When, on July 13, 2024, Donald Trump, then a former president of the United States and presumptive nominee of the Republican Party in the 2024 presidential election, survived a terrifying assassination attempt while speaking at an open-air campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania (eight shots, one grazing his right ear), those prone to the mystical took various views. One was that the very close call was a case of Heaven saving the man God had chosen to rescue the United States from its errant path. Another compared the event to Acts 9:4: Saul of Tarsus, knocked down by the Light of Jesus, his eyes now opened.

The latter is interesting in light of a remark earlier this week by now-President Trump. “I want to try and get to Heaven, if possible,” he told “Fox & Friends” Tuesday morning, referring to his efforts to end the war in Ukraine. “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 media was at high dudgeon afterwards, some making light of it, others confused, many touched, all fascinated. “This fear of perdition raised some questions,” said The New York Times. “Chief among them: Who, exactly, has been informing the president that he is ‘not doing well’ with regard to kingdom come? Did Michael the Archangel somehow get Mr. Trump’s cellphone number?”

Maybe the best approach is to take the words seriously.

Trump’s memories of his parents have stirred thoughts of Heaven and hell in him in the past. After he was convicted on 34 felony counts, he talked at rallies about what his parents must be thinking. “Now my beautiful parents are up in Heaven, I think they are,” he said at one rally. “They’re up there, looking down. They say, ‘How did this happen to my son?’”

“I know my mother’s in Heaven,” he said at a Madison Square Garden rally in October. “I’m not 100 percent sure about my father, but it’s close.”

As the report went on, “At the White House briefing later on Tuesday, Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, was asked if Mr. Trump was joking when he talked about going to Heaven, or if ‘there was a spiritual motivation behind his peace deals.’

“’I think the president was serious,’ Ms. Leavitt said. ‘I think the president wants to get to Heaven—as I hope we all do in this room as well.’”

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