Why Your Grandchildren Don't Figure Into Trump's Plans

The six most frightening words a president ever said (if he said them)

Sep 25, 2026

Tucker Carlson during the recent NPR interview. The NPR interview was released on Thursday, September 24, 2026. Carlson described the private Oval Office meeting in an interview on NPR's Newsmakers podcast released Thursday, and he spoke with NPR's Steve Inskeep

Why Your Grandchildren Don't Figure Into Trump's Plans

The six most frightening words a president ever said (if he said them)

The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #1,036: Friday, September 25th, 2026.

I want to tell you about a conversation.

It happened in the Oval Office. Just two men in the room. One of them is the most powerful man on earth. The other is a guy who used to be his biggest cheerleader on television.

And what got said in that room should make the hair on the back of your neck stand straight up.

Here’s the deal.

A few days before the United States went to war with Iran, Tucker Carlson walked into the Oval Office and laid it all out for Donald Trump. (I know this because of an interview NPR recently did with Carlson.)

He told him, straight to his face, that the war would get America kicked out of the Gulf. That the American Empire would start to collapse. That Trump’s legacy would be destroyed, and his party right along with it.

You’d expect a president to push back, right? Argue. Defend the plan. Bang the desk a little.

That’s not what happened.

According to Carlson, Trump looked at him and said:

“Yes, you’re right. But in the end, we all die anyway, so it doesn’t matter.”

Read that again. Slowly.

Yes, you’re right. He agreed.

But in the end, we all die anyway.

So it doesn’t matter.

And…then Carlson…shocked…asked the only question a decent human being could ask: “But what about our kids and our grandkids? What about our country?”

And the President of the United States answered with... a groan.

That’s it. A groan.

Now, I’m going to be straight with you.

I didn’t examine Donald Trump. I’m not his doctor. I can’t crawl inside his skull and tell you for certain what he meant.

And…the guy telling the story? Tucker Carlson has turned on Trump hard. He’s called for him to be removed from office. So you’d be a fool not to take his account with a grain of salt. Maybe a whole shaker.

But…here’s what I can do. And…what you can do too.

I can take those six words and hold them up against ten years of things Trump has said and done out loud, in public, on camera. And ask a simple question:

Does this fit?

My friend…I think it fits like a glove.

Exhibit A: The man who IS the country.

Go back to 2016. Trump stands in front of the Republican convention and says: “I alone can fix it.”

Not “we.” Not “together.” I alone.

Fast forward to 2023. He tells a crowd: “I am your retribution.”

Then in 2025 he posts that “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”

You see the pattern?

In his mind…there’s no line between Donald Trump and the United States. He doesn’t lead the country. He is the country.

And… here’s the scary part. If you truly believe the country is just an extension of you... then what happens to it after you’re gone?

Nothing. It stops being real. Like a dream you had last night.

Exhibit B: The future is somebody else’s problem.

Look at how this man treats any threat he won’t personally live to see.

Climate change? A problem measured in decades. He’s waved it off for years.

In 2024, he told a Christian audience that if they voted for him…in four years they wouldn’t “have to vote anymore.”

Now…maybe that was a joke. Maybe it was sloppy. But think about what it tells you. It treats the future of American democracy like it’s his to settle and wrap up with a bow. Not something to protect and hand down.

And then there’s the lying. Thousands upon thousands of false or misleading statements, documented and counted. A man who can say whatever’s convenient in the moment…and not lose a minute of sleep over it.

Here’s a secret about people like that. The easiest thing in the world to lie to yourself about... is the future. Because it isn’t here yet…to argue back.

Exhibit C: An old man staring at the exit.

Donald Trump is 80 years old.

And in 2025, he said something on television that most people skipped right past. He said he didn’t think anything was going to get him into heaven.

Stop…and chew on that.

That’s not a man at peace with his death. That’s a man…who thinks about it. And… doesn’t like where he thinks he’s headed.

Psychologists have studied what happens when people are forced to face their own mortality. They cling harder to feeling important. Their time horizon shrinks. The long-term stuff starts to fade.

Now…take somebody whose sense of importance was already the size of a skyscraper. And put him on that clock.

What do you think happens?

So here’s what I believe.

I believe “we all die anyway” is not a throwaway line.

It’s not simple fatalism. It’s not just a guy waving off an argument he was tired of hearing.

I believe it’s a window.

Normal, healthy grown-ups face death by caring about what they leave behind. The kids. The grandkids. Strangers they’ll never meet. Psychologists have a word for it: generativity. It’s the instinct to plant trees whose shade you’ll never sit in.

When Carlson asked about our kids and grandkids, the answer was a groan.

To me…that groan is the sound of generativity missing in action.

And…maybe something darker. Maybe the voice of a man who’s been the center of his own universe so long that he can’t picture it spinning without him. A man who…deep down…can’t quite see why the world should get to keep going once his story ends.

Reader Q&A

Q: Did Trump actually say “we all die anyway”?

Nobody can prove it either way. Carlson says it happened in a private meeting with just the two of them. The alleged exchange has not been independently verified. I’m treating it as a claim worth taking seriously, not a proven fact.

Q: Did the White House deny it?

No, but it didn’t confirm it either. In response to NPR’s request for comment, the White House did not address that point specifically…instead sending along a social media post by the president that describes Carlson and others as “stupid people” who want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. A non-denial isn’t a confession. But…it’s not nothing.

Q: Why should anyone believe Tucker Carlson? He’s got an axe to grind.

Fair question. He does. Carlson once spoke on Trump’s behalf at the 2024 Republican National Convention…but…he now says the president should be removed from office. That cuts both ways, though. This isn’t a lifelong critic. It’s a former true believer who says this moment is part of what broke him. Weigh his motive, but weigh that too.

Q: Aren’t you just diagnosing Trump from a distance?

No. I’m not diagnosing anybody. I haven’t examined him and I never will. What I’m offering is an opinion: here’s a reported statement, here’s a decade of public words and behavior, and here’s the pattern I think they form. You’re free to see a different pattern.

Q: Couldn’t “we all die anyway” just be a throwaway line? People say that all the time.

Absolutely, they do. It could have been a shrug to end an argument he was tired of. If it stood alone…I’d let it go. What makes me take it seriously is the follow-up. Carlson says he asked, shocked, what about our kids and our grandkids and the country, and Trump just groaned and didn’t answer. That’s the part that stays with me.

Q: What about the heaven comments? Didn’t he say he was joking?

He did. He told Fox News his comments about doubting his chances of getting into heaven were sarcastic…yet in the same breath…admitted he really wasn’t sure about his fate. So take the joke defense at face value if you like. He still keeps coming back to the subject, and he still says he doesn’t know.

Q: Isn’t “I alone can fix it” just campaign talk? Every politician brags.

Every politician brags. Not every politician says “I alone.” When he said it in 2016, Yoni Appelbaum asked in The Atlantic whether any American political leader had claimed so directly to embody the nation…to speak for it…to be its sole hope for redemption. One line is rhetoric. “I alone,” then “I am your retribution,” then “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law” starts to look like a worldview.

Q: Doesn’t the Iran war show he cares about the future? He says it’s about stopping a nuclear Iran.

That’s the strongest counterargument, and his supporters make it sincerely. Preventing a nuclear-armed Iran is a future-oriented goal. My point is narrower: if Carlson’s account is accurate, Trump agreed the war could wreck America’s position and then waved it off with “it doesn’t matter.” That’s the gap I’m pointing at.

Q: Are you saying Trump wants America to collapse after he dies?

No, and I want to be careful here. I’m not claiming he wants anything bad to happen. My concern is that he may simply not be able to picture a world that matters without him in it. That’s indifference, not a plot. But in a man with his power…indifference is plenty dangerous.

Q: What should readers take away from this?

Don’t take my word for it. Read the sources. Listen to the NPR interview yourself. Then…ask the question I keep asking: when a leader is told his choices could hurt our kids and grandkids…what kind of answer do you want to hear? For me, a groan isn’t it.

Now, let me be fair.

Trump’s defenders will tell you this is all nonsense.

They’ll say “I alone” and “retribution” were just campaign talk. They’ll say the Iran war was about stopping a nuclear threat…which is about protecting the future…not ignoring it. They’ll say Carlson has an axe to grind. And…they’ll point out that when NPR asked the White House about the quote…it didn’t confirm it.

Fair enough. Weigh all that.

But also notice something. The White House didn’t deny it either.

And ask yourself one question:

If a man you’d hired to babysit your kids said “we all die anyway, so it doesn’t matter,” would you leave him alone with them?

Me neither.

#Holdfast

Back soon.

-Jack

Jack Hopkins

P.S. I hold this view tentatively. I could be wrong. I hope I’m wrong. But when a single remark lines up this perfectly with a decade of public behavior, somebody has to say out loud what it looks like. Consider this me saying it.

Sources

The Carlson interview

NPR, Tucker Carlson on Trump, the Iran war and his political break (Sept. 24, 2026). The original interview, including the White House’s response pointing to Trump’s “stupid people” post.
IBTimes UK, Donald Trump Told Tucker Carlson ‘We’re All Dead Anyway’. Notes the claim has not been independently verified.
Crooks and Liars, ‘It’s Nihilism’: Inside Trump’s Tense Pre-War Meeting With Tucker Carlson. Covers the “what about our kids” exchange, Carlson’s 2024 convention speech, his call for Trump’s removal, and his “antichrist” remarks.
Eastern Herald, Tucker Carlson Reveals Trump Said ‘We’ll All Die Anyway’. Additional coverage of Carlson’s shift from convention speaker to critic.

“I alone can fix it” (2016)

PolitiFact, Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump said ‘I alone can fix it’
Christian Science Monitor, Trump to America: ‘I alone can fix it’. Source for Yoni Appelbaum’s Atlantic quote on Trump claiming to embody the nation.
The Way of Improvement Leads Home, Remember when Trump said “I alone can fix it”? Longer excerpt from Appelbaum’s Atlantic piece.

“I am your retribution” (2023)

Salon, “I am your retribution,” says Trump in his CPAC speech

“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law” (2025)

Mediaite, Trump Blasted By Left and Right for Post Declaring ‘He Who Saves His Country Does Not Violate Any Law’
Juneau Empire (New York Times wire), Trump: ‘He who saves his Country does not violate any Law’

“You won’t have to vote anymore” (2024)

Climate change

Axios, “Greatest con job”: Trump pushes climate change denial in United Nations speech (Sept. 2025)

False and misleading statements

Washington Post Fact Checker, Trump’s false or misleading claims total 30,573 over 4 years (Jan. 2021; archived copy in House records)

The heaven remarks

Gray News/KGNS, Trump says he does not believe he is ‘heaven-bound’ (Oct. 2025)
Daily Beast, Trump, 79, Still Can’t Be Sure He’s Getting Into Heaven. Source for his “sarcastic” explanation and his follow-up that he still doesn’t know.

Psychology research

Burke, Martens & Faucher (2010), Two decades of terror management theory: A meta-analysis of mortality salience research, Personality and Social Psychology Review
Schindler et al. (2022), Do Salient Social Norms Moderate Mortality Salience Effects? A more skeptical meta-analysis
Erik Erikson, Childhood and Society (1950). Original source for the concept of generativity.