NEED TO KNOW
President Donald Trump has revealed one of his motives for brokering international peace deals during his second term as president: eternal salvation.
During a phone interview with Fox & Friends on Tuesday, Aug. 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.”
Win McNamee/Getty
During her briefing later in the day, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified that she didn’t believe Trump was joking.
“I think the president was serious,” she said. “I think the president wants to get to heaven — as I hope we all do in this room as well.”
Positioning himself as a “mediator in chief” has been one of Trump’s major objectives so far in his second term. He boasted to Zelenskyy during their sit-down on Monday, Aug. 18, that he was responsible for “six deals” in various world conflicts this year alone.
In his push to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, Trump and his administration have claimed to have helped settle conflicts between Israel and Iran; the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda; Cambodia and Thailand; India and Pakistan; Serbia and Kosovo; and Egypt and Ethiopia.
However, as The Guardian points out, “the claim to have settled those conflicts is embellished and in some cases contradicted by continued violence in countries like DR Congo, where Rwanda-backed rebels missed a deadline to reach a peace deal in Doha on Tuesday.”
Trump’s plan to strong-arm Putin also seems to have been exaggerated. The two failed to reach a peace deal or agree to a ceasefire during their summit in Alaska on Aug. 15, despite Trump having vaguely threatened “very severe consequences” if Russia didn’t comply.
Days after his meeting with Putin, Trump changed his tune, telling Zelenskyy and other European leaders that he didn’t think a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine was necessary or even realistic while larger peace negotiations are underway.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The president admitted to the difficulty of negotiating with Putin during his remarks at the Kennedy Center on Aug. 13.
“I’ve had a lot of good conversations with [Putin]. Then I go home and I see that a rocket hit a nursing home or a rocket hit an apartment building and people are laying dead in the streets,” Trump said.
Before Trump said that he’s “hearing” he’s not on a path to heaven, South Park notably took a stance on the president’s chances at salvation in its controversial new episodes.
Comedy Central
After previously stating that South Park would try and avoid commenting on Trump’s second term, creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker changed their minds about leaving his administration alone, going so far as to show a fictionalized version of the president cuddling in bed with Satan during the widely discussed season 27 premiere.
In the episode, the hulking red demon, who is routinely depicted on South Park as a sensitive soul, compares Trump multiple times to a “guy he used to date,” which devoted viewers know is none other than Saddam Hussein.
