Trump Backtracks On Controversial Remark About What Awaits Him In The Afterlife

President Donald Trump is backpedaling on that eyebrow-raising claim about his own afterlife.

Trump stunned many of his Christian constituents last month when, in an interview with Fox News’ Peter Doocy conducted aboard Air Force One, he joked about likely not making it to heaven.

“I think I’m not maybe heaven-bound,” he said at the time. “I may be in heaven right now as we fly in Air Force One. I’m not sure I’m gonna be able to make heaven, but I’ve made life a lot better for a lot of people.”

Speaking to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in an interview for “The Ingraham Angle” that aired Monday, Trump insisted he was being tongue-in-cheek when he made that remark before going on to suggest that he still held doubts about his own fate.

“When I made that statement, I was being funny — sarcastic,” the president said. “You know, it’s bad for a politician to be sarcastic … I was kidding. I was having fun.”

He went on to note: “I don’t know if I will or not. I don’t know.”

True to form, Trump also took aim at New York Times journalist Peter Baker, who reported extensively on his initial musings about heaven in an Oct. 31 article titled: “Trump’s Search for Eternity: Heaven? Maybe Not, He Says. Monuments? Absolutely.”

Blasting Baker as a “sycophant” to former President Barack Obama, Trump said, “I was having fun, but they made it like serious. The thing I thought I learned — but I forgot about it, I guess, when I made this — is you can’t be sarcastic as a politician, or have fun. But I don’t regret it.”

Trump has been on the defensive since last week’s elections, which marked the first electoral test of his administration’s second term.

By all accounts, the outlook was not good, with the Democratic Party scoring a number of high-profile wins across the country.

Elsewhere in the interview, Ingraham alluded to “significant MAGA backlash” over Trump’s heavily criticized proposal for a 50-year mortgage loan, meant to tackle home affordability, and cited polls that showed Americans’ deep concerns about the economy.

“I think polls are fake. We have the greatest economy we’ve ever had,” he said. “More than anything else, it’s a con job by the Democrats. Costs are way down.”