How Trump’s Views on God and the Afterlife Have Shifted Since 1990

President Donald Trump says a lot of things in public — but nothing comes close to his religious beliefs that appear to have emerged out of nowhere.

From a man in the 1990s who didn’t identify as a “religious” person to a man in 2026 who talks about being appointed by God to make America great again, a lot has changed over the years.

According to Time, Trump has gone from not discussing religion at all to repeatedly referring to the possibility of the afterlife and the concepts of hell and heaven.

In September 2025, Trump openly spoke about heaven during an interview with Fox & Friends. Discussing his motivation around trying to make a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, the president explained that his reasons were more “spiritual” than “political.” He said at that time:

“If I can save 7,000 people a week from getting killed, that’s pretty good.

I want to try to get to heaven, if possible. I’m hearing I’m 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.”

The comments were also backed by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said:

“I think the president was serious. I think the president wants to get to heaven—as I hope we all do in this room as well.”

Trump’s remark about heaven was a long jump from his Playboy interview in 1990. In that interview, he admitted that he doesn’t believe in the concept of “reincarnation, heaven or hell,” but knows that we go “someplace” after we die. He said:

“I don’t believe in reincarnation, heaven or hell—but we go someplace. Do you know, I cannot, for the life of me, figure out where.”

All through the ’90s, the man kept distancing himself from the Christian Church. A 1997 Playboy profile also labeled him as “not a religious man.”

In 2000, as Trump was looking toward a potential presidential run, he clarified that he believes in God but not in an “organized religion.” In 1999, he told Today:

“Well, I think there’s a difference between believing in God and organized religion, number one.

I think that God and the belief in God is more important than organized religion. But I think organized religion’s important in that it keeps people in the straight and narrow.”

By 2016, Trump identified himself as a big-time religious person and church-goer, something that a lot of people found hard to believe. He said in 2015:

“Can you believe it? Nobody believes I’m Presbyterian. I’m Presbyterian. I’m Presbyterian. I’m Presbyterian. Boy, that’s down the middle of the road, folks, in all fairness.”

The same year, he also joked about how the presidency would become his “ticket” to go to heaven. Speaking to a crowd of 700 evangelical pastors in Orlando, he said:

“So go out and spread the word and once I get in [to the White House], I will do my thing that I do very well. And I figure it’s probably maybe the only way I’m going to get to heaven. So I better do a good job.”

Since then, he has talked about God and going to heaven on multiple occasions. During his second-term inauguration speech, he said:

“I was saved by God to make America great again.”

After his 2024 assassination attempt in Butler, he said:

“I do [believe in heaven]. If I’m good, I’m going to heaven. And if I’m bad, I’m going someplace else.”

He even spoke about his parents and said that he’s “not 100% sure” if his father went to heaven, but is certain that his mother is in heaven.