President Donald Trump, presented with a hypothetical in which the only price of admission to heaven was forgiving James Comey and Nancy Pelosi, would not pay it.
The exchange came in Trump’s interview with conservative journalist Ross Douthat on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” which aired Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026, days after Democrats swept the midterms and flipped control of both the House and Senate.
Asked what he thinks happens when he dies, Trump offered a hedged forecast. “I’m a religious person, so in theory, I go to heaven,” he told Douthat.
Then came the condition. Douthat asked him to imagine arriving at the gates of the next life and learning that entry depended on feeling love and forgiveness toward Comey, Pelosi and everyone else he had publicly hated. Could he manage it?
“Well, then I wouldn’t be real, would I?” Trump answered, calling the people on that list “extremely dishonest people, very bad people, very bad for our country.” Douthat asked whether that amounted to a no. “The answer is no. I want to be honest, no,” Trump said.
Douthat tried once more, noting that few Americans alive had enjoyed a more charmed life, and asked if forgiveness was truly out of reach. “Can I be honest?” Trump asked. “I probably cannot do that, no, because I do hate some of my enemies, and I always will.”
The Grudge List Came With Indictments
Trump has not lacked for targets since returning to office in January 2025, and three of them have been indicted in federal court: Comey, the former FBI director; Letitia James, the New York attorney general; and John Bolton, the former national security adviser.
Comey, who oversaw the FBI’s investigation into ties between Trump and Russia during the first term, was indicted twice by the Justice Department within a year. The first case was dismissed. The second, which stems from an Instagram post, is still pending, and the Justice Department has since taken steps to charge Comey with leaking classified information, a possible third indictment.
James’ office brought a civil fraud case against the Trump Organization in 2022. She later faced charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution; a judge threw out both. Bolton, an Iran war hawk who served in the first Trump administration, is the one persistent target to be successfully prosecuted. He pleaded guilty in June to retaining classified information and is awaiting sentencing.
He Points to Gas Prices and Iran
Trump’s reading of the midterms began with his own absence from the ballot. He campaigned hard for other Republicans, he said, and argued the result would have looked different with his name on it, citing crowds at roughly 30 rallies in about 28 days, by his own count.
Then he moved to the war and the pump. Gas in Iowa had been $1.85 a gallon, he said in the interview, before climbing to $3.50 or $4 — still lower, he added, than under former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Voters pinned the increase on the war with Iran, he said, and that, more than the fighting itself, soured them.
Douthat walked him through the endorsements. Ken Paxton had a tough race in Texas. Darline Graham, whom Trump said he backed in honor of his friend Lindsey, lost a very Republican state to a very liberal challenger, as Douthat put it. Trump said Sen. John Cornyn would have lost as well, and that his own margins in Texas and South Carolina were the highest in history. In Florida, he said, the candidates he endorsed for governor and senator would not have won without him. In Ohio, he said, Jon Husted was 15 points down and lost by a point or less.
Asked about Vice President JD Vance’s post-election verdict that the war with Iran cost Republicans their majorities, Trump said he did not disagree — but added that he would do it again if that was what keeping Americans safe took. He also returned to his tally of settled conflicts, saying he has ended eight wars and stopped a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan after 11 planes were shot down.
Too Tough on Deportations, He Says
Douthat asked whether the second-term immigration crackdown had cost Republicans. It both helped and hurt, Trump said, laying out a country split between voters who want no immigration, voters who want criminals deported and voters willing to keep people who work and contribute.
“I think it was too tough,” Trump said of deportations, adding that he believes the policy ultimately hurt him. He put part of the damage down to messaging his side could not get across. Facing a Congress Democrats will control, he said he can still work with them in his final two years, and named immigration as the issue he would most like to move.
Pressed on a $3 Billion Jump
The interview turned to the family’s money. Douthat raised an estimate that the president’s net worth has grown by $3 billion since his 2024 election win and asked how. Trump said he devotes almost no attention to the number, that he has far more money than he ever expected, and that he does not even know how much it has gone up.
His sons manage his companies, Trump said, and most of his money is handed to Wall Street’s biggest firms to invest. He takes no salary as president. He has also earned more than $1 billion from crypto businesses his sons launched shortly before he was sworn in in early 2025, and he is a co-owner of his son’s World Liberty Financial, which received an investment from the government of the United Arab Emirates.
Douthat asked why the same arrangement would not sound corrupt if the family name were Biden. “Because I know nothing about it,” Trump said.
