Offered a path into paradise on the condition that he forgive James Comey and Nancy Pelosi, President Donald Trump turned it down.
Trump sat down with CBS News correspondent Ross Douthat for a “60 Minutes” interview taped at the White House on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, and broadcast Sunday, Nov. 8. It was the president’s first sit-down since Democrats captured both the House and the Senate in the Nov. 3 midterms. Douthat pushed back on him about the losses, about his wealth, and finally about what happens after he dies.
Douthat invoked the judgment throne of God and told the president he has had the most charmed and remarkable life of any American in the correspondent’s lifetime. “You couldn’t find it in your heart to forgive some of your enemies?” he asked. “Can I be honest?” Trump answered. “I probably cannot do that, no, because I do hate some of my enemies, and I always will.”
“Well, I Hope I’m Missed”
Douthat, a conservative Catholic writer and former New York Times columnist who joined the program for its latest season, got there by way of a pivot: “Let’s talk about death.” He asked whether surviving multiple assassination attempts had any effect on how the 80-year-old president views his own mortality, then asked what Trump thinks happens when he dies.
Trump paused. “Well, I hope I’m missed,” he said. Douthat clarified that he meant the man, not the memory, and Trump asked whether he meant where he goes. He said he is a religious person who, in theory, goes to heaven. Douthat, whose 2025 book is titled “Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious,” asked whether he thinks he is going there. “I hope so. I don’t want to go to hell,” Trump said.
The Easy Answer He Wouldn’t Give
From there the correspondent turned to Erika Kirk, widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who told the Sept. 21, 2025, memorial at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., that she forgave her husband’s alleged killer. Douthat said forgiving your enemies is part of being a Christian, and Trump agreed. Then Douthat raised what the president had said from that same stage about hating his opponents — “a little bit of a joke,” the correspondent allowed, before adding that “facts come through jokes.”
The hypothetical followed: Trump has died, he is entering the next life, and all that stands between him and paradise is feeling love and forgiveness for Comey, Pelosi and anyone else he has publicly hated. Trump said the easy answer would be to claim he could forgive. “Well, then I wouldn’t be real, would I?” He called the two dishonest and bad for the country, and said he loves the country far more than he could love people like that. Asked point blank whether that was a no, he said it was, and that he wanted to be honest.
The Targets Who Ended Up Indicted
The two names Douthat chose carry very different histories with the president. Comey, who as FBI director oversaw the investigation into potential ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia, has been indicted twice. The first case was dismissed and the second is pending, and the Justice Department has taken steps toward a possible third charge over leaking classified information.
Pelosi was speaker of the House when it impeached Trump twice. During Trump’s second term, federal prosecutors have also charged two other figures he has attacked. A judge threw out the bank fraud and false statements case against Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, while John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, pleaded guilty on June 26, 2026, to illegally retaining classified information.
An Hour After the Cameras Stopped
On the election, Trump said he campaigned hard and that Republicans would have fared better with him on the ballot. When Douthat pointed to losing candidates in Texas and South Carolina, he defended his endorsements. Voters didn’t like the Iran war and didn’t like gasoline prices climbing, he said, and he blamed bad messaging for the rest. Asked about Vice President JD Vance’s post-midterm assessment that the war cost Republicans, Trump said he did not disagree — but that he would wage it again to keep Iran from a nuclear weapon, and that he was not looking to escalate.
Asked whether his deportation campaign had been too tough, Trump answered, “I think it might be too tough, yeah.” He said he would love to do something on immigration with the incoming Democratic majorities, including legal status for some undocumented workers. About an hour after the taping ended, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles was replaced by her deputy, Stephen Miller.
Douthat also pressed the president on corruption and artificial intelligence, citing reporting that Trump’s fortune had swelled by $3 billion since he returned to office. Trump said his sons run the company, that most of his money sits with Wall Street’s biggest firms and that he devotes almost no time to his net worth. When Trump said others had done well in the stock market, Douthat noted that his own had not risen by billions. Trump has earned more than $1 billion from crypto businesses his sons launched shortly before his January 2025 swearing-in, and he is a co-owner of World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that took money from the UAE government. Asked why the same arrangement would sound corrupt with former President Joe Biden’s name on it, Trump said he knows nothing about it, and noted he takes no salary.
“I’ve had the best two years in the history of the presidency,” he said.
