U.S. President Donald Trump attends a ceremony marking the 24th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States at the Pentagon, in Washington D.C., U.S., September 11, 2025. REUTERSEvelyn Hockstein
President Donald Trump has been talking a lot about the afterlife lately, writes HuffPost writer Brittany Wong.
“I think I’m not maybe heaven-bound,” he said recently. “I may be in heaven right now as we fly in Air Force One. I’m not sure I’m gonna be able to make heaven, but I’ve made life a lot better for a lot of people.”
Wong also points out that Trump recently spoke about the necessity of heaven: “If you don’t have heaven, you almost say, ‘What’s the reason? Why do I have to be good?’” Trump admitted during a “Fox & Friends” interview last year.
“At 79, President Trump is getting up there,” said Wong and New York-based psychologist Cynthia Shaw, who specializes in existential confrontation, loneliness and selfhood. And people often start thinking about heaven when they’re forced to contemplate their advanced age.
Death anxiety, also known as thanatophobia, is the fear or worry surrounding one’s own mortality. Concerns like Trump’s reflect a common psychological pattern for those grappling with such anxiety, according to Rachel Menzies, a psychologist and author of “Mortals: How the Fear of Death Shaped Human Society.”
“The idea that goodness or achievement can somehow protect us from the finality of death is believed by many,” said Menzies. “It’s often a way of managing the uncomfortable truth that mortality is outside our control, by turning it into something we can earn, influence or negotiate.”
The violent and widely broadcast death of MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk may have been another trigger for Trump, according to Gabrielle Ferrara, a therapist at the Lukin Center for Psychotherapy.
“We might be faced with coming to terms with our own mortality, or our own potential for getting sick and passing away,” Ferrara wrote. “And it’s the uncertainty surrounding the situation that can be very anxiety-inducing.”
But for Trump, the idea of going to heaven is transactional. As Trump said about Ukraine, “If I can save 7,000 people a week from being killed, I think that’s a pretty ... I want to try and get to heaven, if possible.”
But therapist Sobeyda Valle-Ellis said there’s no getting into heaven through a merit system.
“[T]his is theologically at odds with the Christian teaching that salvation and admission into heaven are a gift of grace based on the work of Christ, that cannot be earned by being a good person,” Valle-Ellis said. “Still, this is actually what many people believe about heaven, even some Christians.”
Read the full Huffpost report at this link.