U.S. President Donald Trump has said that his renewed push to resolve the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict is partly driven by a spiritual aspiration , the hope that it may help him secure a place in heaven.
During a phone interview with Fox & Friends on Tuesday, August 19, the president gave a new explanation for taking action to end the war in Ukraine, including positioning himself 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, to laughter from the Fox News hosts. "But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”
The president compared his effort to his past intervention in South Asia. “I think I save a lot of lives with India, Pakistan. They were going at it. There was the planes were being shot down. That was going to be maybe a nuclear war if I let that go, and I did that through trade."
Trump’s spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, later clarified that the remarks were not made in jest. “President Trump believes that saving lives through diplomacy is a noble pursuit. He takes this mission seriously, both as a statesman and a person of faith,” she said.