Had he not moved his head a few inches to the right, former President Trump likely would not have survived Saturday’s assassination attempt.
In his own words, he shouldn’t be here.
How such an event might change the former president remains to be seen, but the 78-year-old has already shifted his message ahead of this week’s Republican National Convention, toning down his typical criticisms of Democrats and emphasizing calls for unity and civility.
The Rev. Catherine Duncan is an ordained minister in Minnesota and a chaplain at hospice and trauma centers. She has helped hundreds of patients get through.
Drawing on her vast experience, Reverend Duncan predicts a spiritual awakening in Trump that will lead him to become more centrist in his political views.
Donald Trump was detained by the Secret Service seconds after shots were fired at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, with one bullet grazing his right ear.
Reverend Duncan told DailyMail.com: ‘There is a lot of chaos in America with the election.
“And I think that experience, I would feel it, with Trump, opens up your sense of being alive, your sense of feeling, your sense of experience, and how do you want to move forward?
“And there have already been some political rumblings about unity, if there can be unity, and I can see Trump leaning more toward a middle path and toward unity among everyone.”
He added: “This could be a significant turning point for Trump to embrace the good, to embrace how we can treat each other with love and kindness and how we can find middle ground amidst all the chaos right now.”
“I think it’s a very strong message that can reach people’s hearts.”
Many have accused Trump of turning to religion to curry favor with Republican voters during his first presidential campaign and have questioned the sincerity of his faith.
But the Rev. Duncan said close encounters with death can completely alter a person’s worldview, no matter how devout they were, “and each of us can change, open up and choose how we live our lives.”
Trump’s senior campaign adviser Jason Miller told NBC that the former president “feels very lucky” to be alive.
And Mr. Trump saying On Sunday, on his social media site Truth Social, he said that “it was only God who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”
Trump, pictured with his grandchildren, has reportedly hailed his survival as a “gift from God” which Rev Duncan believes will alter his course on the campaign trail in the future.
Typically, the term “near-death experience” refers to a person’s experience when they have been the victim of severe trauma, have little or no brain activity, are under deep anesthesia, or suffer cardiac arrest.
Research on near-death experiences is expanding rapidly and Recent review Studies looking at the after-effects of NDEs showed that the most common effects were loss of fear of death, belief in being favored by God, a revitalized sense of purpose, increased self-esteem, and increased compassion for other people.
Reverend Duncan herself came face to face with death in a rafting incident when she was thrown overboard and dragged deep underwater.
She said the ordeal “broke me wide open. It gave me clarity about what really matters in life and a sense of why I’m really here and a purpose, a sense of how precious life is.”
This led her to leave a lucrative job at Time Inc. and go to theology school to become an ordained minister.
She said, ‘A lens opens on life and your perspective opens, it changes your perspective on life.
“A lot of people are leaning into what they really want to do with their lives and what’s really important. They feel more hope, they feel more kindness. That’s something I’ve seen a lot of.”
Trump’s communications since Saturday’s terrifying event suggest a renewed zeal for the divine that will likely mean more religious rhetoric on the campaign trail and potentially more support as people see this as a prime example of divine intervention.
A person who spoke to the former president on Sunday said he was almost ‘spiritual’ about his near-brush with death and felt he had received “a gift from God” for surviving.
The Rev. Catherine Duncan, an ordained minister and chaplain at hospice and trauma centers, said she is “100 percent” confident Trump is “leaning toward a more middle path and unity among all” after his brush with death.
All of this would reinforce the strength of any candidate’s message. It could well be fuel for a candidate whose main goal is to dismantle the status quo and make as much noise as possible while doing so.
That, meanwhile, is likely to unsettle Democrats, who have spent weeks highlighting the Project 2025 plan, drafted by the Heritage Foundation and approved by a former Trump staffer.
The plan, among other things, calls for an overhaul of the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services and mass layoffs to install Trump loyalists in regulatory positions.
Democrats now increasingly fear that Saturday’s proceedings will catapult him into martyr status and boost the persecuted victim narrative he has placed at the center of his campaign.
The Rev Duncan said: ‘I think there will be a range of opinions based on people’s religious backgrounds. There may be people who are more traditional Christians and say God saved him.
“But the truth is that it was not his time and I think he has been granted the gift of life.”