Ross Douthat had just walked Donald Trump through the Iran war's dead against Vietnam and Korea when he changed the subject. "Death. Let's talk about death." Trump answered the first question with a laugh: "Well, I hope I'm missed."
Asked if he goes to heaven: "I hope so. I don't want to go to hell." Douthat read him his own line from the Charlie Kirk memorial, "I hate my opponents and I don't want the best for them," and asked whether he could forgive James Comey and Nancy Pelosi. "Well, then I wouldn't be real, would I?" Then: "The answer is no. I want to be honest, no." Then: "I do hate some of my enemies and I always will."
He has answered the heaven question three times in 15 months, and the answer follows his mood. On Fox News in August 2025 he wanted "to try to get to heaven if possible" because "I'm hearing that I'm not doing well." On Air Force One in October 2025 he told Peter Doocy, "I don't think there's anything going to get me in heaven." Sunday, four days after losing Congress, he gave heaven "in theory."
Douthat spent the rest of the hour on the loss, and the first reader of that transcript is Stephen Miller.
