Trump Says He Wants to ‘Try and Get to Heaven if Possible’: ‘I’m Hearing I’m Not Doing Well’

President Donald Trump has shared a surprising motivation behind his efforts to broker international peace deals during his second term: securing eternal salvation.

In a phone interview with Fox & Friends on Tuesday, Aug. 19, Trump offered a new explanation for his involvement in ending the war in Ukraine, including his role as a mediator between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“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,” Trump said.

“I’m hearing that I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole,” he added, drawing laughter from the Fox News hosts. “But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later clarified that she didn’t think Trump was joking.

“I think the president was serious,” she said. “I think the president wants to get to heaven — as I hope we all do in this room as well.”

Positioning himself as a “mediator in chief” has been a key focus for Trump during his second term. He told Zelenskyy during their Aug. 18 meeting that he had brokered “six deals” in global conflicts this year alone.

Trump and his administration have claimed to have assisted in resolving disputes between Israel and Iran; the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda; Cambodia and Thailand; India and Pakistan; Serbia and Kosovo; and Egypt and Ethiopia.

However, as The Guardian notes, “the claim to have settled those conflicts is embellished and in some cases contradicted by continued violence in countries like DR Congo, where Rwanda-backed rebels missed a deadline to reach a peace deal in Doha on Tuesday.”

Trump’s efforts to pressure Putin also appear overstated. The two leaders failed to reach a peace deal or agree to a ceasefire during their summit in Alaska on Aug. 15, despite Trump vaguely warning of “very severe consequences” if Russia didn’t comply.

Days later, Trump told Zelenskyy and other European leaders that a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine wasn’t necessary—or realistic—while broader peace negotiations were ongoing.

Acknowledging the challenges of negotiating with Putin, Trump commented at the Kennedy Center on Aug. 13, “I’ve had a lot of good conversations with [Putin]. Then I go home and I see that a rocket hit a nursing home or a rocket hit an apartment building and people are laying dead in the streets.”

Before Trump’s remarks about heaven, the South Park series notably took a humorous stance on the president’s spiritual prospects. The season 27 premiere depicted a cartoonized Trump lying in bed with Satan, with the demon repeatedly comparing Trump to a “guy he used to date,” referencing Saddam Hussein.