United States President Donald Trump has again reflected on his prospects of being rewarded in the afterlife for his peacemaking efforts, admitting for the first time: “I think I’m not maybe heaven-bound.”

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Israel on Sunday, Trump was asked by Peter Doocy of Fox News about his recent remarks on whether he might be permitted to enter heaven and if his peace plan for Israel and Hamas in Gaza had strengthened his case.

“I’m being a little cute,” the president chuckled in response. “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 also revisited his long-standing claims about the 2020 presidential election, suggesting that had the election not been “rigged,” he would have prevented the Russian invasion of Ukraine and achieved more global peace.

“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.”

The president’s musings on his spiritual fate date back to August 19, when he told Fox and Friends: “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.”

Shortly after those comments, his campaign sent a fundraising email with the subject line, “I want to try and get to heaven,” urging supporters to donate $15.

“Last year, I came millimeters from death when that bullet pierced through my skin,” the email from Trump read, referencing the assassination attempt he narrowly survived in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024. (Nigerian Tribune)