Donald Trump doesn’t want to go to hell when he dies, but he refuses to forgive his enemies, he told CBS correspondent Ross Douthat in a 60 Minutes interview aired Nov. 8.
“What do you think happens to Donald Trump when you die?” Douthat asked the president.
“Well, I’m a religious person, so in theory I go to heaven,” Trump eventually replied.
“Do you think you’re going to heaven?” Douthat pressed.
“I hope so. I don’t want to go to hell,” Trump said.
“Well, I’m a religious person, so in theory I go to heaven.”
Douthat, who previously was known as a conservative columnist for The New York Times before joining the 60 Minutes team, referenced Trump’s experience at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk last year. He noted Erika Kirk “gave some very moving remarks about Christian forgiveness, how you have to forgive your enemies and your opponents.”
Then he reminded Trump of his own response: “You followed her, and you said, and I know this was a little bit of a joke but I think facts come through jokes. You said, quote, ‘I hate my opponents and I don’t want the best for them.’ Let’s say you pass away, you’re entering the next life, and all you have to do to enter paradise is feel love and forgiveness for James Comey, Nancy Pelosi, anyone who you have expressed hate for over the years. Do you think you can do it?”
No, Trump said, because then he “wouldn’t be real.”
“I found them to be extremely dishonest people, very bad people, very bad for our country. I love our country far more than I can love people and people like that,” Trump said.
Pressed again by Douthat, Trump again said he could not forgive his political enemies, even in the afterlife, even before the Judgment Throne of God.
“No, I think they were very bad people and I dislike, I can use the word hate, I do hate some of my enemies. I think they’re — they’ve been terrible. Look what they’ve put me through, the weaponization. I got indicted. … I got impeached.”
“Look what they’ve put me through, the weaponization. I got indicted. … I got impeached.”
Douthat continued: “Mr. President, you have had the most charmed and remarkable life of any American in my entire lifetime, and you are telling me that before the Judgment Throne of God you couldn’t find it in your heart to forgive some of your enemies? After all that’s been given to you? Come on. Help me out here.”
After some back and forth, Trump again said: “I probably cannot do that, no, because I do hate some of my enemies and I always will.”
The rest of the interview — which has been hailed on social media as revelatory by both Democrats and Republicans — featured standard Trump talking points and outright lies. Republicans would have won the midterms if his name had been on the ballot, he insisted. The war in Iran already has been won, he declared.
His legacy will be that he “made America great again,” he said.
All the negative poll numbers about his administration are not to be trusted, he insisted.
“The press doesn’t cover positive news for Republicans. They don’t cover, certainly, positive news for me. So I have to do it myself. I have to get it out there. One of the reasons I did rallies was to do that.”
As throughout Trump’s candidacies and presidencies, the white evangelical leaders who have supported him most were not deterred by Trump’s claims about eternal salvation and fly against everything they have preached.
Franklin Graham turned the comments into an evangelistic opportunity for everyone except Trump:
I watched @CBS @60Minutes tonight, and Ross Douthat interviewed President @realDonaldTrump. Toward the end of the interview, they talked about something far more important than politics. He asked the president, at 80 years of age and after surviving multiple assassination attempts, what he thinks will happen when he dies. President Trump said he wants to go to heaven and not to hell. Most people, if asked, I believe would say the same. But heaven has borders. Heaven has unique and very strict entrance requirements. To enter Heaven, the Bible tells us that you must acknowledge your sins, turn from them in repentance, and receive Jesus Christ by faith. That means, believe that Jesus Christ is God’s Son, that He paid the penalty for your sins by dying on a cross, was buried in a tomb, raised to life on the third day, and walked out of that tomb. He’s alive! If you put your trust in Jesus Christ, you will be in God’s presence for eternity. Religion can’t save you — only a relationship with the Savior, Jesus Christ, can save you. Do you have that assurance?
Graham, a staunch supporter of Trump politically, said nothing about salvation for Trump or about how his view of eternity and forgiveness differs from core evangelical teaching.
Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, and another staunch Trump supporter, said essentially the same thing:
President Trump was asked on the 60 minutes interview what will happen after you die. Life’s most important question is “Where will you spend eternity?” The [resident answered, “I hope I go to heaven not hell.” There is one way a person can absolutely know the answer and live in the certainty that heaven is their eternal destiny. Jesus said I am the Way the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father except by me. John 14:6. Everyone including the president needs to nail this down. Salvation is a gift to be received not a goal to be achieved. Not by the works of righteous we have done but according to his mercy he has saved us. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Acts 16:31.
Previously, evangelical leaders have said Trump had a born-again experience and have compared him to Jesus in suffering persecution.
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