Televangelist turned University founder Oral Roberts famously engaged in a fundraising request that even now is a lot of money. Forty years ago eight million was HUGE, but Oral Roberts pleaded that if it didn’t come in for the cause he was hawking God would “call me home.” As you can imagine comedians had a field day with all that. (He got the money and then some) Recently Trumpty whined about getting into heaven and an email went out asking for people to send him 15 bucks because “I want to try to get into heaven.”
I recall seeing this mentioned but I think most people did what I did. It might have seen like just the kind of thing Trumpty would do. However the screen shots of the email that went around also seemed like it could be a parody. Or even Team Trump trying to sucker liberals into falling for a hoax. It’s been something of a day but I have tried to scan the news a bit and when I saw SNOPES had looked into the claim I had to find out the truth. And as you can see it turns out the email pitch was real!
According to what SNOPES reports in late August it started going around the internet Trump was asking for money to, I guess buy his way into heaven? One Xitter user pointed out the irony:
One X user shared a screenshot of the purported message, and wrote (archived), “Trump sent out an email at 8 am this morning saying ‘I want to try and get to heaven.’ Pretty weird to send out when you’re trying to reassure people that you’re healthy!”
Keep in mind rumors Trump was dead (or about to die any day) and #TrumpDead even began trending. So yes, in effect telling supporters ‘I might need to give God a hefty sum so he’ll let me into heaven’ isn’t what I’d call a good way to convince everyone he was fit as a fiddle! What really boggles the mind is Trump actually speculating he might not be a shoo-in for heaven. Or, as he put it be pretty low on the Totem Pole:
Trump: "I want to try and get to heaven if possible. I hear I'm not doing well. I hear I'm really at the bottom of the totem pole." pic.twitter.com/y1izqVGM84
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 19, 2025
THIS is noteworthy. I’m sure you’re familiar with Trump justifying support by using “people say” about some obvious lie he’s telling about support for this or that. The wording might be different but wow – Trump saying folks were telling him he might have issues getting into heaven? Just how sick was he? I’d say this is pretty clear evidence he did have a brush with dying and hadn’t gotten over it.
Still, an email going out to send him fifteen bucks so he can build a “Please God, let me in and I’ll give you all this money” fund it out there even for Trumpty. But I’ve written this to make two points. First, as SNOPES lays out in the linked article the story is rated True. The email did in fact go out and it was from an official Trump account.
The second point is that Trump suddenly talking about being unsure about getting into heaven is way the hell NOT the kind of think I thought I’d ever hear from him. If it weren’t for the audio clip, if it was just reporting what people said they heard Trumpty say I’d blow it off. However when Trump himself it talking with his pals at Fox, live and saying what he did I wonder just how bad Trump’s health actually is.
My P.O.S. grandfather had multiple brushes with death before the end finally came. No one could believe he survived including doctors. My sweet ole Granny would say ‘The Lord doesn’t want him and the Devil won’t have him’ and that made as much sense as anything why he kept pulling through. But for a few days at least he was truly shaken. He was terrified of dying because he DID believe in heaven and hell and knew he’d be in the latter an instant after his death.
I never figured Trump as a religious person. He just faked for appearances sake for his image sometimes in the years before politics. Then he needed Evangelicals and started putting on a sustained show of piety. Still, I assumed it was for show. At best he was a “Christmas and Easter type Christian” but since everything Christians are supposed to do runs counter to his impulses of sating his own desires and screwing over any and everyone to sate them even that was a generous interpretation of his faith.
Maybe I was wrong. Maybe Trump is more like my evil, despicable grandfather than I thought and really does believe in heaven and hell. More importantly I think it’s possible he has gotten word from his doctors his time is coming sooner that we all think. I’ve had my own share of near death experiences including many back when I was a person of strong faith. It makes a person take stock of their life. More importantly if they believe in heaven and hell think about where they’d have wound up.
It sure seems like Trump is actually thinking about this stuff. And he’s worried. Very, VERY unlike Trump. What is pure Trump however is his transaction nature coming to the forefront – as in being able to PAY GOD to get into heaven! Classic Trump.
Why would he even want to be in heaven? He wouldn’t know anyone there. Even Christians tend to want to be with others like them. He would feel shunned.
Like the song says, “I want to go to heaven for the weather, hell for the company”.
Hmmmm … Charon’s services do not come gratis with death. Possibly the on-the-way-out orange one needs his ‘pieces of silver’ to bribe the ferryman to see that he can cross over into the mystic and safely front-up at the pearly gates … only to be rejected, then be reincarnated as a cockroach and sent back to hide out in the dark in the cell where Epstein was incarcerated.
Or come back as a five year old, ripped from his parents and tossed into a cage. Oh…never to see his family ever again…and end up in a human trafficking ring run by the cartels. Trump thinks Judas was a chump for not asking the rich Jewish leaders for a LOT more money to hand over the Son of God. Sucker.
What is god going to do with that money? Put it in a vault and swim in it like Scrooge McDuck? I doubt there’s a commissary in heaven. /s