House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) appeared on Fox News Monday after an apparent assassination attempt on GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump occurred at one of the former president’s Florida golf clubs on the weekend. The foiled attempt (the perpetrator did not get off a shot) was the second recent attempt on Trump’s life, coming after Trump was grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet in Butler, PA in July.
Johnson told Fox News, referring to the most recent attempt, that he believes God was with Trump and protected the former president from harm.
Johnson reported that he and his wife Kelly spoke with Trump “at great length” about the assassination attempts and added, of his assertion that Trump is protected by God, that “it’s something no one can deny.”
Mike Johnson: Trump reminds me of George Washington. @atrupar pic.twitter.com/tRN3Gd6FQT
— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) September 16, 2024
Johnson said the “remarkable” situation — of Trump surviving two assassination attempts — reminds him of “the bulletproof George Washington” who “evaded being shot at when he was an Army Colonel” during the French and Indian War. The Speaker added: “They all took shots at him and bullets went through his jacket.”
The Washington “event” Johnson referred to was not a presidential assassination attempt but the 1755 Battle of Monongahela. According to the Mount Vernon Education Center at Washington’s Virginia estate, “During the savage fight, Washington had two horses shot out from underneath him and his coat was pierced by four musket balls. Washington’s cool leadership helped many of the surviving soldiers to effectively escape the onslaught.”
Johnson compared Trump, who was targeted by a potential shooter at his private golf club, to a 21-year-old Army hero who “rode into the fray” of a military battle. Washington became the first U.S. president 34 years later in 1789, and eight years after that willingly departed the nation’s highest office, thus beginning the revered American tradition of the peaceful transition of power.
In an attempt to add significance to his comparison, the Speaker also noted that the Washington “event took place ironically 50 miles away” from the first assassination attempt on Trump at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Johnson said: “These things aren’t accidents, they’re not luck. I believe it’s providence.” He added, “It would move any man’s heart and I think it’s moved president Trump’s.”