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Pop culture usually talks about a stairway to heaven, not a totem pole.

But President Donald Trump this week indicated that he had been spending some time thinking about the afterlife and how to get there.

On “Fox & Friends,” Trump said he hoped that, if he brokers a peace between Ukraine and Russia, there would be thousands of lives saved, a comment that many people mocked.

“If I can save 7,000 people a week from getting killed ... I want to try and get to heaven if possible. I’m hearing I’m not doing well,” Trump said on the broadcast. “I hear I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”

Related
The human cost of Russia’s war against Ukraine

Deseret contributor Patrick T. Brown, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, had a refreshingly different take from the snark that too often proliferates on X.

“A surprisingly beautiful sentiment for a man not always given to self-reflection,” Brown wrote. “We can all pray for peace and do our part to try to avoid being at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to the final things.”

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