(CP) Former President Donald Trump spoke about his own mortality and the need for a religious revival in the U.S. during a recent interview with Russian-American podcaster Lex Fridman.
During the hour-long interview posted on Tuesday that touched on topics ranging from the 2024 presidential election to the Kennedy assassination and UFOs, the conversation honed in at the end on mortality and the role religion plays in coming to terms with it and the potential of an afterlife.
"One of the tragic things about life is that it ends," Fridman said. "How often do you think about your death? Are you afraid of it?"
Trump, who narrowly escaped an assassin's bullet on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, recounted that he has a "very successful" friend in his mid-80s who thinks about death constantly and often reminds him that time is slipping away.
"He said, 'I think about it every minute of every day,'" Trump noted of what his friend said of death. "Then, a week later, he called me to tell me something, and he starts off the conversation by going, 'Tick-tock, tick-tock.' This is a dark person, in a sense, but it is what it is."
Trump went on to note the place of religion in finding peace with the inevitability of death and expressed his desire that America would become more religious like it once was.
"If you're religious, I think you have a better feeling about it. You're supposed to go to Heaven ideally, not Hell, but you're supposed to go to Heaven if you're good," he said.
"Our country is missing a lot of religion," he continued. "I think it really was a much better place with religion. It was almost a guide. You want to be good to people. Without religion, there's no real guardrails. I'd love to see us get back to religion, more religion in this country."
Trump, who claims to be a Christian, has presented himself as a candidate friendly to Christians and has been outspoken in recent months about the importance of maintaining religious liberty in the US.
During the National Religious Broadcasters 2024 International Christian Media Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, in February, Trump accused the Biden administration of weaponizing the justice system against people of faith.
"The chains are already tightening around all of us, if you think about it," he said. "Ultimately, the radical Left is coming after all of us, because they know that our allegiance is not to them. Our allegiance is to our country, and our allegiance is to our Creator. They don't want to hear that."
At the Turning Point Action's Believers Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida, in July, Trump urged Christians to vote for him.
"I don't care how, but you have to get out and vote," he said. "Christians, get out and vote just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years. You know what? It'll be fixed."
