Donald Trump Says He’s Trying To Get Into Heaven: “I’m Hearing I’m Not Doing Well”

President Donald Trump is thinking about the afterlife and shared his candid thoughts about his main motivation these days. The 79-year-old dialed into Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning (Aug. 19), and when asked about brokering an end to the war in Ukraine, he revealed he’s propelled by the thought of the action possibly helping him “get into heaven.”

“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. He’s positioning himself as a “mediator in chief” between Russia and Ukraine.

The 47th President went on, revealing he’s not confident in his chances as of this moment. “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,” he added.

Although the comment left many listeners puzzled, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt weighed in later in the day and said she believes Trump wasn’t joking. “I think the president was serious,” she said during her briefing, per PEOPLE. “I think the president wants to get to heaven — as I hope we all do in this room as well.”

This isn’t the first time the fear of perdition has come up during one of Trump’s revelations, as last year, The Apprentice host also made a dreary comment about getting older. “You know, there’s a certain point at which you don’t want to hear ‘Happy Birthday,’” he said when he turned 78. “You just want to pretend the day doesn’t exist… My father lived a long time, my mother lived a long time, and they were happy, and they were great. So maybe we’re going to live a long time. I hope so.”

When reflecting at a previous rally about what his parents may be thinking about how their son’s life panned out, he also said, “Now my beautiful parents are up in heaven, I think they are. They’re up there, looking down. They say, ‘How did this happen to my son?’”

However, at another event, he revealed which parent he thought had a guaranteed spot in heaven. “I know my mother’s in heaven,” he said at a Madison Square Garden in October. “I’m not 100 percent sure about my father, but it’s close.”