President Donald Trump has again addressed his prospects of being rewarded for his peacemaking initiatives in the afterlife, admitting for the first time: “I think I’m not maybe heaven-bound.”
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Israel Sunday, Trump was asked by Peter Doocy of Fox News about his recent remarks dwelling on whether or not he might be permitted to enter the pearly gates and whether his peace plan for Israel and Hamas in Gaza had advanced his case.
“I’m being a little cute,” the president chuckled in response to the question. “I don’t think there’s anything going to get me in heaven. I really don’t. I think I’m not maybe heaven-bound.
“I may be in heaven right now as we fly on Air Force One. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make heaven, but I’ve made life a lot better for a lot of people.”
Trump went on to gripe that “had the election of 2020 not been rigged,” he would have remained in the White House, rather than be replaced by Joe Biden, and been able to prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine, thereby chalking up another major conflict he might have succeeded in bringing to an end.
“We had an incompetent administration,” the president said of the Biden era. “We had an incompetent president. And because of a crooked election, millions of people are dead. And by the way, the Israeli thing was much harder to get settled because of the past administration.”
Trump has been stewing over his chances of receiving a warm welcome from St Peter since at least August 19, when he called into the Fox and Friends breakfast show and said: “If I can save 7,000 people a week from being killed, I think that’s pretty… I want to try to get to heaven if possible.
“I’m hearing that I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”
The administration followed that up by sending out a fundraising email with the subject line, “I want to try and get to heaven,” asking the president’s supporters for $15 donations.
“Last year, I came millimeters from death when that bullet pierced through my skin,” the email from Trump read, alluding to the assassination attempt he narrowly survived in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024.
“My triumphant return to the White House was never supposed to happen! But I believe that God saved me for one reason: TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
“I certainly wasn’t supposed to survive an assassin’s bullet, but by the grace of the almighty God, I did. SO NOW, I have no other choice but to answer the call to duty, but I can’t do it alone...”
Asked about the strategy, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the time: “I think the president was serious. I think the president wants to get to heaven – as I hope we all do in this room as well.”
Last week, Trump returned to the subject of his potential celestial ascent when he suggested there was “no reason to be good” if moral behaviour on earth is not rewarded after death.
Despite not always being convincing on questions of theology, the president has never been afraid to invoke the Christian faith to encourage evangelical support – most notably last year when he launched his own line of “God Bless the USA” Bibles, co-endorsed by the country singer Lee Greenwood, which are printed in China and retail for $59.99 (or $1,000 for a signed copy).
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