President Donald Trump heard an offer of paradise with a single condition attached, and he turned it down on national television.
Trump taped the interview with CBS News correspondent Ross Douthat at the White House on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, and CBS broadcast it Sunday, Nov. 8. Democrats captured both the House and the Senate in the Nov. 3 midterms, and the president had not sat for an interview since. Douthat got the first one.
Douthat, a conservative Catholic writer and former New York Times columnist, joined “60 Minutes” for its latest season. His 2025 book is “Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious.”
Douthat laid out a hypothetical for the president. Trump has died and is entering the next life, and the only obstacle to 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.
Douthat asked, “You couldn’t find it in your heart to forgive some of your enemies?” Trump answered with a question of his own, “Can I be honest?” Then came his answer: “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 are dishonest and bad for the country, he said, and his love for the country runs far deeper than any love he could feel for people like that. Douthat asked point blank whether that was a no. Trump said it was, and that he wanted to be honest.
Comey Indicted Twice, Then Charged Again
Comey, as FBI director, oversaw the investigation into potential ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Prosecutors have indicted him twice. The first case, brought in September 2025, was dismissed. The second case, filed April 28, 2026, over a since-deleted Instagram photo of seashells spelling “86 47,” is pending.
Prosecutors charged Comey a third time by criminal information, in a case unsealed Monday, Oct. 26. An alleged 2016 disclosure to The New York Times underpins the accusation that he transmitted national defense information. No indictment has come in that case, and his lawyers argue the statute of limitations bars it. The House impeached Trump twice while Pelosi held the speakership.
Federal prosecutors have charged two other figures the president has attacked during his second term: New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, saw a judge throw out the bank fraud and false statements case against her, and John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, pleaded guilty June 26, 2026, to illegally retaining classified information. Bolton will be sentenced in December 2026.
The Pause Before “I Hope I’m Missed”
Douthat invoked the judgment throne of God and told Trump he had lived the most charmed and remarkable life of any American in the correspondent’s lifetime. Then he pivoted. “Let’s talk about death,” he said.
Trump has survived multiple assassination attempts, and Douthat asked whether that had changed how the 80-year-old president views his own mortality. His next question was what Trump thinks happens when he dies. The president paused before answering. “Well, I hope I’m missed,” he said.
Douthat clarified that he meant the man, not the memory. Trump asked whether he meant where he goes, and said he is a religious person who, in theory, goes to heaven. Douthat asked whether he thinks he is going to heaven. “I hope so. I don’t want to go to hell,” Trump said.
Erika Kirk, the widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, said she forgave her husband’s alleged killer, speaking at the Sept. 21, 2025, memorial at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. Forgiving your enemies is part of being a Christian, Douthat said, and Trump agreed. The correspondent then raised what Trump had said from that same stage about hating his opponents — “a little bit of a joke,” Douthat allowed, before adding that “facts come through jokes.”
Franklin Graham wrote on X: “Heaven has borders. Heaven has unique and very strict entrance requirements. To enter Heaven, the Bible tells us that you must acknowledge your sins, turn from them in repentance, and receive Jesus Christ by faith.” He added in the same post, “Religion can’t save you — only a relationship with the Savior, Jesus Christ, can save you.”
He Blames a Dislike of Israel
Trump blamed hostility to Israel for the midterm result. “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,” he said. He also said Israel would have to “pay us back” for the war’s costs, and that “Israel would not exist except for Donald Trump.”
Vice President JD Vance assessed after the midterms that the war cost Republicans, and Trump did not disagree. The president said he would wage it again to keep Iran from a nuclear weapon, and that he is not looking to escalate.
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, and Trump defended his endorsements. “I’ve had the best two years in the history of the presidency,” he said.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Nov. 9, questioning election fairness and voting machines, six days after saying on Nov. 3 that he would accept the midterm results.
Trump told Douthat in the same interview that he doubts Democrats will impeach him a third time. “I can’t imagine it, you know?” he said. He said he could make a deal with Democrats “very easily,” adding, “Well, I did it for four years.”
Douthat asked whether the deportation campaign had been too tough. “I think it might be too tough, yeah,” Trump said. Immigration is an area where he would love to strike something with the incoming Democratic majorities, he said, and legal status for some undocumented workers could be part of it. Stephen Miller, the deputy to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, replaced her about an hour after the taping ended.
“I Guess It’s Gone Up”
Douthat pressed Trump on corruption and artificial intelligence, and he questioned him about UFOs. He cited reporting that the president’s fortune has swelled by $3 billion since he returned to office.
His sons run the company, Trump said, and most of his money sits with Wall Street’s biggest firms. He added that he devotes almost no time to his net worth and does not know what he is worth. “I guess it’s gone up,” he said.
Trump said others had done well in the stock market. Douthat replied that his own had not risen by billions.
Crypto businesses his sons launched shortly before his January 2025 swearing-in have earned Trump more than $1 billion. He is also a co-owner of World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that took money from the UAE government. Put former President Joe Biden’s name on the same arrangement, Douthat said, and it would sound corrupt — why? Trump said he knows nothing about it and takes no salary.