Bob Schwartz

“I want to try and get to heaven, if possible. I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this [peace in Ukraine] will be one of the reasons.”
Trump this morning on Fox & Friends

Random talk is nothing new for Trump. This comment has some saying it’s a joke. It doesn’t sound like a joke.

My guess has a couple of parts.

First is that death is universal and at some point in life people think about it, a little or a lot, occasionally or often. Whether Trump never thought about it or rarely thinks about it still, he thinks about it.

Second is that Trump, to the extent he remembers, knows what he’s done, whatever that is. When he says “I’m hearing I’m not doing well” he means “I’m thinking I’m not doing well.” We didn’t know much about what he believes about the afterlife, but we now know it involves heaven, and possibly hell. For him, like all things, it is transactional. He is the dealmaker and has calculated what it might take to get into heaven—or stay out of hell.

This may not change anything Trump does or says. On the Ten Commandments scorecard, he is not doing well. But being concerned about heaven may be a good sign.

© 2025 by Bob Schwartz

Analogies can be effective teaching tools, for the smart and the stupid. Sometimes complex ideas can be introduced by an apt analogy, followed up by more sophisticated analysis. Sometimes ideas are simple.

The European leaders at yesterday’s meeting about Ukraine concluded that perhaps Trump didn’t really understand what it meant for Russia, who invaded Ukraine, to be awarded territory in a peace deal, including territory Russia did not fight for and does not yet control.

So they tried an analogy. What if the eastern part of Florida was just given away? Would that be right?

Reports are that maybe that had some impact on Trump.

Maybe. If there was ever an accurate assessment of Trump’s intelligence and knowledge, that seems no longer possible. The only evidence we have of Trump’s thinking is what he says and does. The European leaders are, as are so many others, unsure of his intelligence and knowledge. So they dumbed down a basic concept of fairness, confident he wouldn’t notice he was being condescended to.

The European leaders, like so many others, find themselves in uncharted territory, and will try anything to get inside Trump’s head. We wish them and ourselves good luck.