certainly not someone who cares only about himself and his needs.
Certainly not someone who is weak or insulated.
Certainly not someone who cares only about himself and his needs.
Certainly not someone who is weak or insulated.
No, what you saw is what you think you saw. You saw raw courage.
You saw a man who clearly does believe that some things are more important than him, and more important than his very life.You saw something in him that stands for something greater in ways that perhaps you never imagined, even if you already counted yourself as one of his supporters.
If you had billions of dollars, would you put yourself through this? But he does. Why?
It would be understandable for anyone to have questioned Trump’s belief in God even as he performed the duties of presidential candidate and president. How much of this was “just what you do” to get elected? Politicians kiss babies, speak at county fairs, and pray with any pastor or rabbi who wants to lay hands on them.
Trump has done all of this. It comes with the territory.
For the religiously faithful, pragmatically all they could do was hope that even if Trump’s motives for siding with them on key political issues has been driven by political expediency, at least he would be an effective advocate for their agenda.
Saturday night laid some of that skepticism bare.
Saturday night laid some of that skepticism bare.
At some point, as Trump was pressed to the floor of that stage by a dog-pile of Secret Service agents – bleeding onto the deck – it’s not hard to imagine a common near-death experience happening to him.
He may have pondered,
“I’m alive. I lived. I could have died.”
Maybe he thought, “I should have died, but I did not. Why am I here? Who saved me? What does He want from me?”
If not in those moments, those questions surely had to have crossed his mind that night.
Maybe he thought, “I should have died, but I did not. Why am I here? Who saved me? What does He want from me?”
If not in those moments, those questions surely had to have crossed his mind that night.
If Donald Trump had a casual relationship with God and his own higher purpose before Saturday night, it has now gotten real.And there is no going back.
On Sunday morning after the attack on his life, Trump posted to Truth Social,
“It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening… We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness.”
No reasonable person can have any doubt that Trump meant every word of this.
No reasonable person can have any doubt that Trump meant every word of this.
In the unfolding events of Saturday night – under the glare of live media coverage – he proved it. Not surprisingly, he reinforced his plans to be at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week as planned.
He is not deviating.
But don’t expect to see the Donald Trump that took the stage in Butler on Saturday night – the glib and funny and biting public speaker/standup comic who’s won hearts and minds for the past eight years as he’s done. Don’t expect to see that New York streetfighter who’s pushed back against two impeachments, three indictments, one conviction, the entire media, the Deep State, Big Tech, and societal machines that have aligned against him.
Expect something different, something more.
Expect a more selfless warrior who now has those deep-setting scars of a near-death experience. One who likely will live the rest of his life knowing that the Creator gave him a second chance for a reason, and now it’s his own personal burden and responsibility to take advantage of that second chance.
Tim O'Brien is a veteran corporate communications consultant and crisis communicator who operates O’Brien Communications in Pittsburgh, PA.
