“There's a lot of religion missing in America,” former President Donald Trump said in an interview with podcaster Rex Friedman that premiered on Tuesday.
“One of the tragic things in life is that it ends. How often do you think about your own death? Are you afraid of death?” Fridman asked Trump in the interview.
“I have a friend who's in his mid-80s and is very successful, and he asked me that exact same question. I replied, 'So what about you?' and he said, 'I think about it every minute of every day,'” Trump said of his friend, explaining that ultimately it's easier for people of faith to deal with the thoughts.
“And then a week later he called me to tell me something, and he started the conversation going tick-tick-tick. This is just dark. Dark in some ways, but that's the reality,” Trump said.
“So I think if you're a religious person, you feel strongly that ideally you should go to heaven and not hell,” he said, explaining that he believes religion no longer has the presence it once did in the United States.
“I think we've been sorely lacking in religion in our country. I think it would have been much better if we had religion. Religion has, to some extent, been almost like a guide,” Trump explained, noting that “without religion, there are no real guardrails.”
“I want to be kind to people. Without religion, there's no reality, there's no guardrails. I would love to see religion come back to this country and have more religion,” Trump added.
President Trump: “I think we've had a big lack of religion in our country. I think it would have been much better if we had religion. Religion was like a guide to wanting to be nice to people. Without religion, there are no guardrails. I would like to see more religion come back to this country.” pic.twitter.com/Ns6iYuhdqN
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 3, 2024
Trump has spoken more openly and frequently about God since his near-death experience at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, saying that “only God” prevented the “unthinkable.”
“Our Secret Service sniper ended the assassin's life with just one bullet from a great distance,” the president said in a speech at the Republican National Convention, adding, “I shouldn't be here tonight.”
As the crowd chanted “Yes!” in protest, Trump added: “Thank you, but I'm not. I can honestly say that it's only by the grace of Almighty God that I'm standing before you in this arena.”
Speaking about the matter with Mark Levin, Trump added: “If you believe in God, I think you're going to believe in God more.”
“And somebody said, why? I'd like to think that God thinks I'm going to fix this country. This country is so sick, so broken. This country is broken. And maybe that was the reason. I don't know, I don't know. A lot of people say that,” Trump added.
