President Donald Trump mused about his eternal fate again during a news conference at the White House.
The 79-year-old president was asked about a new “America Prays” initiative by the White House that will mark next year's semiquincentennial by “inviting America’s great religious communities to pray for our nation and for our people."
His comments probed the great beyond, reported The Daily Beast.
“You know, there’s no reason to be good," Trump told reporters. "I want to be good because you want to prove to God you’re good so you go to that next step, right?”
“That’s very important to me," he added. "I think it’s really, very important.”
The Trump administration's Religious Liberty Commission and other initiatives have raised concerns about the influence of Christian Nationalist organizations on the government and public schools, but the president seemed to argue that might be good.
“I’ve felt for a long time that if a country doesn’t have religion, doesn’t have faith, doesn’t have God, it’s going to be very hard to be a good country,” Trump told reporters.
Trump has seemed to be preoccupied with the afterlife in recent months, and one fundraising email – with the subject line “I want to try and get to Heaven" – cited his apparent brush with death last summer in Butler, Pennsylvania, as the reason.
“Last year I came millimeters from death when that bullet pierced through my skin. My triumphant return to the White House was never supposed to happen!” the email read. “But I believe that God saved me for one reason: TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The president also ruminated on Fox News this summer about his anxiety about gaining entry to heaven upon his demise.
“I’m hearing I’m not doing well,” Trump told the hosts. “I hear I’m really at the bottom of the totem pole."
He spoke on the topic again in an interview with conservative talk radio host Todd Starnes.
“You know, [people] get punished if they’re not good, right?" Trump said. "If you don’t think about that, if you’re not a believer, and you believe you go nowhere, what’s the reason to be good, really? There has to be some kind of a report card up there someplace, you know, like, let’s go to heaven, let’s get into heaven, and it’s sort of a beautiful thing.”