Has Donald Trump become unstoppable?

‘You’re gonna be so blessed,” said Pastor James Roemke, doing a pretty good Donald Trump impersonation in the warm-up to his Benediction of the Republican National Convention on Monday. “You’re gonna be tired of being blessed, I guarantee it, believe me.” Sitting in the stands with a bandage on his ear, Trump enjoyed the joke — a riff on his famous line from 2016 about “winning.” He smiled almost beatifically for the cameras.

In the wake of the shooting, Trump has begun to sound, believe it or not, graceful and magnanimous

It was poignant, too, because in his case it seemed so true: God, or some supernatural force beyond our understanding, does seem to be showering the Republican nominee with blessings of late.

Hours earlier, a Florida judge had dismissed the Justice Department’s case against Trump for hoarding classified documents, a major victory for his legal team. That news came just two days after he somehow survived — “by God or by luck,” as he put it — the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Corey Comperatore, a former volunteer fire chief in the crowd, was less fortunate: he was shot and killed, heroically protecting his wife. Nonetheless, a huge number of voters understandably regard Trump’s escape as miraculous. For those of an evangelical temper, who believe in the Donald and worship the Almighty, it seems as if the latter is at last revealing His great plan to put the former back in the White House by 2025.

As a result, at the convention this week, Trump is not simply being nominated as the Republican candidate in 2024. He’s being anointed as America’s Chosen One. “I have no doubt that God lowered a shield of protection over President Trump,” is how the former presidential candidate Ben Carson put it. Countless others expressed the same sentiment. “When we get the president walking in it’s like God Almighty walking in,” said one delegate.

It all sounds distinctly cultish. Yet even the most ardent Trump-loathers must admit that the Donald is on an extraordinary roll. The candidacy of his Democratic opponent, President Joe Biden, has been falling apart since his disastrous performance in last month’s first presidential debate. Trump is now ahead in the polls in all the battleground states — in Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Biden’s campaign looks increasingly Rishi Sunak-like in its hopelessness. Unless God intervenes once more, however, the Democrats seem stuck with him. The president has said that he would only step down  “if the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get out of the race.’” The whispers in Washington are that his party are already giving up on stopping a second Trump term and have begun eyeing up the presidential election of 2028 instead.

There are still more than 100 days until election day. Only a fool would say that the contest is over. The national polls remain tight and Trump is more than capable of blowing a lead.

In the wake of Saturday’s shooting, he has begun to sound — believe it or not — graceful and magnanimous. On Sunday, he revealed that he had ditched his planned convention speech — “it was brutal: really good, really tough” — in favor of something “more unifying.” He also said that Biden “couldn’t have been nicer” after the sitting president rang to wish him well.

His display of strength was a perfect contrast to the stumbling and bumbling of Joe Biden

It’s not so strange for a man who has just dodged a violent death to embrace a more sanguine philosophy. But anyone expecting an outbreak of civility in American politics is likely to be disappointed. Trump isn’t really cut out for the “Kumbaya” stuff. Four years ago, as race riots tore across America following the ugly demise of George Floyd, he decided to announce some good economic news by saying: “Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that’s happening for our country.” To say the message did not resonate would be an understatement.

But 2020 was Trump’s annus horribilis. The Covid crisis spectacularly derailed his presidency. His erratic press conferences and his eccentric views on medicine left Americans baffled and disturbed. He failed to stop the havoc of the Black Lives Matter protests. In the presidential debates with Biden, he sounded petulant and silly. In November, he lost the election and bitterly protested the result, which led to the chaos on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021.

This year could not be more different. Trump, now the challenger, has run a surprisingly disciplined campaign. In the now infamous debate, he managed to contain his aggression as Biden melted down on stage. Trump appeared for once to heed Napoleon’s rule of war: never interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake. In the days that followed, as the Democrats tore into each other over Biden’s ill-health, he kept a relatively low profile.

Then, on Saturday, the gun went off in Pennsylvania. Under fire, Trump demonstrated that he possesses something more potent than mere courage: he has warrior spirit. Within seconds of being shot, he stood up and, resisting the five Secret Service agents pushing him to safety, raised his fist and shouted: “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

His display of strength was a perfect contrast to the stumbling and bumbling of Joe Biden. He also tapped into something fundamentally American. The United States is a country whose national anthem is an ode to martial resistance. “Violence is as American as apple pie,” said the Black Panther H. Rap Brown. He was only partly wrong. What Americans really cherish, often viciously, is the idea of fighting back. And in his defiance Trump showed himself to be the sort of person modern Americans most revere: a badass — tough, uncompromising, immune to fear.

That partly explains why a number of famous people, who not so long ago would have recoiled at the thought of even appearing to approve of Trump, have taken to praising him. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, wholeheartedly endorsed Trump within minutes of the shooting and is now reportedly forming a political action committee to support his campaign.

A few hours later, Bill Ackman, another billionaire and a longtime Democrat, added his support. The rapper 50 Cent, who has himself been shot nine times, posted one of his songs — “Many Men Wish Death Upon Me” — along with the caption: “I know the vibes… we are all in trouble now!” The post was soon deleted, though not before it went viral.

The rest of the world has been quick to recognize Trump’s strength too. On Monday, a Chinese software company saw its value soar simply because its name “Chuan Da Zhi Sheng” sounds similar to “Trump win big” in Chinese.

Trump enthusiasts are no doubt getting carried away in arguing that such stories represent a great cultural tipping point. In the coming days, the polls may suggest that the shooting has not in fact dramatically altered the course of the election.

Yet Trump has always had a mysterious ability to turn the worst attacks against him to his advantage. The legal system throws four criminal indictments at him; his popularity grows. A man very nearly kills him; he emerges stronger than ever.

At the convention this week, in between the prayers, delegates spontaneously broke out into chants of “Fight! Fight! Fight!” in honor of their wounded hero. Swing voters might start to find such belligerence off-putting. For now, however, Trump win big.

This article was originally published in The Spectator’s UK magazine. Subscribe to the World edition here.