In his earlier celebrity years, Trump distanced himself from Christianity. In a 1990 profile with Playboy<\/em> magazine<\/a>, he said: \u201cI don\u2019t believe in reincarnation, heaven or hell\u2014but we go someplace. Do you know, I cannot, for the life of me, figure out where.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Twenty-five years later, Trump had announced his intention to run for president and was on the circuit wooing American evangelicals. This was the first time I really noticed Trump expressing his current understanding of Christianity. At the 2015 Family Leadership Summit<\/a>, Trump identified himself as a Christian, and to his credit, the host asked him a key gospel question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou used the word \u2018Christian\u2019. Have you ever asked God for forgiveness?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump responded, \u201cThat\u2019s a tough question. I don\u2019t think in terms of that. I\u2019m a religious person\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He then went on for a minute or two, entertaining the crowd with anecdotes. Again, to his credit, the host brought him back to the question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut have you ever asked God for forgiveness?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump replied frankly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure I have. I just go on and try to do a better job from there. I don\u2019t think so. I think if I do something wrong, I think I just try and make it right. I don\u2019t bring God into that picture\u2026 I don\u2019t think in terms of that. I think in terms of let\u2019s go on and let\u2019s make it right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not long after this, Trump was questioned on CNN<\/a> about his answer and his understanding of Christianity. Anderson Cooper asked him:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe idea of repentance. Is that something that\u2019s important to you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump answered, \u201cI think repenting is terrific.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cooper responded, \u201cBut do you feel a need to? As part of forgiveness?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump expanded on his answer, saying:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf I make a mistake then yeah, then I think it\u2019s great. But I try not to make mistakes. I mean, why do I have to, you know, repent? Why do I have to ask for forgiveness if you\u2019re not making mistakes? I work hard. I\u2019m an honorable person. I have thousands of people who work for me. I\u2019ve employed tens of thousands of people over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Months later, in early 2016, reporter Jake Tapper from CNN<\/a> asked him again about his response to repentance and forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump responded:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI like to be good. I don\u2019t like to have to ask for forgiveness. And I am good. I don\u2019t do a lot of things that are bad. I try and do nothing that\u2019s bad. I live a very different life than probably a lot of people would think. I have a very great relationship with God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At this stage, Trump hadn\u2019t won his first term as President, but he was still trying to win over Christian voters. In August 2016, he jokingly said to a group of pastors in Florida<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOnce I get in, I will do my thing that I do very well. And I figure it\u2019s probably maybe the only way I\u2019m going to get to heaven. So I better do a good job. Okay?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jump to 2024, Trump had been through a lot. In particular, the near-miss assassination attempt in July of that year would have at least given him reason to contemplate his own mortality. In the last few years he has surrounded himself with a mix of Christians who have probably told him a variety of understandings of Christianity\u2014from the prosperity gospel, to Christian nationalism, to the simple, biblical gospel of grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet Trump seemed to still believe the idea that heaven is a reward for good people. In August 2024, he was being interviewed by Fox News<\/a>, defending the importance and goodness of religion for society. He said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cReligion, it gives you some hope. Gee, if I\u2019m good I\u2019m going to heaven\u2026 and if I\u2019m bad I\u2019m going to someplace else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon after that, he reiterated that message in a cabinet meeting where he said<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI want to be good because you want to prove to God that you\u2019re good so you go to that next step, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In August 2025, Trump called into the Fox and Friends breakfast show<\/a> and more concretely pinned his hopes for getting into heaven on his ability to end the war in Ukraine. He said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf I can save 7 000 people a week from getting killed, that\u2019s pretty good. I want to try and get to heaven, if possible. I\u2019m hearing I\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s now October 2025, and whilst the war in Ukraine has not ended, Trump has been able to secure a peace deal between Israel and Hamas, bringing some form of an end (Lord willing) to the current conflict. The other day, on Air Force One, Fox News\u2019s Peter Doocy asked Trump<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA couple weeks ago, you were doing an interview and you talked about how you hope to end the war in Ukraine because it might help you get into heaven. How does this help? Does this help?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump responded in his usual joking (though revealing) style:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI mean, you know, I\u2019m being a little cute. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything going to get me in heaven. Okay? I really don\u2019t. I think I\u2019m not maybe heaven-bound. I may be in heaven right now as we fly on Air Force One. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m going to be able to make heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just in case, you weren\u2019t aware, I\u2019ll state it here plainly: no one gets to heaven on the basis of their good works. We only find salvation by grace through trusting in the atoning work of Christ on our behalf:<\/p>\n\n\n\n For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.<\/em> (Ephesians 2:8\u20139<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. <\/em>(Galatians 2:16<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.<\/em> (Titus 3:4\u20137<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it\u2014 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God\u2019s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.<\/em> (Romans 3:20\u201326<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the very least, over the last ten years, Trump has gone from saying: \u201cI am good\u201d and \u201cI have a very great relationship with God\u201d, to acknowledging that \u201cI\u2019m hearing I\u2019m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole\u201d and \u201cI think I\u2019m not maybe heaven-bound.\u201d He may still think that he needs to do something good to climb that totem pole to heaven, but understanding that you\u2019re not heaven-bound is definitely the first step towards understanding your need for a saviour.<\/p>\n\n\n When I looked back at photos from ten years ago, when Trump was asked if he ever asked God for forgiveness, I noticed on the coffee table there was a small piece of art with the words \u201cAMAZING GRACE\u201d written in silver and in the shape of a cross. It is sad that Trump missed those words, and seems to continue to miss them. In his recent comment, Trump tragically said, \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything going to get me in heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The good news is that for Donald Trump, for all of us, there is hope. It\u2019s still right there. Amazing grace in the shape of a cross. Let\u2019s hope he sees it and receives it one day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Simon Camilleri\/Australia Correspondent. President Donald Trump is comfortable telling you what is on his mind. For good or bad, that means there is a long history of recorded statements from Trump, giving his frank and unfiltered thoughts on a variety of topics. For the last ten years, I have been particularly interested in noting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[155],"tags":[423,119,200,179],"coauthors":[979],"class_list":{"0":"post-13098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-apostacy","8":"tag-apostacy","9":"tag-bible","10":"tag-god","11":"tag-usa"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-16-135151.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13100,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13098\/revisions\/13100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13098"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=13098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u201cI Am Good \u2026 I Have a Very Great Relationship with God\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI Am Really at the Bottom of the Totem Pole\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI Don\u2019t Think There\u2019s Anything Going to Get Me in Heaven\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Salvation by Grace<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Tragedy of Missing God\u2019s Amazing Grace<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/media.thegospelcoalition.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/10\/17142106\/Photo-small-amazinggrace-artwork-300x179.jpg\")
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