Franklin Graham has suggested that the “hand of God” is on the US president following the assassination attempt on Saturday.
The evangelist, who was at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington DC, witnessed Donald Trump survive his third assassination attempt.
He posted on X: “After three assassination attempts, some people say that President @realDonaldTrump is one lucky man. I don’t think luck has anything to do with it — I believe it is the hand of God. What do you think?”
Many agreed with Franklin, with one user commenting: “God has kept him here for a reason. Maybe we don’t know exactly why, but believe in the will of the Lord there is a reason.”
Others disagreed, with some online rhetoric claiming the attack was staged by the Trump administration.
“I question this recent so-called attempt on the life of @realDonaldTrump,” one user said. “He’s losing favour/voters big time, including from my husband and me. I think he’s trying to drum up more sympathy. If that person was able to get into the building with a gun, which is highly unlikely, then he would’ve gone into the room and opened fire.”
Greg Swenson, Chair of Republicans Overseas, has criticised such comments as conspiracy theories, but said there are “valid questions” that need to be answered about security at high-profile political events.
“It’s totally valid to ask why there wasn’t any sort of due diligence done on people staying at the hotel,” Swenson told Premier Christian News. “Clearly you couldn’t get into the hotel yesterday [Saturday] with a gun. I’ve been to enough of these events — security is unbelievably tight. I’ve been to parties at the Hilton, actually the same hotel. Interestingly, that’s where Ronald Reagan was shot leaving the Hilton.”
He added that the fact this is the third time someone has tried to kill the president in public shows the sad state of affairs in US politics.
“It’s not a good moment. You have this fanatical Trump derangement syndrome, and that’s really spilling over into these incidents,” he said. “Trying to assassinate a president is not new — it started with Lincoln 150 years ago. We’ve had four presidents who were assassinated, but the fact that there have been three attempts — and those are only the ones we know about — is really a shame. The political division has become so outrageous.”
Donald Trump said on Sunday that the suspect accused of trying to attack administration officials at a black-tie gala on Saturday night was a “pretty sick guy” who had been flagged to law enforcement by family members.
Mr Trump said in TV interviews that the suspect, identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, had posted what Trump described as an “anti-Christian” manifesto.
“He was a Christian believer, and then he became anti-Christian, and he had a lot of change,” Trump told CBS’ 60 Minutes programme. “He was probably a pretty sick guy.”
Rev Graham on Saturday praised security services for their “quick” and “efficient” response. He added: “I thank God that America has such a great leader. Pray for our President.”
