MECKLER: Miracles happen — Washington, Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt and now Trump

The following was written by Mark Meckler and originally published on The Washington Times. Click here to read the entire article there!

In 1755, George Washington had horses shot out from beneath him at the Battle of the Monongahela. “[I] now exist and appear in the land of the living by the miraculous care of Providence that protected me beyond all human expectation,” he told his brother. “I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me and yet escaped unhurt.”

In 1835, a man named Richard Lawrence tried to fire two shots at President Andrew Jackson’s heart. Mysteriously, both of his pistols misfired. A century later, Smithsonian Institution researchers “studied Lawrence’s derringers, during which both guns discharged properly on the test’s first try. It was later determined that the odds of both guns misfiring during the assassination attempt were one in 125,000.”

In 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt was “pinked” by an attacker’s bullet. Fortunately, a “dense overcoat, steel-reinforced eyeglass case” and a robust speech tucked into his inner right jacket pocket slowed the projectile and spared him a fatal wound to the heart.

Characteristically, the indefatigable Roosevelt refused to cancel his speech. “Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible,” he famously declared. “I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot,” the hero of San Juan Hill continued, shrugging off the “trivial” wound. “It takes more than that to kill a bull moose.”

In 2024, former President Donald Trump turned to study a billboard-sized chart detailing immigration trends in the United States, narrowly dodging a bullet that could have been fatal. The shot grazed his ear, and the former president dropped to the ground for cover. Yet as he stood again, blood streaking his face, he raised his fist defiantly into the air. “Fight, fight, fight,” he blazoned.

Such is the list of future, sitting and former presidents who inexplicably survived attempts on their lives. Mr. Trump is the most recent to join the list.

I would not be the first to say that Mr. Trump should not be alive. Nor would I be the first to point out that what happened to him this past Saturday was historic.

“The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount,” recounted Mr. Trump, who recovered quickly. “If I only half-turn, it hits the back of the brain. The other way goes right through [the skull]. And because the [immigration] sign was high, I’m looking up. The chances of my making a perfect turn are probably one-tenth of 1 percent, so I’m not supposed to be here.”

“Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening,” he added.

We must not brush past Mr. Trump’s words too quickly. We must not assume that his survival was merely a matter of luck or good fortune.

Make no mistake: Providence intervened on behalf of Mr. Trump and our nation. What we witnessed over the weekend was nothing short of miraculous.

In the face of intemperate hatred, unbridled evil and impossible odds, God spared this former president. Despite everything his enemies have thrown at him — sham impeachment trials, spurious felony charges and now, an assassination attempt — Mr. Trump has continued to get back up. It’s difficult not to be inspired by that.

This moment in American history will be remembered and even mythologized. Burn this into your mind (it likely already is). Mark it on your heart. Record it for future generations to recall.

As the years go by, events like the Battle of the Monongahela and the assassination attempts on Jackson and Roosevelt acquired legendary status, becoming larger than life and almost unbelievable. But we have now witnessed such a thing in our times. 

The American epic is still being told; God is still intervening on our behalf.

Saturday’s violence was shocking, devastating and disturbing. Specifically, we must keep the victims and their families in our prayers.

But there is hope — hope that God’s providential hand still protects this nation, guiding us toward a brighter and better tomorrow if we choose to follow God.

Read more from Mark Meckler on The Washington Times!