One of President Donald Trump’s sons is crediting his father with “saving Christianity” and “saving God,” insisting that his father is “Heaven-bound” and that God has played a direct role in his career both as a businessman and as a politician.
Eric Trump, the president’s third child from his first marriage to his late ex-wife, Ivana, reacted to his father’s recent comments about Heaven in an appearance on “The Benny Show” earlier this week.
When speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One over the weekend, Trump said, “I think I’m maybe not Heaven-bound” and “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make Heaven.” Trump’s remarks about Heaven came after he previously suggested that if he ended the Ukraine-Russia war, he could secure his place in Heaven.
“Make no mistake, he is Heaven-bound,” Eric Trump proclaimed. “He’s probably too humble in a certain way to say that.”
“I’ve seen the hand of God on him for a very long time,” Eric insisted, citing his father’s survival of the assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, last summer as one example of divine intervention: “If he wasn’t Heaven-bound, that flag wouldn’t have folded up like a perfect angel right above his head.”
Much of Eric Trump’s comments illustrating how his father had “the hand of God on him” made the case that the president’s foreign policy had saved a lot of lives. Eric Trump also insisted that “We’re saving Christianity, we’re saving God, we’re saving the family unit.”
“We have a return to people going to church, … valuing their children and valuing society and believing in the white picket fence and what the American dream represents,” Trump added. As he reflected on what he characterized as the accomplishments of the Trump administration, the president’s son asserted, “It’s a beautiful time and he will go to Heaven for all of that.”
David Closson, director of the Family Research Council’s Center for Biblical Worldview, reacted to Eric Trump’s claim that his father is “saving Christianity” in an interview with The Christian Post: “Eric Trump’s comments, I think, fail to appreciate that Christianity predates the Trump administration. Christianity, of course, does not need saving.”
“The Gospel of Jesus Christ is going to go forth no matter what the American political situation looks like,” Closson told CP, clarifying that “Although I think Christians in America owe a great deal of gratitude to the Trump administration, we’re not looking to the Trump administration for salvation.” At the same time, he praised the Trump administration for prioritizing “many issues that social conservatives care about, whether that’s family, sexuality, the life issue.”
“I think politics, of course, matters and politics can make missions and evangelism easier through good policies when it comes to religious liberty, but ultimately, American Christians shouldn’t be looking to any administration for what only God Himself can do. And so, I think that’s important for Christians to understand,” he concluded.
“I do think that the Trump administration and folks associated with it, like Eric Trump, should not have an outsized view of what they’re doing. Again, Christians look to God; they look to His Word for direction. We fundamentally don’t want to put trust into the Trump administration in a way that would be misplaced or inappropriate.”
Trump also elaborated on his father’s Christian faith, highlighting how “He believes in God” and describing him as “humble.” Looking back at the assassination attempt against the then-presidential candidate, Trump mentioned how “his first words were … ‘I wasn’t meant to be here.’”
“What you heard yesterday was almost an extension of Butler,” Eric Trump proclaimed. He characterized his father’s comments implying that he would not make it to Heaven as “self-deprecating” and an example of “humbleness.”
Trump also expressed confidence that “God set up this whole journey,” referring to the years that preceded his father’s entry into politics. “What the hell was a business guy doing going into reality TV?” he asked, referring to the long-running reality TV series “The Apprentice.”
“He made my father a household name to all of America … in the most unlikely avenue,” Eric Trump said, suggesting that God used the reality TV show to introduce his father to the American people and prepare him for the grueling nature of American politics.
Eric Trump also likened his father’s insurgent 2016 presidential campaign, in which the businessman defeated many well-established Republican politicians and his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, to a modern example of David and Goliath.
“We were clearly David. Goliath was the entire system. It was the weaponized government of the United States, that’s Goliath,” Trump recalled. The president’s son also pointed to media bias against his father, remarking, “Somehow, we won.”
“How is that possible?” Eric Trump posited. “If that’s not biblical, frankly, I don’t know what it is.”
“I think my father was also the imperfect man,” he added. “That’s exactly how the Bible worked.”
Trump noted how his father has had “multiple wives” before insisting that the Bible contains several examples of how “the unconventional imperfect person was the person who was actually always chosen to actually save kind of humanity.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
