A “60 Minutes” hypothetical put paradise within reach of President Donald Trump on a single condition — that he forgive the enemies he has publicly hated.
Trump turned it down in an interview with CBS News correspondent Ross Douthat, taped at the White House on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, and broadcast Sunday, Nov. 8. Democrats captured both the House and the Senate in the Nov. 3 midterms, and the president had not sat down for an interview since.
Douthat framed it as a last barrier: Trump has died, he is entering the next life, and the only thing standing between him and paradise is feeling love and forgiveness for former FBI director James Comey, former Democratic House Speaker and current Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and anyone else he has publicly hated. “You couldn’t find it in your heart to forgive some of your enemies?” Douthat asked. “Can I be honest?” Trump replied, before answering, “I probably cannot do that, no, because I do hate some of my enemies, and I always will.”
Trump said the easy answer would be to claim he could forgive. “Well, then I wouldn’t be real, would I?” he said. Comey and Pelosi, in his description, were dishonest and bad for the country, and his love for the country runs far deeper than any love he could feel for people like that. Asked point blank whether that was a no, Trump said it was, and said he wanted to be honest.
Comey oversaw the investigation into potential ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia while he led the FBI. Prosecutors have indicted him twice — the first case was dismissed, and the second is pending. A possible third charge over leaking classified information has drawn preliminary steps from the Justice Department. The House impeached Trump twice with Pelosi serving as its speaker.
Federal prosecutors have charged two other figures Trump has attacked during his second term. Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, saw a judge dismiss the bank fraud and false statements case brought against her. John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, pleaded guilty June 26 to illegally retaining classified information. He will be sentenced in December.
“Let’s Talk About Death”
“Let’s talk about death,” Douthat said, turning the interview toward mortality. He asked Trump, 80, whether surviving multiple assassination attempts had changed how he views his own, then followed up by asking what he thinks happens when he dies. Trump paused before answering: “Well, I hope I’m missed.”
Douthat clarified that he meant the man, not the memory. Trump asked whether the correspondent meant where he goes, and said he is a religious person who, in theory, goes to heaven. Asked directly whether he thinks he is going to heaven, Trump said: “I hope so. I don’t want to go to hell.” Douthat invoked the judgment throne of God and told Trump he has lived the most charmed and remarkable life of any American in the correspondent’s lifetime.
The forgiveness question grew out of a memorial. Erika Kirk, the widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, told mourners at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Sept. 21, 2025, that she had forgiven the man alleged to have killed her husband. Christians forgive their enemies, Douthat said, and Trump agreed. The correspondent then raised Trump’s own remarks from that same stage about hating his opponents, allowed it was “a little bit of a joke,” and added that “facts come through jokes.”
Douthat, a conservative Catholic writer and former New York Times columnist, joined the program for its latest season. His 2025 book is titled “Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious.”
The Loss He Blames on Israel
Trump said he campaigned hard and that Republicans would have fared better with him on the ballot. Douthat pointed to losing candidates in Texas and South Carolina; Trump defended his endorsements. “I’ve had the best two years in the history of the presidency,” he said.
He blamed the midterm loss partly on attitudes toward Israel. “They didn’t like the fact that gasoline went up because I had it down at a low. And there’s a great dislike, incredibly, for Israel,” Trump told Douthat. He said Israel would have to “pay us back” for the war’s costs, and added, “Without us, Israel wouldn’t exist.” Vice President JD Vance’s post-midterm assessment was that the war cost Republicans, and Trump did not disagree with it. He said he would wage it again to keep Iran from a nuclear weapon, and that he is not looking to escalate.
Trump questioned the fairness of the election in a Truth Social post on Nov. 9, six days after saying on Nov. 3 that he was willing to accept the midterm results. “Does anybody really believe that this ‘Election’ was honest. How could the Polls be so wrong???” he wrote, adding, “It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter!”
Asked whether his deportation campaign had been too tough, Trump said, “I think it might be too tough, yeah.” Immigration is an area where he would love to strike a deal with the incoming Democratic majorities, he said, and that could include legal status for some undocumented workers.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles lost her job about an hour after the taping ended. Her deputy, Stephen Miller, replaced her.
The Rigged Election Line That Vanished
Juliet Jeske, founder of Decoding Fox News, published an unedited version of the interview that shows “60 Minutes” cut portions of Trump’s answers on Ukraine. The cut material included Trump’s line, “I believe that we’re very close to making a deal,” and his claim that the 2020 election “was rigged. That’s why I did it a third time. If I was president that war would have never started.”
Another cut exchange turned on who is arming Ukraine. “But now it’s Europe supplying weapons, not us?” Douthat asked. Trump replied, “No, it’s us. We’re supplying the weapons, Europe is paying for them.”
Douthat also pressed Trump on corruption and artificial intelligence, citing reporting that the president’s fortune has swelled by $3 billion since he returned to office. Asked about his increased wealth, Trump said, “I guess it’s gone up.” He said his son runs his company and that he is unaware of his net worth. Wall Street’s biggest firms hold most of his money, he said, and the subject takes up almost none of his time. Trump said others had done well in the stock market, and Douthat noted that his own holdings had not risen by billions.
Trump’s sons launched crypto businesses shortly before his January 2025 swearing-in, and those ventures have earned him more than $1 billion. He is also a co-owner of World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that took money from the UAE government. Asked why the same arrangement would sound corrupt with former President Joe Biden’s name on it, Trump said he knows nothing about it, and noted that he takes no salary.
