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— NAVIGATION THROUGH THE MADNESS* —

When Donald Trump returns to outdoor campaign rallies, he will be protected by bulletproof glass. And that’s how it should be.

But why only now?

This seems like a sensible and even necessary precautionary measure, so why did it take a near-miss to lead to its implementation?

We firmly believe that the Secret Service should spare no expense in protecting presidential candidates and should over-resource rather than under-resource.

We also believe the Secret Service failed in its job last month when a gunman nearly assassinated Trump, plunging the country into unimaginable chaos.

The resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was a first step toward accountability, but the agency will need to take a close and thorough look at how it keeps its charges safe.

It’s nice to see that there is bipartisan consensus that the Secret Service screwed up, that an investigation is necessary, and that things need to improve.

But why are Republicans upset that Trump has no protection when, as many of them claim, they believe that Trump is protected by God?

The former president himself just said this.

During his press conference on Thursday, a reporter/sympathetic follower asked this question or invited divine assistance: “You have spoken very passionately about how God saved your life, and I wonder, have you thought much about why God saved your life, that is, for what purpose did He shield and protect you?”

After making sure everyone had heard the question, Trump answered.

“So I don’t know if you heard the question: you talked about God saving your life, I talked passionately about it and something happened because that was a miracle.”

Trump then began to explain why he thought it was a miracle that he escaped the shooting with only a cut on his ear (after initially saying the crowd was huge).

You can watch it for yourself here (and we’ll post the entire response at the end of this article), but essentially Trump said that a (misleading) chart showing illegal immigration numbers saved his life because it’s usually on the other side of him, meaning he never moves to the right.

Oh, and the teleprompter everyone saw wasn’t a teleprompter because he didn’t need one.

(By the way, I don’t mean to be petty, but if he says the spreadsheet was responsible, wasn’t it illegal immigration that saved Trump’s life?)

In any case, the former president is convinced that God spared him for a higher purpose.

“So yes, God had something to do with it,” Trump said. “It’s a miracle, and God had something to do with it. And maybe it’s – we want to save the world.”

If all this is true and the Lord has His loving hand over Trump, then it doesn’t really matter how little or how much protection the Secret Service provides, does it?

And, to be clear, we think it does important and the greatest possible protection should be offered.

We just want to point out that no one who claims that Trump is under God’s protection should be angry at the Secret Service, because that would be unnecessary.

Here is Trump’s full response:

So I don’t know if you heard the question. You talked about God saving your life, I talked passionately about it and then something happened because that was a miracle.

I never looked like that. The audience was huge and it was right in front of me. I never saw that – that particular graph – that was a graph on – as you all know now, it’s very – I think everyone knows it very well, but it showed the high numbers on illegal immigration.

That was the lowest point we ever had, and I used it less than 20 percent of the time. It’s always at the end of the speech, not the beginning. And it’s always on the left side, not the right.

And yet, for some reason, I said it – it’s not on a teleprompter. Honestly, most of the time I do it without a teleprompter because it’s hard to hold an audience when you’re reading a script for an hour and a half or two hours. And I was just talking about it, and I went right, turned hard right, ping, and if I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t be here with you.

So yes, God had something to do with it. It’s a miracle, and God had something to do with it. And maybe it’s – we want to save the world.

This world is coming to an end. This world is coming to an end. That’s how it could be.

But I believe that. I believe that. My sons are very good shooters.

They’re like scratch golfers, relatively better, with shooters. Great shooters. And Eric and Don both told me 130 yards, that’s pretty far away, right? They said, no, that’s like a 30-yard putt with guns like the ones that are used.

He was also a good shot. This guy was a good shot. He went to the range and shot a lot, and he was considered a pretty good shot.

They said a bad shooter would hit the target almost 100 percent of the time.

*In his columns “Navigating the Insanity,” Klaus Marre delivers the kind of hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and often humorous analysis you won’t find anywhere else.