On August 19, 2025, The New York Times reported that President Trump is working to end the war between Russia and Ukraine because he's worried he might not get into Heaven. He told the "Fox and Friends" news program, "I want to try to get to heaven if possible. I am hearing I am not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, that [ending the war] will be one of the reasons."
Where are his spiritual advisors? Where is Paul White-Cain or Robert Jeffress or Franklin Graham or Greg Laurie? I don't know White-Cain's work at all, but I am familiar with the theological formation of Jeffress, Graham, and Laurie. All three should be well schooled in the basics of evangelical theology. As the president's spiritual advisors, they should have covered all of this long before now.
First, all people have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). All people. The writer of Romans, Apostle Paul, did not think he himself was above this. He writes of himself, "Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death" (Romans 7:24)? He would have said his sins bound him for death, the Roman Emperor's sins bound the emperor for death, and President Trump's sins do the same to him. Do any of the president's advisors promote him as being closer to holiness than the Apostle?
Most of the president's advisors, including those I've named, are so-called evangelicals. An evangelical distinctive is high regard for the Bible. A clear Biblical teaching is that all human beings are sinners, and the wage of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Here death means being eternally cut off from God. "For those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury" (Romans 2:8). Put aside the absurd notion that an American president could take credit for ending the war between Ukraine and Russia. Even if he could, that good work would not cancel out his sins or anyone's sins. The Bible, which evangelicals commit to obey, rejects the idea that good works earn salvation.
Soteriology is the branch of theology that deals with salvation. Jeffress, Graham, and Laurie, all know and preach salvation by grace through faith. Along with adherence to the teaching in scripture, salvation by grace through faith is another evangelical distinctive. There are no exceptions to this. Ending a war might be considered a wonderful thing to accomplish, but it doesn't earn one salvation because salvation cannot be earned. This is a core evangelical idea and all of the president's spiritual advisors would preach this in revivals and Sunday morning worship services.
Someone under the spiritual guidance of known figures like Jeffress, Graham, Laurie should not wonder about whether they are heaven bound. Their advisors should have told them, "While we were sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). The advisors should have said, "Mr. President, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from death, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). If the president worried about heaven, they would tell him, "You are justified by grace, as a gift, through redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith" (Romans 6:24-25).
Either the president's advisors didn't give him these soteriological (salvific) basics, or they did, but he didn't listen. I get it. I have had people listen to my preaching for 15 years or more. I preach salvation by grace. And still, those who hear me week after week hold to some version of works righteousness. They think they have to be good enough to get into heaven. They don't understand or cannot accept that no one is good enough. Apparently the president doesn't grasp this either. Maybe he's beginning to.
At the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa in 2015, then candidate Trump was asked if he ever asked God to forgive him. He responded, "I am not sure I have. I just try to go on and do a better job from there. ... I think if I do something wrong, I just try to make it right. I don't bring God into that picture. I don't" (https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/politics/trump-has-never-sought-forgiveness). Asking forgiveness is not just an evangelical but a Christian distinctive. All Christians confess and ask for forgiveness. At the leadership summit, Mr. Trump did not deny sinning. He simply thought he could work it out with his own efforts.
Salvation is extremely humbling because we human beings have to admit we cannot work it out no matter how hard we try or how many wars we end. I can't, the Apostle cannot, and neither can Donald Trump. We are all utterly powerless before our sins. Our only hope is to admit that apart from Jesus, we have no hope. We throw ourselves on his mercy. Everyone in heaven is guilty, but forgiven.
President Trump's advisors need to go over salvation by grace through faith with him. They need to help him see that he desperately needs the mercy God gives through Jesus. This is not unique to Donald Trump. We all need forgiveness. We all need what can only be received as a gift; the gift of salvation from sin. If his advisors will tell him this and if he will listen, then he can repent, fall on God's grace, and be saved. He goes around thinking he can get himself into heaven by ending wars. He can't earn it. And he doesn't need to. Jesus already has.
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