Recently a myriad of legacy media, political pundits, and websites have promoted the idea that Trump’s loss in the 2020 election was actually a net positive for the country, though you’ll never have Trump agree with that assessment. Yet there is something to be said for the differences between the man in 2020, and the man in 2024. More than that, there are some intriguing facts that suggest that not only was it the best outcome longterm, but it was divinely guided.
Conclusions abounded that Trump had essentially brought the 2020 loss on himself; from the leftwing BBC:
They were put off by his aggressiveness. His stoking of racial tensions. His use of racist language in tweets maligning people of colour. His failure, on occasions, to adequately condemn white supremacy. His trashing of America’s traditional allies and his admiration for authoritarian strongmen, such as Vladimir Putin.
His strange boasts about being ‘a very stable genius’ and the like. His promotion of conspiracy theories. His use of a lingua franca that sometimes made him sound more like a crime boss, such as when he described his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors, as ‘a rat’.
Others blamed the coronavirus and how Trump handled it, the impact the virus had on the economy, and Trump’s Operation Warpspeed. Instead of reassuring the public about Covid-19, he told them not to worry about it, which many perceived as a lack of empathy for those who were afraid or suffering.
Eventually, the legacy media smugly reported that Trump agreed that he had lost the 2020 election and that seemed to give them some satisfaction:
Pointing to a chart of how illegal immigration had slowed during his administration, Trump said, ‘This was the last week in office for me because of a horrible, horrible election where I got many millions more votes than I got the first time, but didn’t quite make it, just a little bit short.’
(Although he was persuaded by his campaign staff to tone down his “rigged election” rhetoric, it’s unclear whether he was convinced.)
But what if we took a totally different approach to Trump’s loss in 2020? First, it’s worth considering that there are factors that may have been ignored or missed. When Trump was the victim of an assassination attempt, here is how he described the experience:
Since being pulled off a Butler, Pennsylvania state bloodied and defiant by Secret Service agents, Trump has spent the past two days sharing his harrowing experience with close allies and advisers. In conversations both public and private, Trump has said he is lucky to be alive after Saturday’s rally.
To some, Trump has even suggested divine intervention spared his life.
‘It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening,’ Trump wrote in a Truth Social post in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. ‘We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness.’
That sentiment is one Trump has truly internalized, according to some of those who have spoken to him in recent days, and one Trump, who is not an especially religious or spiritual man, has reiterated during the aftermath of Saturday’s traumatic event.
‘I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,’ Trump said during an interview with the New York Post Sunday. ‘By luck or by God, many people are saying it’s by God, I’m still here.’
The assassination attempt was so dramatic and life-changing that Trump believed that he was saved by God’s intervention. But he apparently has not considered that God may have played a role in other ways in his life: like his loss in the 2020 election.
Now, bear with me.
For example, Trump was far less prepared for the 2020 election than he was for the 2024 election. He had picked terrible candidates to serve him in 2016—they refused to support him and provide helpful advice. He was still angry about the questionable integrity of the 2020 election. His boorish behavior and crude criticisms of foreign adversaries and those around him caused the public to cringe.
The legacy media attacked nearly everything he said and did.
By 2020, it was unclear how much he understood about the Washington swamp, and if he had developed new ways of tackling the problem. Maybe there was a divine force that realized he was not ready, and deeply cared about saving this country.
Maybe God decided that we still needed a president to shake things up, but one who was more skilled and prepared for what he was up against.
Maybe God intervened, determining that Trump should lose the 2020 election, so he would be better prepared to run the country in 2024.
You might ask, when has anything like this ever happened, where it appeared that God may have intervened? For those of you who are biblically oriented, I’d remind you of the story of Joseph and his brothers: the brothers kidnapped him, sold him to a caravan, and after many life difficulties, Joseph actually became the second-in-charge to Pharaoh in Egypt. And when circumstances allowed him to meet his brothers much later, he assured them that he didn’t hate them for what they did, that everything that happened was due to the actions and will of God. Joseph believed in God’s intervention with all his heart, and because of his brothers’ betrayal, he was in a position to save his people from the famine.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to consider that God may have intervened for Trump not just in the assassination attempt, but earlier when he ran for the 2020 election?
Image: The Last Refuge, with permission.